24. Sammie

CHAPTER 24

SAMMIE

T he musty scent of papers and ancient tomes fills the dim space of the basement. With a full belly from supper, and my heart somewhat bandaged by hugs and words of encouragement from Mom and Dad at the dinner table, I hunt.

Hunt for the answer. Hunt for a spell. A weapon. Anything I can use to defend Lewis. He may think giving up will save me. He's wrong . Giving up will do irreversible damage. I will not live with half my soul. Without my mate. The Council and Anjelica will have to get the hell over it.

Another brown leather book, another mass of useless pages. I toss it onto the pile and pick up another from the box of Grandma's things. A bluish leather book, smaller than the last few. I flip through the pages. Spells for binding, banishment, and such.

I scan each page, turning the yellowed paper gently. Nothing about curses or how to break them. I groan, dropping the book with the rest. A knock rattles on the hollow wall by the basement door.

"Come in?" I say quizzically. Like Mom needs to knock in her own house. I look up from the pile of books and other miscellaneous items. It's not Mom.

Serena stands in the doorway, a meek smile on her face. She waves and mouths, Hey .

"Hi," I say, standing as I brush off the dust from the books.

"You look like hell, Sammie."

I huff a laugh. "Thanks."

She picks her way through the piles and pulls me into a hug. "How was your trip?"

I move out of her hold and stumble over the mess. I try to find more words to spin into lies but my mouth is thick and useless.

"Sammie," she utters.

"It was fine." I drop my gaze to the floor.

"Really? Then why are you home and digging around in the basement, surrounded by your grandma's things?"

"What are you doing here, if you thought I was on my trip?"

I haven't told her I was back. We didn't tell anyone our travel plans.

"Your mom called. She was worried about you and some boy?" Her face turns to mocking disbelief.

"I'm fine. You wasted a trip."

"Samantha Jane Williams, you are far from fine. I have known you for over a decade. Do not even try to lie to me."

"Whatever. I was overwhelmed, okay? I spun Mom the story about the boy so she wouldn't be disappointed in me, that's all."

She stares at me flatly and folds her arms over her chest.

I can't do this anymore. I slump to the floor and sit amongst the books. She loosens her stance and sits on the cool floor between the strewn items. "Okay, Sammie, spill it, girl. What the hell is going on?"

I tell her.

Everything.

Her face goes from surprised to shocked to horrified. And I skim over the bonding part, the part where Lewis and I joined, hoping not to gross her out.

"Sammie, no," she chokes.

Heat floods my neck and cheeks. "No?"

She is shaking her head furiously. "You can't be bonded to Lewis. He is a vampire. Witches and vampires do not mix. And they certainly do not mate." Her hands wring in her lap. My hand lifts to my pendant, fingers twirling it around. Her gaze drops to my hand, and she snaps a hand over mine, stilling the movement.

"Don't." The word is soft, but her face has hardened.

"I don't care what the Council says. If it wasn't supposed to happen, it wouldn't have."

"Sammie this is bad—like colossal bad." She swallows.

"Why are you here? To hand me over to the Council?"

"What? No! I'm—" She rolls her eyes to the ceiling and closes them. "There are far worse consequences to being with Lewis than what the Council can dish out."

"What are you talking about?"

"There is a witch who has been hunting him and haunting him and his brother for centuries." Her gaze finds mine.

My breath stops. How does she know this?

Is it some cautionary tale amongst shadow witches? Someone told her from her old coven? I don't understand.

"Sammie, the woman chasing Lewis, the one with the grudge who holds the curse is?—"

"You're friends with her?"

"Not exactly." Her face turns pained.

"What, Serena?"

"The shadow witch, the one who no one will challenge. She's my mother."

I stand and stagger backward, putting space between me and her. Bile crawls up my throat. Heat floods every part of me. What does she mean, her mother?

I've known Mrs. Stewart for years, and she is definitely not Anjelica. As if reading my thoughts, Serena gestures for me to sit back down. By the look on her face, there is more, and I am not going to like it.

With trembling legs and quick breath, I settle onto the cool floor. Palms flat, I soak up the cool, trying to ease the heat flooding my body.

"How can that woman be your mother?" I rasp.

"Mrs. Stewart is the woman Anjelica put me with so I could integrate into your world. I was supposed to keep an eye on you."

"Keep an eye on me? What for?" I stare at her in utter disbelief. The girl who has been my best friend for years is a liar. Worse, she is the daughter of the cruelest shadow witch to have ever lived.

"To make sure you didn't come into your full powers." Her head tilts back. "I'm sorry, Sammie."

"What do you mean?"

"My mother has been obsessed with torturing that vampire ever since he failed to kill our coven leader centuries ago. The only witches able to break his curse are elementals—powerful ones." She shifts on her seat. "Like you."

My heart thunders in my chest. My powers are not fully controllable. Anything significant takes incredible concentration, unless... Unless I am defending someone. I manipulated two elements with ease when those witches had him ready to break in the cabin.

Or the time with the frozen river, I was with him, and it felt controlled, although still difficult. But I managed a water funnel, through ice. It is as if my happiness, my connectedness to Lewis is the key to my magic. Before being around him, making the water rise in the sink was an effort, let alone a funnel from under solid ice.

"You think I can break his curse?" I rasp.

"You could, but?—"

"But what, Serena?"

"I bound your magic." Her face twists with regret and pain. My fingers automatically reach for the pendant, but I curl them into a fist and drop it into my lap. She did what?

"How? I mean, I'm not bound. I have been using it for the past few weeks."

Her eyes grow wide. "What? How? That's not possible, unless..."

"Unless what? Please tell me!"

"Your powers surpassed mine. Your powers will still be dulled but must be growing." Her mouth doesn't close, her brows drawing down.

I stare at my hands. My gift blossomed when I was with Lewis. The key to everything in my life. And now he is days away from not existing. Days from being taken away from me. I won't only lose my mate. I'll lose the source of my happiness and my power.

"How do I break the curse?" I hiss.

"You can't, Sammie. Please don't tell me you are going to risk your life for a vampire."

I stand, fists whitening by my sides. "He is not ‘a vampire,' he is Lewis. He is my mate," I grind out.

Serena scrambles to her feet and stumbles over the piles of books to where I stand, shaking. She grabs my arms with both hands, shaking her head. "No, girl, no. It can't be him; he is another species."

I sigh, feeling tired of every part of this tangled mess. "Interspecies bonds are rare, not impossible. Lewis is my mate, Serena."

She drops her hands, mouth agape. "I'm so sorry."

"Tell me how to break the curse, please. You owe me that much."

She doesn't respond for a moment. Her eyes wander over the books scattered around us. "There is a spell. Your grandmother knew it."

"How do you know that?"

Not trusting any assumption about her at this point, I need to hear it from her.

"Sam, I need to tell you something. But it's going to hurt. It also may change the way you see Lewis."

Anger rises in my veins, dressed as heat and dancing on every nerve that hasn't already been shot through. "What is it?"

"The last witch who tried to help Lewis, around eight years ago, she—" The words lodge in her throat.

I know where she is going with this. She doesn't think I can do it.

"She died trying to break Lewis's curse. Please, you can't try. I—we can't lose you." Serena sits beside me and wraps an arm around my shoulders.

Nothing about this is Lewis's fault. Refusing to be a murderer had him turned and hunted for over three centuries. There isn't a bad bone in that man's body. I have threaded mine with his deep enough to know.

Composing myself, I lift my head to meet her gaze. The eyes of my best friend stare back at me. But now, they are so much more. They may be the key to saving Lewis.

"Unbind me, Serena."

"Okay." Her voice is weak and fragile. "Sammie, I am sorry. You have no idea."

I study her face. Through the years that we have been best friends, never has she let me down. Not even for the small things. More guilt-driven actions? I don't think so. So, what is it? Why would she agree to do her mother's bidding?

"Why?"

"Why did I bind you?" She looks confused. "To keep her away from you."

"Why do you help Anjelica? Apart from her being your mother—which, by the way, was the jump scare of 2024."

Her gaze drops to her hands, wringing in her lap. Silver lines her eyes in a heartbeat.

Shit.

I brace myself for the next slam to the heart.

"She said she would kill my mate, Theo. And it's no hollow threat." Her voice is a whisper.

"Oh god, babe." My heart thunders against my ribs. That utter bitch.

Anjelica is the epitome of the scorned woman. She doesn't only make males' lives hell; she tortures anyone who is happy.

"Where is he, Rena?"

She lifts her gaze and meets mine. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you, girl."

I shuffle toward her and pick up her hand in mine. "Try me."

After everything I have seen and been through over the past month, I doubt anything could shock me at this point.

"He is asleep." She studies my reaction.

I stay still for a moment before tilting my head. "Asleep?"

"He's in a sleeping spell. I did it when I was eighteen, like over two centuries ago. And I kind of stuffed it up. Now, to get him out of the spell, I need Anjelica. At least I think we do... Plus, I can't risk waking him and her finding him until I have completed the task she assigned to me."

"What was your task? Keep tabs on me?"

"That was part of it."

"What is the other part?" The second the words leave my mouth, I regret them. I don't think I want to know.

"Keep you from Lewis, so she can finish what she started."

"Oh." The word leaves on a stalled breath. None returns.

I drop her hand and raise mine toward the pendant. Her hand clasps over mine, like it has before.

"Why do you do that?" I ask.

She stiffens. "It's not simply a pendant."

"Okay . . . ?"

She lifts hers from her chest. It matches mine. Every detail is identical.

"What do they do?"

"It is my connection to you." She forces a sad smile.

"Like a tracking device?" I huff.

She nods.

"Is that it?"

She shakes her head. I open my mouth and close it again. At this point, I don't think I want to know how many more ways she has betrayed me.

"When you need me, it senses your distress and I can find you, like at the party. But it also can be turned." She moves the inner circle of the pendant bordering the gem. "If you spin it, like you always seem to want to do, it will take you to another place."

My mouth gapes. Transport?

"Actually, it moves through time, not just space." She stops the pendant from moving.

"Why did you give it to me if it is so particular?"

"I didn't have another way to track you. Besides, you don't know the spell to activate the travel part of it."

"Have you used it? To travel?"

She nods. "I use it every weekend."

"What? You use it to get to your shifts?" My face scrunches with disbelief.

"No, not to work. To Theo."

"What? How?" I hold a hand up before she can speak. "I mean where?"

"Actually, you mean when ."

I gasp.

"Theo is hidden in 1892, in a part of France where no Englishwoman would travel to amongst the war, with a family on a remote farm. They swore to protect him in exchange for help."

"Rena, we can't kill her, not until she undoes every last evil thing she has done. Including Lewis!"

"I will die before I let her hurt Theo, Sammie. He is my mate. Our bond was consummated centuries ago." As if she didn't mean to say so much, her face turns stunned, and she studies my reaction.

"How old are you, Serena?"

She huffs a strangled laugh. "Not much younger than Anjelica. I'm her biological daughter."

"So, you are like two hundred and eighty?" I laugh, trying to compose myself, but this entire thing is too much. I fold in half, gripping my side, hysterical cackles spilling from my lips. Serena starts laughing, too. We laugh until tears streak both our cheeks. What else can we do? Anjelica is determined to break us both, and the people we love.

"So, you're not angry with me, Sammie?" Her hysterics fade, and the tears of laughter turn to those of sadness as she tries and fails to hold back sobs. I can't even imagine living for centuries with the person I love used as a bargaining chip.

She has had to live for centuries without him. It's heartbreaking. And for that alone, I want Anjelica dead. Ripped to shreds, preferably. Ashes on the ground. Heat flickers through my palms.

"This is what we are going to do, Rena. First, unbind me. Second, let's find the spell. Third, we free Theo. Then, we will kill the bitch before she can hurt another person. We will fix this. I promise."

She nods, still sobbing. I pull her into my hold. "We can do this. Her days are numbered."

After a moment of consolation, Serena stands and gestures for me to rise. I do as instructed and straighten my clothes. She closes her eyes and raises both hands toward me.

" Elements one, elements all. No more will you be bound. Let your true nature be felt. I call on fire. I call on earth. I call on water. I call on air. May your bindings be released, your will free. You are no longer bound to thee ."

Burning floods through my body, stealing my breath. Fire dances over my palms before it flickers out. Something snaps in my chest, similar to my bond with Lewis, but this time it consumes my body, mind, and soul. I feel light, like for years I have been living in a haze, or some sort of invisible confines. I wonder, without restraint, how powerful could my elements be? I conjured that water funnel—it was hard, but I did it. Would it be simple for me? The beginnings of my power now?

"Do you feel anything?" Serena asks.

"I feel lighter, freer."

She smiles at me. "Good, now we might actually stand a chance."

"And so do Theo and Lewis." I step into her space and hug her tight.

"Thank you." Her voice wobbles. I push her back a little, so she is at arm's length.

"What are friends for, babe?"

She scrunches her nose at me and winks. I roll my eyes at her.

There we are.