Casually Cursed (3 page)

WHEN I WAS
eleven years old, Edie told me that if we’d all been drinks, she’d have been a whiskey sour, I’d have been a gin fizz, Momma a maiden’s prayer, and Aunt Mel, sangria. I hadn’t understood her at the time, but now I did. Edie’s sarcastic wit had a tart bite. I was bubbly. Momma was soulful and mysterious. And Aunt Mel loved exotic men and places, and she lived in pursuit of things that made music play in her head.

Upon entering, Aunt Mel called out my name and then strolled in wearing a fitted dress that had alternating indigo and mint-green horizontal stripes. She wore dark blue platform heels and a mint-colored scarf around her ponytail. She was thirty-nine, but looked twenty-nine, and her style was as young and fresh as springtime.

She’d come in with her hand outstretched to present me with a small wrapped present, but her arm dropped when she saw the visitors in the kitchen. Her lips parted slightly in surprise, her gaze jerking from Crux to Kismet and me and then back.

“What’s going on?” she asked, moving slowly away from Crux. She clutched my forearm and looked at Kismet. “You’re . . . Who are you?”

“You must be the mother’s twin. Melanie, you’re called,” Kismet said.

“This is our aunt,” I said, nodding. “Aunt Mel, you won’t believe it, but I’ve got a twin sister, too. This is her. Her name’s Kismarley, but she goes by Kismet. Isn’t that pretty? I like it a ton.”

There was a stunned silence, and Aunt Mel pursed her pale pink lips.

“I don’t know how that’s possible,” Melanie said. She stared at us. I had dark red hair like Momma and Aunt Mel, while Kismet’s was strawberry blond. I’d gotten hazel eyes that were mostly light brown and flecked with green and gold. Kismet’s eyes were much greener, like theirs and Edie’s. “She died,” Melanie whispered. “You died. We had to—” Melanie swallowed.

“It was a changeling who died. I was taken underhill. I guess he decided one for the fae and one for the witches.”

“He who? Caedrin? He made the swap? He stole you from Marlee? When? How?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Kismet said. “I was young at the time, being an infant.”

Melanie looked at Crux, and her eyes narrowed. “What’s he doing here? Why did you bring him? Can we count on him to keep Tammy Jo a secret now that he’s seen her?”

“No, we can’t count on him,” Kismet said. “He’s here to take me back. And he wants her, too. But he can’t have us.”

“No, he can’t!” Melanie said, her voice rising.

A knock on the front door made my head jerk toward it.

Bryn?

Bryn’s my boyfriend. Actually he’s more than that. A lot more.

Still, I didn’t think he would come over without letting me know. I’d insisted I wanted to talk to Aunt Mel alone about some news that would shock her. Bryn agreed to wait at his place while I did. And since he and I had some big news of our own, I wasn’t ready for him to arrive yet. One big surprise for Aunt Mel at a time.

“I don’t know who that could be,” I murmured. “But I’ll check.”

“Let’s both go,” Melanie said, hooking her arm through mine. When we reached the front hall, she whispered, “As soon as we get to the door, you run. I’ll do whatever I can to slow Crux down. You go to Bryn Lyons’s property. I’m sure his fortress of a house has some weapons you can use against the fae and—”

“Aunt Mel, we can’t. And especially you can’t go up against Crux with your magic not even working.” Aunt Melanie had been in the land of the faeries looking for Momma, but later, when she’d come out, she’d gotten in trouble with the World Association of Magic. They’d bound her powers with a curse and she was supposed to stay in the United Kingdom and make amends. If she’d done as she’d been told, they would’ve given her magic back. But I’d been in trouble, and she’d come home to help. So if she didn’t find a way to lift the curse, it would prevent her powers from working for seven whole years. It was a mess.

Melanie said, “Don’t worry about me. If I don’t attack him, Crux won’t kill me without orders from the Seelie queen. You just go—” She pulled the front door open, but the path wasn’t clear. Standing on the front step was the body of my friend Evangeline Rhodes. She reached for the knob, but paused when she saw us.

My jaw dropped. Vangie’s looks had been transformed. Her former long, often disheveled hair had been cut to medium length, dyed from plain brown to sable, and smoothed until it shone like patent leather. Bright green eyes greeted us. The eyes of our aunt Edie.

“Melanie’s home. Hello, darling,” she said.

“Um . . .” I said, ready to explain that when Vangie got herself murdered, Aunt Edie’s ghostly spirit inhabited Vangie’s body to help me. When I killed the wizard we were fighting, Vangie’s soul had been set free as a ghost, but Edie had stayed in the hijacked body and was still there. One look at Aunt Mel’s slack-jawed expression, though, told me she recognized the sly tone and smile.

“Edie?” Aunt Mel finally whispered, cocking her head.

“In the flesh. Again,” she said with a smirk. “Hello, biscuit,” Edie said to me. “Did you tell her yet?”

“I didn’t get a chance. She just got here and you showed up,” I said.

“Not about me,” Edie said with a wide sweep of her arm, dismissing her resurrection as though it weren’t a hot topic. Edie strolled in. Her silky black coat swished behind her, as did the fabric of her dark purple dress. Her crystal-encrusted heels matched a beaded comb tucked elegantly into her hair.

“Where did you get that outfit?” I stammered.

“I bought it at a boutique. I’d admired it.”

“The town’s shops are closed. It’s a holiday!”

“One thing you should understand,” Edie said, nearly gliding into the room. “Any locked door can be opened with the right inducement. Charm, magic, money, or some combination therein always does the trick. This time it was charm and money.”

“You can’t spend Vangie’s money! It’s not yours!”

“What shall I do with it? Put it in an empty coffin and bury it in her body’s place?”

“No,” I said. “But it’s not right for you to spend it. She might get back in her body sometime and then need her inheritance.”

“There will still be plenty. She has a great deal of it in her accounts. I don’t intend to spend it all. At least, not right away. Do we have champagne in the fridge?”

“Nope,” I said. “Hang on.” I reached for her as she sailed past, but I only caught rustling air.

“We should always have at least two bottles chilled. Reasons to celebrate and fabulous company can turn up at the most unexpected times. I’d have loved a glass tonight.” Edie strode to the liquor cabinet and poured herself a gin and tonic. “To celebrate us all being together. If only Marlee were here, too. We need to get her home. Even if it calls for trickery. It would be for her own good, and she’d forgive us for deceiving her, because we’re us, her precious family,” Edie said. “Do we have lemons or limes?”

“We do have to bring Momma home,” I said. “And sooner rather than later!”

“Why?” Edie asked, her green eyes turning sharply to my face at my raised voice.

“Because Crux the faery says that if I don’t go to the Never, the Seelie queen will kill her.”

“That bitch,” Edie hissed.

“Crux is lying,” Aunt Mel said. “Ghislaine won’t kill Marlee. Mar and Caedrin have done everything imaginable to appease the queen. They—”

“Not everything. Caedrin’s broken faith with our queen,” Crux said, leaning against the kitchen door frame.

“Broken faith how?” Melanie demanded. “I don’t believe it.”

“He has. And at Marlee’s urging.”

“Never. She wouldn’t risk the queen’s wrath. The only thing she cares about is being allowed to stay with Caedrin,” Melanie said.

“She would and did risk the queen’s wrath. And she’s brought it down upon them,” Crux said.

“How?” Melanie snapped, incredulous.

“Ask your niece.”

“For the love of Hershey, how would I know?” I demanded, throwing up my hands.

“Not that niece,” Crux said, tilting his head toward the kitchen.

Kismet stepped into the doorway, shoving the golden knight aside. “Stop causing trouble.”

Edie’s glass slipped, but she caught it by tightening her grip. The liquor swished and a few drops splashed out onto her slim fingers. “Who’s this?” Edie asked, her voice low and cool.

“She’s my twin,” I said, going over to Kismet. I tried to take her arm, but she pulled back. “It’s okay,” I told her. “That’s our aunt Edie. She was a ghost, but now she’s a girl again. Sort of.”

“Witches by the houseful,” Kismet whispered, wrinkling her nose.

“Well, yeah,” I said. “Momma’s people are all witches. You knew that, right?”

“I knew,” Kismet said, her green eyes like tinted ice.

“What happened in the Never?” Edie asked, taking a slow swig of her gin and tonic. “You convinced Marlee to do something for you? Or she was forced to do something to protect you?”

“I don’t need her protection,” Kismet said.

“But she helped you,” Edie said with a calculating look. “Didn’t she?”

Kismet fell into a stony silence for several moments. I looked at Crux, but he didn’t speak.

“If something happened, you can tell us about it. We’re your family,” I said, giving Kismet’s arms a squeeze.

Kismet looked at me, ignoring everyone else. “I didn’t ask that witch for her help. I wouldn’t. She can’t even help herself in there.”

“But you might’ve needed help escaping,” I whispered, looking into her eyes. “If you had to be sneaky about it?”

She bit the corner of her lip for a moment.

“She bites her lip like Tammy. See that?” Edie asked.

“Yes,” Melanie said. “They’re so much alike.”

Kismet’s expression flashed triumphant and then defiant when she looked at Aunt Melanie and Edie. “She and I are the same. Exactly. We’re not like the faeries. And we’re not like you either. We’re our own breed. Just us. Just we two.”

“Darling, really,” Edie said. “You’re sisters, not lovers. It’s not like you can start your own tribe and populate the world with a mixed magical race. Calm down. Have some gin. We’ll sort this out.”

“We won’t sort it out, and you won’t want me to drink with you when you realize I’ll never do what you want.”

“What is it that you think we want?” Aunt Melanie asked.

“You want us to sacrifice ourselves to rescue her,” Kismet said.

“No,” Melanie said. “We don’t want that. No.”

Kismet’s brows rose. “Even if the queen kills her because we won’t go back?”

“Tammy Jo would not be going ‘back.’ She’s never even been. And we don’t expect either of you to go underhill. There will be some other way to save Marlee. There’s always a way. What does the queen want? There must be something she values more than Marlee’s life,” Aunt Mel said.

“Yes, there is. Me,” Kismet said. “She values what I can do.”

“What is it that you can do?” I asked.

“I can pass in and out of the Never, even with the witches sealing the gates closed.”

“That’s not all,” Crux said.

“Why is that so important? You’re a spy for the Seelie queen?”

“Sometimes,” Kismet said quickly, and then glared at Crux, who grinned.

I glanced at him, hating the smirk on his handsome face.

“She’s the queen’s secret weapon against all foreign enemies. Kismarley is an assassin. She hunts her quarry all over the world. And a better killer you’ll never see.”

My stomach lurched, and my face fell. It was one thing to kill someone in self-defense or even to keep him from kidnapping you, but to track creatures down to kill them? To hunt people? That was totally different.

I turned to Kismet, hoping she would deny it.

She didn’t.

TWIN SISTERS DON’T
grow on trees, even if they do sometimes climb and flip from them. And my sister had helped me. She’d saved my life. That much I knew.

“You didn’t have a choice? You had to kill people?” I asked softly.

She gave a sharp little nod.

“You don’t have to anymore,” I whispered, catching her hand and lacing our fingers together. “I’ll help you get a job. You can live with me wherever I live.”

The corners of her mouth turned up. “Let’s live in the mountains, where the woods go on forever up one side and down the other.”

I shivered. “Um, well, I bet that would be real pretty, too. But see, when I said wherever I live, I meant wherever I live in Duvall.”

Her face leaned close to mine, her mouth by my ear. “We can’t stay here. The fae will find us. I could kill Crux, but they’d send someone else after me eventually.”

“No killing,” I whispered back. “Not even Crux.”

“Is there anyone you won’t defend?” she asked with a smirk. “I felt it halfway around the world. All those feelings! It’s exhausting. But it’s also—”

“Engaged!” Aunt Mel cried, making both Kismet and me jerk our heads in her direction.

I flushed as Edie saluted me with her glass. I frowned at her and then gave Aunt Mel a sheepish look. “It happened kind of unexpectedly, but yep. I’m gonna get married again.”

Melanie sank down onto the couch. “He’s really good-looking, Tammy Jo. And charming, but you know he’s—”

“Yes, a Lyons. I’m aware. It wasn’t my idea to get so involved with him, but love happens. Like a hurricane—”

“And other disasters,” Edie said dryly. “Or like a dreaded disease, where this family’s concerned.”

“Not a dreaded disease! But it’s true, love’s kinda like a—what do you call it?—an affliction. There’s no vaccine against it, and no cure for it.” I shrugged with a small smile. “When you’re completely in its grip and there’s a marriage proposal, you gotta say yes.”

“And suffer the consequences,” Edie said.

I frowned at her, but nodded. “Yep. Maybe.” There was a family prophecy that warned us not to get involved with a Lyons. “But I’m pretty sure the prophecy’s already played out. Ninety to ninety-five percent sure.”

“Didn’t you nearly fail every math class you ever had?” Edie asked, mock curious.

I wanted to throttle her. Having a person know all your business when you’re trying to argue something is a real problem.

“Bryn won’t betray me on purpose. If he does it by accident, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“If you survive,” Edie said, mixing herself another drink. “He’s nearly gotten you killed—”

“Wrong! I’ve nearly gotten him killed. Lots. He’s saved my life. More than once.”

Melanie clasped her hands together so tight her nails indented the skin, whitening it. “I chose the wrong man plenty of times, but never anyone from the list.” She glanced up. “You met Incendio. You know that Marlee can’t come home and might be in deadly trouble because she’s tied herself to the wrong person. And those weren’t even names with a prophecy of disaster attached. How much worse will your consequences be? Can’t you learn from our mistakes?”

“Apparently not,” I said with a shrug.

“Why should you rush into marrying him? Is he pressuring you?”

He had, yes. But I’d liked his pressuring me. I loved his earnest romantic side as much as his clever sarcastic side. “We both decided. We fell in love, and we can’t stand to be apart too much, so it just makes sense. I’m not fixing to shack up with him, am I? You know what kind of gossip that would lead to.” I’d already been married and divorced, and I was only twenty-three years old. That had set plenty of tongues to wagging. It was already a big enough shock for most people to see me moving on from one of the town’s favorite sons. My ex, Zach, had been a much-beloved high school football star who’d gone on to play for the University of Texas. A terrible knee injury had ended his football career, so we’d come home to Duvall, where he became a sheriff’s deputy who always helped anyone who needed it.

Bryn Lyons, on the other hand, was a lawyer, so of course anyone would have reservations about trusting him. Plus, he’d gone to school on the East Coast, was rich, and had originally come from a foreign country. That was a lot of
different
for a small town to swallow. But he’d been committed to a life in Duvall, and he’d put his time and money into helping the town develop into something even better than it had started out. He had people’s respect for sure. They just didn’t know him as well as they knew Zach. When you’re born in a place and all your people live there . . . well, you’re part of the town and it’s part of you. With Bryn, there was always a nagging feeling that he might take off for somewhere else. He already had an office and a law practice in Dallas as well as Duvall. And people probably thought Dallas suited Bryn better. That place was as shiny and cosmopolitan as he was. But Duvall had two things that Bryn wanted: A magical tor. And me.

Of course, we would be able to settle down in town and build a life together only if I could make it back from the Never . . . assuming that I actually had to go.

“Kismet, did our dad help you escape the Never?”

Her face went blank, as if she were playing poker. She could’ve been holding a full house or nothing at all by that expression.

“C’mon. Tell me the truth.”

“It doesn’t matter. It was owed to me. Whatever effort he made was the least he could do. For so long he did nothing to help me.”

“And why do you think he decided to help you now?”

She pursed her lips and then shrugged.

“Can’t you guess?” I asked. “I bet Momma told him to. Don’t you think? She saw you were unhappy, and she told him to help you get out even if they got caught. Even if it risked their own lives. Don’t you think?” I asked.

She swallowed. “No, I don’t think so. Whatever made him do it, it wasn’t our mother. She doesn’t care about me.”

I clucked my tongue. “How can you say that?”

“I can say it easily, since I’m just repeating what she said.”

“She would never have said that.”

“She did. I heard her with my own ears,” Kismet said bitterly. “I don’t care. She’s nothing to me. Just as I’m nothing to her. And if she’s been blamed for my escape, well, she’ll have to talk her own way out of it.”

My jaw dropped, Aunt Mel gasped, and Edie rolled her eyes.

“This one is going to take some work,” Edie murmured. “Melanie, give me Lenore’s locket.”

Aunt Mel put a hand over the front of her shirt, pressing the locket underneath. She paused for a moment and then lifted the chain. The antique locket that Edie’s soul had been linked to from the time of her death in the 1920s appeared as Aunt Mel raised the locket over her head. She held it out and Edie took it. She smiled, admiring it.

“My twin sister wore this locket every day. We were together. Always. Not even death could separate us. That’s blood and loyalty,” Edie announced.

Kismet leaned over Edie’s shoulder to get a better look at the necklace. “That design was an interesting choice,” Kismet said.

Edie arched a brow, glancing at the starburst pattern of diamonds on the front. “In what way interesting?” Edie asked.

“Front door,” Kismet said. She flipped the locket over in Edie’s palm. The smooth gold of the back was without a pattern. “Not there. On the inside?”

“What?” Edie asked.

“Open it.”

The hinge of the locket had grown stiff over the years, and we’d always hesitated to oil it for fear of damaging the pictures inside.

Kismet reached over and tried to force it open. When it didn’t budge, Kis pulled out a pin and started to jam it in, but Edie pulled the locket to her chest and closed her hands around it. “No. I’ll do it. Or a jeweler will.”

“Is there a pattern on the inside?”

“There are pictures inside. One of me and one of my sister.”

“Under the pictures?”

“I don’t remember. If I ever knew. The pictures were already inside when Lenore showed it to me. She gave me a matching locket. Mine was buried with my body.”

“I never knew that,” I said.

Edie shrugged. “There was no magic attached to mine, but I like that a little piece of Lenore’s creativity and her image were buried with me. Together forever. Twins.”

Kismet glanced at me. “Aboveground and below. Twins together, not allowing anyone to come between them. What do you think of that?”

“Sisters should be close,” I said.

“Closer to each other than anyone else? Even than a parent? Or a lover?”

“Um, I don’t think there’s a reason to rank people by how much you love them. You can love lots of people.”

“But someone has to be loved the most.”

My phone chimed, telling me I had a text message from Bryn. Speaking of people I loved like crazy. I snatched the phone from the counter and opened the message.

How’s it going?

I’d called Bryn earlier to tell him about my visitors and the possibility that I’d be going to the land of the faeries. He was understandably impatient to know what was going on. So was I, actually.

We both had concerns about my going into the Never, and not just because faeries were dangerous creatures. In the past, when my witch magic had been drained away by spells and I’d become more fully fae, I’d changed. My conscience—and my humanity, I guessed—had faded away, too. I’d become numb to my feelings and memories. Bryn loved me for my regular Tammy Jo self, who cared a lot about the town and everyone in it, especially him. He worried that one day I might change into full faery and not change back. I’d be lost to him then.

I didn’t think that could ever happen while I lived in Duvall. I loved it too much. But inside the Never, who knew? I recognized the hard edges that I’d felt as a full fae in Kismet. A coolness emanated from her when she faced off with Crux. What if I entered the Never and stopped caring about rescuing Momma? I wouldn’t do anyone any good if my heart turned to stone in my chest.

Glancing down at my phone, I thought,
That’s why I need Bryn
. Once I’d stood on a faery path in full fae consciousness, and all I’d wanted in the world was to follow that path into the Never. Bryn, who’d been standing off the path, had reached out to me. Wanting him was the only thing that had drawn me back to the human world.

The corners of my mouth tipped down as I typed,
Things here sure are a mess. Come over if you want. I could use the help.