Starbound (20 page)

Each time we stopped from fulfilling our fates, the curse was going to lash out until it got what it wanted. Each time we came closer to finding a way to break the power it had over us, it would find a way to hurt us.

When the ringing in my ears finally stopped, all I could think was
Collins
.

Chapter 20

Katia

“Your ancestor has a sick sense of humor. Someone needs a chill pill,” Zeke yelled at the curse. I doubted it could hear us, or cared. The curse had caused its destruction.

I pushed at Seth’s chest so he’d let me up, but he wasn’t easily moved. “Collins. Seth, I have to find Collins.”

My words penetrated the haze of protection shimmering in his eyes. Right now, Seth was only thinking about my safety, but I had a little sister downstairs, alone and probably afraid, that I was responsible for.

“We’ll find her,” Seth assured.

Suddenly, the three of us were in action. Seth rolled off me, scattering a group of eight-legged beasts, and jumped to his feet. He held a hand out for me, tugging me up. I refused to look at the floor, because I was sure I would puke—or pass out. Zeke was already in motion. As swiftly as possible, we made our way through the clutter and the critters crawling about to find that the attic door was blocked.

“Of fricking course,” I grumbled. Couldn’t I get a break here?

Seth and Zeke attacked the piled-up crap, kicking and throwing what they could out of our way. “Screw this,” Seth swore. A second later, he gave a swoop of his hand and the air radiated with magick. Following the movement of his arm, the rubble was tossed to the side, leaving a clear path to our only way out.

“Whoa. Now you’re talking,” Zeke said with a grin of approval.

“Let’s just get out of here before round three decides to descend upon us,” Seth mumbled, swinging out the door.

I couldn’t have agreed more and rushed down the stairwell. On shaky legs, I prayed my house was still standing and Collins was safe. If this skank-ass-curse had harmed a hair on my sister’s head…

It was one thing to come after me, but when you messed with my sister, well that brought out seven different colors of crazy in me.

I ran down two flights of stairs in record time, screaming Collins’s name. It wasn’t any where near as horrible as I had imagined. Items had been knocked off shelves, off the walls, but the house was still intact. And…no creepy-crawly spiders—thank goodness.

“Katia.” Collins’s voice quivered.

I exhaled as I saw her head pop up from under the table. There were tears in her eyes, but she was okay. “Collins,” I said in relief.

She crawled out and launched herself into my arms. “What was that? An earthquake?” she whispered, her voice muffled by my tight embrace.

“Thank God, you’re alright.” I pulled her away at arm’s length, taking a good look at her. No scratches, no blood.

Her owl-sized eyes looked up at me. “By the look on your face, I take it that it wasn’t an earthquake.”

I shook my head.

“The curse?” she asked softly.

She was too wise for her age. “Yeah.”

“What did you guys do?” Her eyes narrowed, looking back and forth between Seth and me.

Zeke snickered.

I rolled my eyes. “Nothing that warranted our house being shaken off the ground.” I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

She nodded. “But Mom and Dad are going to have a shit-fit when they see this house.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her to watch her language, but then I realized she was right. How was I going to explain this mess? I eyed the house. “That is why, little sister, you and I are going to clean house.”

“I didn’t make this mess,” she argued.

“Well, Mom and Dad don’t know that. Come on, it will be fun.”

“You have a warped sense of fun. Why don’t you have Seth and Zeke help you?”

I turned behind me, looking at Trouble One and Trouble Two. “Because, they were just leaving,” I said, scooting them to the front door.

“We need to talk later,” Seth whispered.

I nodded, and then remembered what we had found. “The book…” I murmured. My eyes filled with disappointment as I realized we had left the book in the attic, probably buried under a ton of spiders with grotesque furry legs.

A sneaky grin slipped across Zeke’s lips as he held up the leather bound book.

I couldn’t help but return his smile. “Zeke, you are the best.” I was so relieved that I didn’t have to step foot in that room again. Eventually I would have to tell my parents about our new bug infestation, or hope the spiders left on their own. That seemed unlikely.

“That’s what I’ve been telling you guys.”

Seth tugged Zeke out the door by the back of his shirt. “I’ll call you later.”

My heart skipped.

It was time to make a little magick of our own. Good thing I had Collins. She was sensational at levitation.

***

Elena shoved a handful of popcorn in her mouth. “Okay, does somebody want to tell me why we are really here? And don’t give me that crap about hanging out and watching a movie. If this is some lame excuse to get Katia and me to get along, then you guys are going to be sadly disappointed—”

“Elena, shut up for a minute,” Zeke said in exasperation.

She gave him the one-finger salute from her seat on one of the recliners in Olivia’s house.

Classic Elena.

Seth was beside me on the couch, which probably totally burned Elena’s butt. Good. “Shockingly, this isn’t about you,” I snapped.

She glared at me with silver blades. “No. It is always about
you
.”

I had no argument, because it
was
about me. Well, Seth and me.

“Ladies, retract the claws. We have a spell to plan,” Zeke interrupted before I jumped out of my seat and strangled her.

Olivia’s parents were gone for the night. So we had arranged a powwow with the circle that hopefully wouldn’t end in some kind of disaster. I wasn’t sure there was any place that was safe, but we had to try to find some answers. That was if Elena and I didn’t kill each other first.

Seth began to fill Elena and Olivia in on our plan to use a spell to find out the origin of the curse. Why it was conjured to begin with. With the why and the how, maybe, just maybe, we could find a way to stop the inevitable from happening. I, of course, shouldn’t have expected Elena to cooperate.

“You want to cast a powerful spell against a curse that’s centuries old? Brilliant. Are you guys insane?” Elena asked, looking at Seth and Zeke with discontent.

In the back of all our minds, we might be thinking the same thing, but the difference was the rest of us had the decorum to keep our opinions to ourselves. Elena didn’t operate that way. She was tacky, but we needed to play nice. For now. “Look, together we are stronger. Once we figure this out and complete the spell, then we can go back to pretending that we hate each other.”

“Oh, I am not pretending.”

“Whatever,” I said sharply.

“I’d rather stab myself with a spork than help you,” Elena spat.

Yeah. I got that loud and clear. I gritted my teeth, on the verge of tearing her a new butthole. My jaw was throbbing from the pressure. Seth snuck a sideway glance at me. Poor Olivia. I really didn’t want to bloody her carpet, but my fist was itching to pop Elena in the mouth. She wouldn’t be so quick to shoot down our only hope then.

Seth leaned forward, catching Elena’s eye. “Fighting amongst ourselves is only going to hurt the circle. This is something we need to do, and we can’t do it without you, Elena.” If anyone was going to convince the she-devil, it was Seth, as much as I hated to admit it. I was jealous that she had feelings for Seth. We might not be able to be together, but in my heart, he was mine.

Elena’s grimace flickered, and I knew that Seth would be able to chip her down. That was if my mouth didn’t blow it. “Let me guess, it was
her
idea?” Elena asked.

Seth shook his head. A strand of dark hair fell forward onto his face. “Not quite. It was mine.”

“Just freaking great. It gets better. I should have known. Tell me why I should waste an ounce of my magick on you?” Elena snapped.

Last night I had scoured every spell in that book until the page literally jumped out at me. The words on that aged paper shimmered and came to life. It was all the confirmation I needed that this was the one we had been looking for.

I returned Elena’s glare with one of my own. It was time to pull out the big guns. “Because I know that you care about Seth in your own twisted way,” I replied.

Everyone in the room paused.

Awkward.

Elena chewed on her blood-red lip, and for the first time I saw something other than contempt in her eyes. Mention Seth and it was hook, line, and sinker. “I am going to regret this,” she complained.

Seth exhaled. “So are we all in agreement to do the spell?” he asked.

“Hell yes,” Zeke said.

Olivia nodded, giving me a small smile. “Of course.”

All eyes turned to Elena. “Fine, but I’m not bringing anyone back from the dead, so this spell better be da bomb. I so don’t want to be part of some suicide group spell.”

It was settled then. On the next new moon, we would gather in the clearing and, with the combined power of the circle, cast a spell to bend time and space. We were in over our heads. Seth and I looked at each other, mimicking the same sense of fear laced with hope. I could feel his unease swirling inside me.

Our little interlude didn’t go unnoticed. “Now that we have all doomed ourselves, I’m outta of here. Text me the deets. See you lame-os.” Elena sauntered out of the room. The melody of chains clinking together on her pants followed her, and a few minutes later the front door slammed shut.

“Well, that went better than expected,” Zeke grumbled, staring after Elena and wrinkling his nose.

Olivia got to her feet, brushing her long red hair off her shoulder. “How about that movie?” she asked, trying to make the downer ambiance less obvious. Bless her sweet soul. I knew how much she wanted the circle to be how it used to be. Fun. Trustworthy. Unified. Unbreakable friendship. Truthfully, deep down, I wanted that too. I didn’t want to be at constant odds with Elena. But I didn’t have a clue how to reach her. How did I patch this broken friendship?

Maybe if I actually lived through this curse, I would try to find a way. Right now I could only think about getting through the next few weeks.

“Tell me you got something bone-chilling? I want to be scared shitless,” Zeke said, getting up to make more popcorn.

I had enough scary crap in my real life. There was no real need inside me to watch more on the TV, but I also understood that Zeke was trying to rekindle the group nights we used to have. And it was always a cheesy horror film. Elena and Zeke loved them.

Shocker.

They were gruesome buddies.

“Coke or Pepsi?” Zeke yelled from the kitchen.

“I better help him,” Olivia said, closing the tray to the Blu-ray player.

And that left Seth and me. Alone.

Oh boy. Sparks were going to fly.

I shifted on the couch we shared, turning toward him, searching for something to say. We hadn’t been alone since that day in the gym. The day Seth had said the words that linked him to me forever—our spirits and our souls. Just what the curse wanted.

My eyes were drawn to his wrist, and to the five stars gracing his skin. I wanted to touch them, feel the quickening of his pulse dance under my fingertips. “What did it feel like?” My voice was soft as I reached out, lightly tracing the star pattern.

As predicted, embers ignited on contact. It still caught me off guard. I looked up at Seth. The green flecks of his eyes deepened, and my chest squeezed tightly. A flood of feelings burst inside me.

“It’s hard to explain. There is a sense of exhilaration inside me, and relief.”

I arched my brow.

“For so long, I’ve been trying to prevent this from happening.” He looked down at the marks on the inside of his wrist. “It’s weird not having to fight that feeling anymore. I sort of feel lost without it. That internal struggle has been such a part of me it’s like I am missing an arm. On the other side, if we never find a way to break the curse, I have to try to find a way to move forward. Without you. I don’t know how that’s possible…”

I didn’t want it to be possible. I had to believe this was going to work, or I was going to drive myself nutty with anxiety. “If things were different—” I was asking questions for which the answers might taunt me for a lifetime, but I couldn’t stop myself.

He gave me a level gaze. “Kats, you know that this bond wouldn’t be one-sided. I wouldn’t let you out of my sight. Make no mistake, I want you.”

Those were the kind of words that made a girl risk her life for love. Tingles frolicked throughout my body, and I leaned forward, captivated by his voice. I wasn’t really thinking, other than there was too much space between us.

Olivia and Zeke chose that moment to walk back in, arms loaded with drinks and bowls of popcorn. Their lighthearted banter filled the room, snapping us both out of our steaming gaze.

We sprang apart.

I picked at the burgundy fuzz on the armrest of the couch, trying to get my rapidly beating heart under control. If either of them noticed the electric vibe bouncing from our side of the room, they did a good job masking their suspicions. I kept my eyes averted from Seth.

Olivia killed the lights, engulfing us in darkness. The munching of popcorn and the fizzing of carbonation occupied the silence as we snuggled in and waited for the movie to begin. I sunk into the cushions, wondering how I was going to get through the next two hours without jumping Seth.

It didn’t look good.

He weakened my resolve. Over buttery popcorn, I could smell the sinful scent of Seth. Earthy. Fresh. Woodsy. It was driving me hormonally bonkers. My cheeks flushed, and I wrapped my hands around the cool can of soda. I was ready to slap it on my forehead.