Chapter Five
Amelia
Sitting alone with Perdita, while the rest of my family wasn’t there, brought back memories. I shifted uncomfortably, afraid Perdita might actually talk about what happened, for once, on the day the werewolves had come for me.
Again, Perdita had been left to watch over me, which was testament to how little faith my uncle had in me. Nathan and Byron had gone hunting, a nice bonding experience that didn’t involve me. At least it meant I didn’t have to sit next to them and still feel completely alone, and I really did need to speak to Perdita. This time I wanted to talk about the dreams. I wasn’t even sure how to bring up the subject. Every single night without fail, I was another person. I saw her life through her eyes. I felt everything she felt, and none of it felt like a dream at all.
I’d been racking my brain, trying to understand why I was suddenly carrying the burden of realistic dreams that made no sense in relation to my current situation. Kali knew about werewolves, too, and that seemed to be the only real connection. So what was up with the über dreams?
A cushion hit me full in the face, startling me out of my thoughts.
“I hate when you do that,” Perdita said. “Spit it out, already.”
Where to start was the problem. The dreams didn’t feel dream-like. I lost myself to them. How could I explain how sick I was feeling and the headaches that made me feel as though I might be dying? How did I explain that a spirit had warned me of Perdita’s death coming sooner than expected? Yeah, where to start was definitely the problem.
“This is going to sound stupid,” I said at last, still stalling.
She gave me a “here we go” look, but when I began describing the dreams, she suddenly acted interested.
“Soul mate?” she asked breathlessly.
I wished. “No. Well. Not mine, anyway. It’s as if I’m in somebody else’s body, as if I’m living their life, and it feels so real, but then I wake up, and I’m me again.”
That’s where I lost her. She didn’t believe me, as per usual. Perdita, the freaking sceptic. I knew the dreams weren’t normal, and even as I tried to explain the last one to her, she didn’t get it. Nobody would understand.
“Maybe you’ve been thinking about the curse a lot,” she said.
“Why?”
“Gypsies?”
I realised I was forgetting what I had been born to do.
“Maybe this has to do with breaking the curse,” I said.
She gave me a careless shrug in response, but I was sure of it now. My brain was forcing me to think about gypsies and gypsy magic, to think about the important things. Like Perdita’s face when I mentioned the curse-breaking, as though she wasn’t happy about it.
That made no sense at all. The curse was her death sentence. I had to figure out some way of ending it. She knew quite well that had always been the plan, once the danger of an attack from other werewolves was over, except the danger was creeping closer to Perdita. The spirit board had convinced me I was running out of time.
I didn’t want to remind Perdita of what being with Nathan would mean to her, so I saved it all up for him, instead.
“I think they’re back,” I said, hearing a soft click marking a door closing.
Perdita stood, but I held up my hands. “Trust me, you’ll want him to shower first.”
She grimaced, and I couldn’t help laughing. There were a few good things about being the only one in my family who didn’t turn into a furry hunter.
“So what exactly happens in these dreams?” she asked after a few minutes, but I could see her tensing as she waited for Nathan.
“Lots of things. Boring things, mostly. But this girl is powerful. She’s like some kind of… witch… or maybe a shaman. She’s been learning about natural medicines and things like that for years, and she has this power under the surface. In the dream I can feel it. I mean really feel it. It’s kind of addictive. Waking up is a bit of a let-down.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t ever say that, Amelia.”
Shrugging, I looked away. “I’m just telling the truth.”
“I know, but I’m counting on you to keep waking up.”
She laughed then, and I tried to shake myself out of the melancholy I’d developed. Another headache was setting in, which made it harder for me to act normal.
“So, has she cast any curses, then?” she asked, still in that joking sort of voice.
“She doesn’t do that,” I said haughtily, feeling irrationally insulted.
“Oh, come on! She isn’t real.”
“She feels real. And I’m sure she’s mentioned something about werewolves, but I can’t remember exactly…”
Nathan barrelled into the room, and lifted Perdita into the air. I felt instantly forgotten.
“Ugh. Get a room,” I snapped as Perdita squealed with delight.
I stalked off to my room, my anger simmering over. They took care of each other in ways I could never understand. They automatically knew when they needed each other. So what was left for me?
So, yeah, I was jealous because I didn’t have anyone for me. I shared Perdita’s friendship with Nathan.
Perdita knocked softly on my bedroom door, perhaps wanting to say good night.
“I’m in bed. Another migraine,” I lied, although the thudding was definitely growing stronger.
“Oh.” She paused. “Well, I’ll talk to you at the memorial then.”
I waited for her footsteps to move away from my room. I knew Nathan would walk her home, and again, I was irrationally irritated by their closeness. I had been left out of everything my whole life—kept in the dark—and the rage that had been boiling in my ears for weeks had burned into my veins, making me ready for a fight.
Byron called Nathan to his office as soon as he came back, closing the door after them. More secrets. More exclusion.
I wanted to scream my outrage. Tension flickered in my hands as though an electrical current sparked my fingertips, and only the whimper of a wolfhound next to me forced me to calm down and gulp down my anger. When Nathan ran up the stairs, flooding my senses with his bad temper, I worked myself up into a rage all over again. I threw open my bedroom door and walked out to block him.
“We need to talk about Perdita,” I told him, leaning on the banisters.
“Not now,” he said gruffly, but I got in his way.
“I’m serious. We still need to figure out a way to end the curse, remember?”
He looked stricken, and I knew, for sure, that things were getting out of hand.
“There has to be someone out there who knows what to do. It needs to end, Nathan.”
“Not yet,” he said.
“Why? You’ve always wanted to rid yourself of this stupid curse. Why change your mind now?”
He refused to look at me. “I like things the way they are.”
“You like… have you always been so jaw-droppingly stupid, or am I only just now seeing the real you?”
He growled at me and flared his nostrils.
“Don’t pull out the wolf crap on me,” I said, barely controlling a snort of indignation. “She’s going to die. Have you forgotten that?”
“She won’t die. I won’t let anything hurt her.”
“Are you forgetting diseases? Car crashes? The million and one other things that might kill her before her time?”
“Her dad’s a doctor. And I’ll keep her away from traffic.” He gave a twisted half-smile. “Maybe you’ve already changed the curse and made it so she won’t die.”
“Nathan, I…”
“Nobody’s taking her away from me, okay?”
He brushed past me, leaving me standing there open-mouthed. He had officially lost it. Perdita was going to die, and he was prepared to let it happen, just to keep his stupid bond with her. I was pretty sure she would allow him to do nothing, too. Idiots.
They thought they could fight the curse, control it, but they were already completely infected. They couldn’t see
straight for the power controlling their destinies.
Well, they were both lucky they had me. I still had enough brains left in my head to make sure I ended the curse before anyone else got hurt.
One way or another, once and for all, I would make it end.