Chapter 37

Piper

Every turn I took I felt her. Whether it was my imagination or she was truly watching us in the crook of the room, I felt her stare. It was the shadow in the corner of your eye, that when you turned to see it, it vanished.

She was there in the room while Zander and I moved our lunch to his bedroom. Never seen, only felt. It wasn't that I was scared of this woman. I'd done nothing to her but show up to rain on her parade.

But none of it was my fault. I didn't harm her child, I was harming her pride by growing closer to Zander.

My GPS giving up when it did wasn't an accident. It was fate. She needed to realize that maybe there were forces larger than her at play.

I found Zander standing with both palms against the railing of the stairs, looking out at the house below him, after my trip to the library. "Are you busy watching your imaginary guest? Well," I chuckled. "You do have at least one invisible guest—,"

His gaze slid toward mine.

"Too soon?" I asked.

He pivoted and braced his elbow against the railing. "Do you need something other than my hand against your ass?"

My body purred, despite the sideshow from Hell we were currently starring in. "Your time. Come with me."

Zander offered his hand to me, and I took it. He followed me toward the backdoor where I stopped. "Are you wanting to test the curse, Love? Because I haven't come this far to be burned to death."

I smiled, and put my hand on the doorknob. "Where is your mother's grave?"

Zander became still, and he cleared his throat. "Why may I ask?"

"I want to do something for you. Give me your phone."

He gave me a sheepish look. "And how do you know I have one? I've never brought it out in front of you."

I chuckled. "You don't think I thought this was your dick, do you?" I asked, reaching out and snaking my hand into his pocket, bringing out his smart phone. "Shows how much you trust me. If I wanted to run, I would have already ran, Zander."

"Don't I know it, Little One?" His gaze moved toward the door that he opened for me. "Come back. I may test the curse if you don't."

I smiled, and stepped out into the humid Louisiana breeze. The back yard was phenomenal in the daylight. I'd only been back there once at night. The giant steps led me down the walkway, and toward the entrance of the garden.

A trellis or red roses hung over me, and I wondered who planted them since Zander didn't like roses. I didn't blame him considering.

The maze of hedges led me toward a small concrete bench. Engraved into the stone was his mother's name: Georgia Rene Blackwood. Loving mother. Forever be at peace.

I brought out the camera, grabbed one of the roses from the trellis above me, and placed it on her name.

I knew Zander missed his mother, and wanted to see her, but couldn't. Priscilla's curse was more detrimental than she realized. I snapped a picture, hoping it would brighten his day to see the beauty of the bench for the first time in decades.

Keeping Zander locked away from the one person he ever truly loved, as a beast, forever—seemed crueler than death.

"Piper!"

My blood ran cold at the sound of my father's voice. I spun a circle looking for him, my hands growing numb. Had he come back so quickly? Probably in the daylight to keep from running into the beast again.

It was close. Too close. Turning on my heel, I tried to peer over the hedges to see, but I was too short. I wouldn't dare defile Georgia's grave by using it as a stool.

"Piper!" he shouted again.

Part of me wanted to run to the safety of the castle, and the other wanted to let my dad have rest. Would it hurt for him to see my face just once? Would he let me go back if he found me?

I didn't think so.

I couldn't leave Zander alone.

I couldn't let my father drag me away from him.

Crouching down to all fours, I crawled into the hedges, and shrank myself into a ball.

Dad's voice became louder. Almost feet away from me. Tears pooled in my eyes, and a few stray tears traveled down my cheeks. I wiped them away with the back of my hand, and dared to peek out of the hedges on the opposite side of the maze.

The yard was neatly mowed, which I'd never seen anyone actually mow it, but that was a question for another time. The bayou was eerily quiet, forming chills on my arms.

My dad's voice came from right outside of the hedges, but I couldn't see him. The wind picked up, and a smoky smell filtered in the air. My dad's voice grew, and it darkened—dropping several octaves—echoing around me.

It didn't feel right.

The scream that followed my name felt like ice water dumped over me.

It wasn't my dad.

It was Priscilla.

Her laugh came from behind me. With shaky hands I pulled out Zander's phone and opened a text to William.

Please help. Not alone in the garden.

Dark clouds formed in the sky, thunder and bristling winds picked up around me. Crawling from the midst of the hedge, I stood up beside his mother grave.

This had been a bad idea.

"Piper!" my father's voice taunted me.

Anger caught in my throat. I wanted to scream at her, tell her to piss off, and leave me alone.

"Piper. Where are you, honey?" came my mother's voice this time.

But I knew it wouldn't work.

She wanted me scared, so I refused to be.

If she was like any monster that I'd ever read about, I was sure she fed off fear, so I wouldn't give her any. With unsteady legs, I walked toward the castle, the wind knocking me into the thorny bushes, until I began to crawl toward the stairs.

They seemed light-years away.

My fingers bled into the ruble underneath me.

My knees took the brute of it, while rocks and debris began to circle around me in a makeshift tornado. It sounded like a train hovered above me, deafening me from anything other than my hammering heartbeat.

I crawled further.

Through the chaos around me, I heard his voice. Something told me it was truly him. Zander.

There was pain twisted into the scream, but anger fueled it. "No," I whispered, knowing he couldn't hear me.

"Don't come outside," I whispered. "She's trying to kill us both."

It was what she wanted. To end him. To feed that angry monster her son's death had created.

I crawled faster, my fingers hurting, when I felt arms wrap around me. I glanced up at William's ashen face as he lifted me into his arms. That's when the wind grew more angry.

Debris hit us.

A large tree limb knocked William in the back, sending me onto the ground, a rock landing my fall. I groaned, covering my head with my hand, I crawled toward William who stood up without too much thought.

He was a werewolf. I knew he could take more than I could. So when he tucked me into his arm, I didn't argue.

The stairs came into view, and another gust of wind shoved against us. I caught sight of Zander's face in the window of the castle. He was irate. His fingers tightened into a fist against the glass, his body heaving.

"Almost there," William whispered, hurling me toward the back door, it opened and Zander pulled me inside.

William crawled in moments later.

When the door closed behind him the entire chaos of the yard ceased to exist. The tornado and wind was gone. The debris that would have littered the yard was gone, too.

Zander's warm arms wrapped around me, he brought me to the kitchen counter and began checking every inch of me. Every bruise. The scraps on my palms and knees.

Then the blood on the back of my head.

"It's all my fault. I shouldn't have let you out of here," he whispered. "God. I'm so sorry, Little One."

"You couldn't have known—,"

"She's not going to stop," William said, standing up. He plucked leaves from his hair and pressed it back with his palms. "This is just the beginning of what she has in store for us, Piper. She will do everything she can to make you fail. Dreams. Mini-tornados. Visions. I'm not sure what she can do, but I don't want to find out."

Zander brought me into his arms, and faced William. "I'm taking her to get cleaned up."

"Why doesn't she just kill you?" I asked, my voice in a whisper. "If she can do all of that, why doesn't she just kill you?"

Zander shook his head. "She can't. Once the curse was set, she couldn't go back and kill me. She wanted me to suffer. She can't break the curse. It has to be broken with love, or me stepping outside in the daylight. Nothing in-between. I honestly think once you showed up that she regretted the curse. She probably wishes that she just killed me."

"I think she's enjoying the torment," I whispered, stroking his face. "Have you ever tried to find another person that practices dark magic—,"

"No," Zander hissed. "I don't get involved in that unless it's tossed on me, of course. My mother was always against dark magic, and warned us. There is always a price for magic."

I nibbled on my bottom lip as Zander carried me toward the bathroom to get cleaned up.

I briefly wondered. What was Priscilla's price to make Zander the beast?