Believe: The Complete Channie Series (34 page)

The foolish boy they wish to beguile.

Burn the image in your heart and mind

Of true love’s kiss, and surely you’ll find

The strength and the will and the power to keep

The promise you made so your love would not weep.

Josh pulled out his phone and snapped a photograph of the glowing page. Channie didn’t want to copy the hateful message in her journal, but if something happened to Josh’s phone and they couldn’t remember every single word, they had no chance of fighting this evil magic that demanded she marry against her will.

When she finished, Josh kissed the top of her head and pulled her onto his lap. “If you were forced to marry someone else...but you still loved me...would you consider a relationship outside of marriage?”

Channie pressed her hand against Josh’s chest. His heart thumped against her palm in sync with her own racing pulse. “I’m not going to let some evil book tell me who I can and cannot marry.”

“It sounds like the book isn’t opposed to adultery.”

Channie leaned back to look in his eyes. “I don’t break promises and there is no promise more sacred than marriage vows.”

“Even if you got married with the understanding that it wasn’t real? Maybe this
royal mage
won’t want to marry you either.”

Channie slid off Josh’s lap and stood up. “I’d rather die a virgin than bind myself with meaningless marriage vows.” Josh had no idea what all was involved when two mages married. Channie didn’t either—she’d heard a few snippets here and there, but the ceremony everyone attended was only the beginning. The actual marriage involved magic and sex and that wasn’t something people talked about.

Josh rose and placed his hands on her shoulders. “We’ll figure something out. At least there’s no time limit.”

“Are you kidding me?...
You have until the full moon sets, to bind your hearts with no regrets
...remember? This message doesn’t replace the previous one.”

“If that’s true, why would the book tell you to bind your heart to mine and then marry someone else?”

“I don’t know!” Channie took a deep breath and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you. This is just so confusing and frustrating.”

Josh nodded and said, “I understand.” Which meant he wasn’t accepting her apology, but he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “We still need to figure out what the rest of it means.”

Channie didn’t want to talk about it either. She knew they’d have to deal with it soon, but there were plenty of other things they needed to figure out. “I’m obviously the daughter of power, but why would you be the son of darkness? That is a direct reference to dark magic.”

“Maybe it’s just a poetic device or a typo?” Josh rubbed the back of his neck and grinned. “A magical book that needs spell-check.”

Channie laughed in spite of herself. “Good one, Josh. But seriously, the book wouldn’t make a mistake like that. One of your parents must have hired a mage...maybe during their divorce? It’s illegal, but some mages hire themselves out to MDs.

“My family fights their battles in court with divorce attorneys and money, not blood and magic.”

“For now, let’s just assume you are ‘the son of darkness,’ even if we don’t know what it means. What’s next?”

Josh leaned to the side and read out of Channie’s journal. “
True love’s kiss will set you free, but pure and chaste it must be
…”

Channie closed her eyes and pressed her face into Josh’s hoodie-protected shoulder, fighting tears. “We can’t even touch without setting each other on fire.”

Josh stroked her hair and wound a tendril around his index finger. “I would kiss you right now if it would break the curse, I don’t care how much it hurts. But...if we don’t keep our thoughts pure and chaste when we kiss, we’ll be cursed and end up hating each other. Maybe that’s how you’ll end up marrying a royal—”

“I already told you—I’m not marrying anyone!”

Josh jerked away from her as if she’d slapped him.

Channie took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “I’m sorry Josh. I know none of this is your fault. But please, I don’t want to talk about marrying some old goat of a mage right now. I can’t deal with it.”

“Alright. Let’s focus on kissing without lust. How do you propose we do that?”

“Maybe we can desensitize ourselves if we …” Heat crept up Channie’s throat and flooded her cheeks. “… practice touching?”

Josh chuckled, lightning the mood. “That might work for you, but the more we touch, the more I want...well...
more
.”

A pile of blankets in the northeast corner shifted, startling Channie.

Josh bolted across the room and dialed the lights all the way up. He groaned and said, “Elijah, what are you doing in here?”

Elijah’s eyes were as big as silver dollars. He pointed at the Book of the Dead and said, “Can I see it?”

Channie clambered to her feet and said, “No, it’s too dangerous.”

“Then why are you guys messing with it?”

Josh said, “That’s none of your damn business.”

Elijah’s eyes lit up as a wide grin spread across his face. “Am I a wizard, too?”

“Of course not, dork. What makes you think you might be a wizard?”

“Harry Potter didn’t know he was a wizard until Hagrid told him.”

“Jeeze! Harry Potter isn’t real.”

“Maybe, maybe not. But I saw that book glow and I heard the spell you read.”

Josh said, “We were just messing around, there’s no such thing as magic.”

“He already knows, Josh. There’s no point shutting the barn door after the horse is gone.” Channie needed to find out how much Elijah understood about what he’d seen. She wasn’t sure he’d tell her if she just up and asked him so she went at it sideways. “Do you have any questions about what you saw or heard while Josh and I were using the magic book? I imagine it was pretty scary.”

“It was cool.” Elijah’s grin faded as worry creased his brow. “If Josh kisses you, will you have to marry him?”

“What do you mean?”

“I heard you talking about true love’s kiss. I just wondered if it was like Sleeping Beauty or Snow White.”

Channie smiled. “It’s sort of like that.” Maybe it was
exactly
like that. Maybe, if they broke the chastity curse with a pure, chaste kiss, it would break the rest of the spells too. Maybe she wouldn’t have to marry a mage after all.

“Did an evil witch put a spell on you?”

“She sure did.” Channie didn’t want to explain a Chastity curse to an eight-year-old boy. Besides, ‘evil witch’ was one of the nicer things Channie had called Momma lately.

Elijah said, “If Josh kisses you—are you going to love him forever?”

Josh clenched his jaw and stared at her with his mouth pressed into a thin, hard line. And once again, just like at the race, a thread of golden energy spiraled out of Channie’s heart-of-hearts, opening a conduit of magic between them. But this time, love wasn’t the only thing they shared. The intensity of Josh’s heart-ache nearly overwhelmed her.

She focused on the spark of hope growing inside her chest and pushed it along the golden thread of their connection. When it broke through the wall of his pain, Josh sucked in a quick, shallow breath.

Elijah’s question hung in the air...
If Josh kisses you, are you going to love him forever?

Channie’s eyes filled with tears as she reached for Josh. “I already do.”

Channie
and Josh stayed up all night, going over the spell, looking for loopholes or hints of how they could manage a pure, chaste kiss before the next full moon.

She said, “Maybe if we kiss really fast? And don't give ourselves a chance to think about what we’re doing, we can avoid feeling lusty. Or we could close our eyes. I’ll pretend you’re Eric. And you can pretend I’m Old Lady Windsor.”

Josh hunched his shoulders, scrunched his face and shivered. “I’m already scarred for life just imagining it, but if it works, it’s worth it.”

“Maybe we should try touching first, you know, skin-to-skin, just to be sure.”

It was a good suggestion. It was also good they were alone in the soundproof media room. If anyone would have heard their screams of agony, they would have thought they were trying to kill each other.

They cut class the next day and tried everything they could think of to obliterate their lust. They took a cold shower together—fully clothed. They watched “Saw,” “Friday the 13th,” and “Resident Evil.” They had no success at all until they stood beside an open dumpster behind La Petite pre-school.

Josh was able to hold Channie’s cheeks in his palms for a few precious seconds. But even as they gagged on the stench of rotting garbage and dirty diapers, they still couldn’t keep their lust for each other under control long enough to kiss. Channie screamed as Josh ripped his hands off her burning face. He darted behind the dumpster and retched. As soon as Channie heard the contents of Josh’s stomach splatter the pavement, she leaned over and puked into a barberry hedge.

They pushed their bikes halfway home before Channie felt strong enough to ride.

Ever the optimist, Josh said, “That almost worked.”

Channie pressed the back of her hand against her mouth to keep from gagging. “And like most things in life...almost doesn't count.”

They rode the rest of the way home in silence. When they rolled their bikes into the garage, Josh said, “I have an idea. But you aren’t going to like it.”

Channie lifted her helmet off her head and shook out her hair. “What is it?”

“The book said...True love’s kiss will set you free, but pure and chaste it must be...It didn’t say I had to be the one to kiss you.”

“But I don't want to kiss anyone else! Besides, I don’t think any other boy will be any better at keeping his thoughts pure.”

“I was thinking of Elijah.”

“Elijah! But he’s only eight! No way!”

“Think about it. He’s the perfect age. He’s old enough to fall head over heels in love with you—even if it’s only puppy-love—but young enough to still be pure and chaste.”

“I won’t use him like that.”

“What choice do we have?”

“I don’t know, Josh. It just seems really...mean.”

“Will you at least think about it?”

Channie didn’t need to think about it. She hated the idea, but it made perfect sense. It was no accident that Elijah was involved. The damn book took perverse pleasure in torturing people. Elijah had witnessed the book’s magic when she and Josh opened it. And now he would pay for that momentary thrill with a broken heart.

Channie
felt like the worst sort of criminal as she flirted with Elijah over the next few days. The kiss had to be Elijah’s idea. It was the only way she would even consider it. But she had to create the proper climate. Elijah wasn’t shy, but he was perfectly happy just holding her hand and sitting next to her as they played video games and watched movies.

When Elijah still hadn’t kissed her by Friday evening, Channie and Josh came up with a new plan. Saturday morning, Channie pretended to be too sick to go to Josh’s race. They didn’t even have to ask Elijah to stay behind. He volunteered to keep Channie company. If he didn’t kiss her today, she doubted he ever would.