Chapter 12

Harlow

I blew out a breath, closing the cover of Melisande's journal and leaning back on my hands. My feet dangled over the cliff edge, the expanse of air below them a small thrill as I breathed deeply. Below me, seagulls pinwheeled over the water, calling to each other before diving into the wash of the waves over and over. Something about the sea air had the electricity that crackled in my veins feeling both stronger and slightly less wild than normal. Melisande wrote of her connection to the land, and the odd sense that I could feel the link, too, rode me hard.

Why had I been brought here?

While we explored the town the day before, I'd held my breath, waiting for… something to tell me what I had to do. The fact that twenty-four hours later I still wasn't any closer to learning the answer was setting me on edge. An hour earlier I'd snapped at Addie for something ridiculous that had already slipped my mind and had to excuse myself to cool my head with the ocean breeze. Kylen had been a godsend since we arrived in the town, encouraging Addie to get outside and hunt for the elusive plant he'd been searching for, leaving Lindsay free to scour the house for any information that could be of use.

My mind drifted back to Melisande's diary entry. She'd taken over the coven when she'd been sixteen, and even then, she'd known it would be destroyed. You didn't have to travel far in Spells Hollow to spot the fire damage and decay of a broken community. The most disconcerting thing was in the first line. The blood moon heralded her change in fate. Was it a coincidence? I desperately wanted to think so, but unfortunately, magic loved its signs and preordained destinies. As much as I would have loved to play ostrich, it wouldn't have done me any favors. Despite the warmth of the day, a cold shiver worked down my spine.

Suddenly, my position on the edge of the cliffs felt too exposed. With a glance around to ensure I was still alone out on the grass, I found my feet and decided to check in on Lindsay. Bruin had spent the morning trying to break into the other houses in town, but last I'd checked, he hadn't had much luck. I wondered if his plan was to pillage and plunder while he was biding his time to take me out. Not that I cared about his plans outside of surviving the ones involving me dead.

That was future-Harlow's problem, though. Present-Harlow needed to see if her bestie was going to do what he did best and save her ass.

"Honey, I'm home," I called as I stepped into the cool interior of the house with a smirk pulling at my cheek.

"Hey, Harls, I'm upstairs. Come up here. I think you need to see this."

"That sounds ominous." The bottom step creaked beneath my shoe as I ascended to the first floor.

"Where are you?"

"In here."

I followed his voice to my left and found him in a dusty room with wall-to-wall shelving and a heavy desk sitting in front of a brick fireplace. The shelves were full of books. Leather-bound volumes with gold detailing that looked hand painted.

"If you're looking for shiny things, you should have gone looting with Bruin," I joked, stepping up beside my bestie, who seemed focused on the book in his hand.

"What's up?"

Lindsay shook himself, as though coming out of a trance, and cast me an indecipherable look. I furrowed my brow, waiting for him to say something, but instead of answering, he handed the book to me.

It was immediately evident that I was holding a grimoire. Even without reading what was written on the pages, I felt the shift of energy. The volume was almost too hot to touch, a fact so distracting that it took me a moment to notice I was looking at a family tree of some sort. Generations of names branched out cross the pages documenting births, marriages and deaths.

"This is pretty cool," I said, still not sure what was making Lindsay so damn twitchy.

He hadn't even made a joke about hitting on Bruin when I brought him up. He grunted, pointing at a name in the middle of the page.

"Donahue Torann," I read.

Doing some quick math, I realized his birth date was three-hundred and ninety years ago. Beside his name on one side, it showed his relationship with Melisande Nightshade, on the other, his sibling, Levina. According to the tree, Melisande and Donahue had died in the same year, and the cause of death was noted as the same. Curse . Levina had survived ten years past that. She had a partner listed and children branching off beneath. A shiver ran through me. Under cause of death, she also had the word curse. Back-tracking, I confirmed that their mother had died of natural causes, and their father by gunshot, but every generation after Donahue Torann had succumbed to only one form of death.

"What does this mean?" I asked, tracing over the word as it appeared again and again on every branch of the tree down to the last entry. Harlow Davis.

"What the f—?" I jerked violently, barely avoiding dropping the book as the shock of seeing my own name on the page sank in. I'd heard of enchanted family trees like this, but never seen one. They weren't exactly common in foster homes.

As I stared, trying to process the development, a fine line extended to the side of my name and forked several times.

"Nope. Nopenopenopenope." I shoved the book at Lindsay and turned to leave, freezing in place at the sight of a portrait hanging beside the door I'd entered through.

The figures in the portrait wore clothes that would have been modern at the time Spells Hollow was a thriving community. The man had been painted wearing a white shirt and brown vest, while the woman was in a dress suited to a renaissance faire. The man's dark hair was tousled, and the artist had managed to capture a wicked glint in his eye and a lift to his lips that made him seem roguish and approachable all at once. My eyes slid over to the woman again, despite my wishes. She had the same dark hair. Her eyes looked similar to her brother's, but the comparison was insignificant seeing as she looked identical to another person in the room.

"Why is there a painting of you in ye' olde garb?" Lindsay asked, moving toward the portrait for a closer look.

"This is too much," I muttered, striding from the room and hitting the stairs at a run.

"Harls, wait."

Lindsay's voice followed me out the front door, but I couldn't wait. I had to get out. To get away and clear my head.

"Where are you going?" Bruin paused in the process of hefting a chair at the front window of the house next door, but I had no words for him.

"Stop her," Lindsay yelled at the biker, but I wasn't in the mood to sit in a sharing circle and sing Kumbaya.

Electricity skated over my skin, zapping Bruin as he made a grab for me.

"No way am I getting electrocuted again because she has it in her head to do something stupid."

"Harlow." The panic in Lindsay's voice broke through my need for escape long enough for me to force a deep breath.

"Get the others and head back to the motel. I need to clear my head, so I'm going to walk back. I'll see you soon."

"But—"

"It's fine. I'm the strong one, remember?" I held up my hand in demonstration, then turned on my heel and stalked into the woods.

Images of family trees and doppelgangers consumed my mind as I skirted trees and stepped over rubble. As an orphan, I'd never felt like I belonged anywhere. To anyone. And now a blood moon vision had sent me to the home of my ancestors? It was too bizarre to process, and I found myself wishing for the mother I never knew. I'd been too scared to look at her name on the tree. I knew how she'd died… at least how they'd told me she did. The idea it could have been this curse instead? Nope. It wasn't the time to open that can of worms.

I lost track of the path as I wove my way deeper into the woods, led by my thoughts more than my feet, and it wasn't until I realized the light had dimmed significantly that I stopped to look around. An unnatural twilight descended around me, stealing the sun's light despite the fact it couldn't have been later than three in the afternoon. Shadows reached across the ground toward me as the insect sounds cut off abruptly. Flexing my hands, I allowed a trickle of power to dance across my fingertips as I waited to see what would emerge from the darkness. The snap of a stick brought my head around, and I caught a glimpse of movement beyond the dark trees.

"Come out, come out," I muttered and planted my feet wide, ready to fight.

A chuffing sound came from my left at the same time leaves rustled to my right. Shit, how many of them were there? I raised a hand, ready to send out a warning strike and hopefully dissuade whatever creature had decided to try me.

At the last moment, movement in my peripheral vision made me swing my arm around and release a solid bolt of electricity at what looked like a giant gray wolf. The beast didn't even slow as he launched himself at me.

We crashed to the ground in a pile of limbs, and I winced as my skull bounced on the packed dirt. My ears rang, vision blurring as I tried to dislodge the heavy mass of fur growling in my face. Saliva hung from its muzzle in long drops as the beast opened its maw. I tried to shock the thing again but gasped in pain as the wolf flexed its paws, digging its claws into my flesh as it lowered its head and growled.

What kind of animal was immune to magic?

I could be in real trouble here.

I began to struggle in earnest, kicking at the ground as I tried to work my arms out from under the beast, but froze as a deep growl rumbled to my right. The sound was deeper and far more menacing than the wolf had made, but my body responded by going completely lax. Maybe I'd hit my head harder than I thought. Or maybe this was the curse all my family succumbed to. My family. The most inappropriate giggle bubbled out from between my lips at the thought of finally finding out who I belonged to, only to die, just like the rest of them.

I closed my eyes, sending up a silent apology to Lindsay and Addie as the wolf's foul breath ghosted over my face. Something soft brushed against my skin, then I could take a full breath again. Cracking my eyes open despite the throbbing in my head, I was faced with the sight of a huge white wolf facing off against my attacker. The gray wolf growled as it sank onto its haunches and sprang forward, but the white wolf effortlessly absorbed its attack, swiping at its face until blood dripped from its paws.

The scene began to blur as my heartbeat pounded in my ears, and the last thing I saw as consciousness slipped away was the gray wolf turning tail while the white wolf stretched up onto two legs, taking on a masculine form. Sunlight flared in my eyes, blinding me for a moment before everything turned black.