Chapter 48

Zander

It was crazy to see the light. To see your life flash in front of your eyes. For the life, you had to slowly seep away, and you have no control over it, because you're gone. Vapor.

The pathetic images that showed up in my exit made me sick to my stomach. The only bright days were the last few weeks with Piper. She'd been the flaming light of hope in my life.

And if the hell-hound hadn't killed me—we would have broken the curse. I'd looked into those hazel eyes for the last time, but this time, I'd seen love staring back at me.

Maybe it was the grand gesture of saving her father's life or just the right timing, but she said she loved me. With a hurt woman like Piper, proving you loved her, meant more than saying it.

I was glad I couldn't see the aftermath of her sitting there with my limp body in her arms.

The angry part of me didn't show until I landed in the garden and I realized something didn't feel right. Wasn't I dead? I'd never died before, so I didn't have anything to compare it to, but I'd died on the inside a long time ago.

"Zander," a whisper.

I turned on my heel, seeing my mother sitting on the small bench made for her grave. My body began to tingle, and a whisper of a breeze hit me, but it wasn't cold. It wasn't the familiar chill of Priscilla.

"Mother," I said softly.

She smiled, and my heart melted into goo. "Are you gonna stand there all day or give me a hug?"

I stepped forward slowly, afraid that Priscilla would rip the dream away from me. My mother looked the same as the day she passed away. Her beautiful light hair was wrapped on top of her head, and her eyes that matched William's were vibrant.

"Sweet Boy," she whispered, leaning in and kissing my forehead. "You were always my auburn-haired prince."

I was transported back to my youth with a simple touch. "You've grown so much," she whispered, cupping my jaw. "You're so handsome. You look like my brother."

I fought the lump of sadness in my throat. "I've missed you so much."

She smiled. "I've missed you so much."

"Why am I here?" I asked, through the tightness. "Where are we? Is this the afterlife?"

A frown pulled at the corner of her mouth. "No. This is me reaching out to you."

The garden breeze picked up, and my mother became nervous—anxious. "We don't have long, Zander," she said, standing up. "Come with me."

She pulled at the skirt of her gown, walked around me, and she hurried toward the house. Her long dress flowed behind her, and her sharp turns were quicker than I remembered from childhood.

For a brief moment, I allowed myself to think it was a trick, but what the hell did I have to lose at that point? I was dead, wasn't I?

Mother led me up the back steps, turning the corner of the kitchen and toward the grand stairs. I halted when I picked up Piper's scent. Was she here with me? Had she died? What happened?

There in the center of the entrance was the scene I'd left behind.

Piper held my head in her lap, tears cascading down her contorted face. It was everything I had wished I'd missed. Mother's cold hand gripped my elbow, and she gestured her head toward the stairs. "There is no time. I feel her coming."

Feel who coming? "I'm confused. Why are we running?"

Mother turned a sharp left toward my room, the door swung open and she took me to the closet. "Why are we going in here?" I asked.

The door shut behind us, the light turned on and mother grabbed the glass vase and shattered it on the floor.

My actual heart leaped into my throat—or what I had left of one. "Mother!" I shouted. "What's going on? Are we dead? Are you dead? I need you to say something."

She glanced up at me with wide eyes. "I'm dead, you're not. This place is ... this place is where Priscilla is. She conjures up some dark magic and comes to your realm. I can't do that. I've been stuck here watching you. Waiting on things to change. Waiting on Piper," she said with a sweet smile. "I like her, by the way."

My mouth opened in shock. "You've been watching us? You've been watching me?"

She nodded as she picked up the heart in her cupped palms, and held it out to me. "This is not your heart, Zander. This is your heart in this realm. Where you are now. I want you to go put it into your chest downstairs. I'll go distract Priscilla."

I glared at the beating organ that she slid onto my palms.

"Mom, are you okay? How do you even know if this will work—,"

"Do what I ask!" she shouted, tears brimming her eyes. "I don't pretend to understand all of Priscilla's magic. She wasn't strong enough to kill you through magic that day, Zander. This is your life in your hands. Your physical life. I saw her put your heart here when she cursed you. She could only bring it to this realm, and not kill you like she wanted. I saw her use everything she had to make sure you saw this heart every day. It took a lot out of here. She wanted you to be reminded that she owned you. This is her landline. She uses your life to pass back and forth between here and there. Every night. She's the beast inside of you, Zander."

I blinked several times, trying to understand what she was saying to me. "She traveled back and forth through the beast?" I repeated.

Mother nodded.

"She gave her soul away to punish you, but her ghostly being has used the curse to travel back and forth. Your life is right here in front of you. Take it downstairs and place it back inside of you."

It didn't make a lot of sense to me. Not that I pretended to know magic either. "She's used my heart to pass from realm to realm?"

"She wanted to use the thing you took from her. Her heart."

"How is this going to save me, Mother? I don't understand—,"

"Piper said she loved you before you died, Zander. You haven't moved on because there is something unfinished in the other realm, and I believe it's your second chance. You go put this heart into your chest, block her way back into this realm. Ban her here forever."

"How do you know she's here? She was just there with me.'

"She thinks she's finished, she thinks she killed you before Piper could break the curse. I could feel her coming back in the garden."

Pain pinched my chest.

"You don't have much time," she whispered.

"How do you know this is my life, Mother? Tell me."

She smiled. "My mother was a witch, Zander. I picked up a few things over the years, though I tried to forget them because I don"t believe in witchcraft. But this will send you back to Earth. This will put your life back into your body. Go. Please. Just go, Sweet Boy."

She lifted onto her toes and kissed my cheek, shoving me toward the door that opened, and out into my bedroom.

I wasn't the only one hurting on the inside. My mother had watched as I was tormented, and beaten down for years. Running with the heart in my hands, I stopped at the top of the staircase.

Xavier stood at the other end, staring up at me with that mischievous grin. My stomach churned and knotted at the sight of him. Slowly, I descended the steps, stopping by his childlike form. "I'm so sorry, Xavier," I whispered. "I hope you can forgive me."

"I already have."

I watched his chubby cheeks move as he smiled up at me, and then his gaze shift over my shoulder. "But she hasn't."

I felt her before I looked.

That grimy feeling of evil.

The smoky smell of her magic.

"Do you think I'm going to let you do that?" she asked, her voice closer than I pegged her to be.

Xavier's wide eyes stared up into mine, as I turned to face the wrath of his mother. She looked as I remembered her the day it all happened. "What do you want from me, Priscilla? I've given up decades of my life, I've apologized, I've grovelled, and I've suffered. Do I have to die for you to move on?"

She laughed, her braids swinging around her shoulders. "You've been doomed since the moment you ignored me. The moment I told you that he was in that cabin, and you lit it on fire."

I couldn't look at my mother's face from the staircase. She knew what happened, but seeing her face as someone said it out loud wasn't something I could stomach.

"You're right. It did kill a little piece of my heart when they took his body out that day. I died on the inside. My stomach collapsed, and I felt the need to hurt myself in return." I gestured the heart toward her. "And you did it for me, didn't you?"

Priscilla's lip turned up into a snarl.

Facing Xavier, I palmed his shoulder, feeling the tiny body beneath my hand, another round of heartache pierced me. "I'm sorry, Xavier. I'm sorry that I didn't listen to your mother. I'm sorry I was egotistical and power crazy. I'm sorry I ruined your life, and took it away." I turned back to Priscilla. "And most of all, I'm sorry I took a mother's son away."

Priscilla flew down three steps, coming closer to us. "It's too little, too late, Zander. You're punishment is set in stone, and no matter what your mother thinks she is doing, it's not going to work."

"It may not," I whispered. "But I have to try, don't I?"

Priscilla looked down at Xavier, giving me the second I needed to make a run for it.

I scurried backward, fumbling with my footing, and clutching the heart in my palms. I prayed my mother knew what she was talking about. Piper's sob broke around me, and I watched as her father tried to pull her away.

I'm coming, Little One.

I dared a glance over my shoulder, seeing Priscilla taking the stairs two at a time. Xavier made eye contact with me. Sadness etched his features, and I watched in shock as he stuck his foot out and tripped his mother.

Priscilla hit the ground, her eyes wide, and her face hurt as she spun around to look up at her son. He hadn't been lying when he said he forgave me. It was the heart of a child.

The forgiveness God wanted us all to have.

He still held onto it after all this time.

Priscilla tried to stand up, but Xavier put his palm on her shoulder. "No, Momma," he whispered.

I felt her sob as I raced toward Piper, and fell to my knees. Priscilla's cry was that of a hurt mother. Of a woman scorned. I felt her sadness in my bones.

I felt her hurt within me.

Mr. Sloane pleaded with Piper to let go, but she clung to my lifeless body, as I put the heart above the left side of my chest, and shoved with every ounce of my strength.

That's when everything went black.