Cursed In Love (The Adams' Witch Book 2) (3 page)

“Naturals?” I guessed.

She scowled. “If I could stop getting interrupted, I’d tell you what’s going on.”

Travis sat back in the booth and crossed his arms. A smile played across his lips as he nodded toward me. “I think I like her,” he said to his sister.

Jennie took a deep breath and continued. “Naturals are born with power. Wiccans learn theirs. Well, I shouldn’t say that because some of us are both.” She spared her brother a brief glance. “Bottom line is some of us obtain power by practicing Wicca and some of us are born with it.”

“And you?”

Travis beamed. “We’re all Natural, baby.”

I glanced at Jennie. “But you said—”

Veins in her arms and hands popped as she curled her fingers tighter. Her gaze drifted toward Travis and locked on. “I’m a special case. Had power. Lost it. Don’t want to get into that right now.”

The way she looked at her brother made me squeeze back into the seat. Travis also acted as if he wanted to crawl into something that would take him far away from Jennie’s accusatory stare. He squirmed in his seat and played with the straw wrapper.

This was…strange.

After a moment, Travis’s winning personality showed back up. “Now that she’s all caught up. Tell me everything.”

Jennie gave her brother a quick and dirty rundown of the past few weeks. I was glad she spared me from doing it. Having Aunt Rose, Drake, and my mother talked about in a nonchalant tone wasn’t something I could muster yet.

When Jennie finished, Travis sat silent for a little while. “And you’re sure you killed her?”

He directed the question to me. Chills ran up my spine as the slow motion video of Aunt Rose’s body getting cooked right before my eyes played. I swallowed. “One-hundred percent.”

He nodded. “And the first witch to go missing…Courtney? Any idea where she is?”

“It was a mess right afterward and no one even told me she was gone until after I’d recovered.”

He glanced at Jennie, who shared a look of sympathy with me. “Same here. We were a little preoccupied right after the park showdown. She was there and then she wasn’t. I have no clue what happened.”

He tapped his lips. “So there’s a couple options. She left because she thought she’d get in trouble for her actions...”

“Thought of that,” Jennie said. “Isn’t that why you’re really here?”

Travis ignored her. “Or she’s still under the spell.”

“Thought of that,” Jennie said. “It would make sense considering Drake and Marlene are still under the spell.

At this, Travis frowned. His green-eyed stare latched onto mine and a shiver of unease tingled up my neck. “Does it matter why she’s gone?” I asked. “What matters is that she’s the only clue we have to figuring out how to get Drake out of the stupid binding spell.”

Travis gave a short, loud laugh. “That’s not our main priority. Our main priority is to figure out who is taking the witches?”

“Um, no—”

Jennie interrupted. “You think someone’s taking the witches?”

“Two Naturals, Jennie? Come on. What else would it be? The cases have to be related. It’s not a coincidence. There’s no such thing as coincidences.”

Jennie brushed her bangs from her face and stuck her chin in the air. “And let me guess, Mom and Dad brought you here to babysit me?”

“I’m here—”

“Forget that,” I said, speaking loud enough to be heard over the two of them. “Jennie and I are working on how to release Drake from the binding spell. That’s our priority.”

Travis’s gaze meandered in my direction. “Okay, it was cute when you interrupted Jennie. Not so cute when you did it to me.”

I shook my head in disgust. “Oh, shut up.”

Jennie’s mouth dropped and then she laughed. Noticing the look on her brother’s face, she bent at the waist and laughed louder. “That. Was. Awesome.”

A muscle in Travis’s jaw ticked. “You guys can do whatever the hell you want, but I’m here to keep my sister safe.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Jennie sneered.

“Never said you did. But Mom has and I’m not pissing her off.”

The door to the kitchen swung open and Marlene stepped out squealing. Drake followed right behind, his arms outstretched as if to grab her. My heart sank. He was so happy, smiling from ear-to-ear as she twisted away from his playful grasp.

“I have to get back to work,” she said, swatting at his hands.

He pulled her in for a kiss and I turned away before it was too late to unsee. Jennie frowned and gave my leg a quick, sympathetic squeeze.

“Why’s everyone so quiet?” Travis asked.

Jennie must have kicked him under the table because he jerked away and scowled in her direction. Before she could open her mouth, a shadow fell over the table. I tensed and Travis’s gaze met mine. His eyes said everything. He understood now.

“Hey, guys,” the familiar voice said.

I forced myself to look up. Drake wore a small, hesitant smile that grew thinner the longer I stayed quiet. Jennie finally broke the awkward silence by introducing her brother to Drake. They shook hands and I was struck by their differences. One was the epitome of light, and the other, dark.

“Do you mind if I join you?” Drake asked.

My chest tightened with one extra long beat of my heart. In an instant, I’d jumped to my feet. I so wasn’t in the mood to make small talk with Drake and worry over what might come out of his mouth regarding his present relationship status. If I wanted that, I’d friend him on Facebook. “I have to get going. Mom’s expecting me home.”

I walked toward the exit, but Drake caught up with me. “Hey. I was hoping I could talk to you.”

“Oh?” I turned back. Over Drake’s shoulder, Jennie and Travis were half out of their seats. I hadn’t planned on running into Drake today or I would’ve been better prepared mentally. But dammit, it was hard to say no to him. I waved Jennie back down. “What about?”

He cupped my elbow, and we walked outside together. After we turned the corner, he pulled a small book from the inside of his jacket. “This.”

He held the book in front of him and angled it toward his face so I couldn’t see. I stood on my tiptoes for a better look. There were words on the onyx black cover—gold etchings I couldn’t read. “This is my mom’s journal,” he said, his fingers lightly caressing the words.

My eyes widened. His face was serious and sad, and my stomach clenched. “Okay…”

He cleared his throat. “My grandfather left me a note. He said he wanted you to read the journal.”

“Me?”

“I um…I was going to give it to you right away, but I had to read it for myself first.” He handed it to me and shrugged. “I’m not sure why Gramps thought you should read it, but a warning, my mom seems crazy at the end there.” His throat worked. “I had no idea. No one ever told me she was delusional or—just um…be forewarned there’s a lot of gibberish. I don’t see why you have to read it. The only reason I’m doing this is because Gramps asked me.”

I understood that wholeheartedly. I hugged the book to my chest and nodded. “And you know I’ll take care of it until I give it back.”

“Did you talk about my mom? Is that why…?” His soft brown eyebrow rose.

The one and only conversation I’d had with Drake’s grandfather was short. I couldn’t remember any important details about his mother, only that she’d died. I hated to disappoint Drake, but there wasn’t anything to tell him. “Not that I can remember.”

Drake nodded as if I’d confirmed something for him. “Tell me if you find something out that I should know. To me, it shows a slow deterioration of my mother’s mental state. Gramps was always funny like that though. Maybe I missed something.”

His eyes were cloudy and unsure. I wished the journal held the secret to how to unbind Drake with Marlene. That would come in handy about now, but that was unlikely. Drake’s grandfather wouldn’t have known…or would he? I closed my eyes trying to remember something Mother Shipton had said. Something about having to bind the male members of Drake’s tree to the ones who would produce her an heir?

The bell above Abigail’s Diner rang. Travis held the door open for Jennie and they walked toward us.

Drake glanced behind him and then back at me. Whispering now, he said, “Also, it’s just…there’s this weird thing going on between us and I don’t want it to be weird. I like you, Sarah and I was hoping we could be…friends.”

I’d barely thought,
Don’t say it. Don’t say it
, when he’d said it. Was there anything worse than the “let’s be friends” talk?

I ignored the ache in my chest and smiled. “Sure. It’s just, you know, kind of weird. Not your fault. Not anyone’s fault really. Just weird.”

“I get that.”

I stood awkwardly trying to think of something to say. Nothing came to mind. A hand squeezed my shoulder. Travis’s green eyes stared into mine. They were a mix of amusement and empathy. “Ready to get going?” he asked.

I turned back to Drake who was fixated on Travis’s hand on my shoulder. Within seconds, he was shaking his head though. “Take care,” he said.

“Yeah. You, too.”

Drake spun and went back inside the diner. As soon as he stepped inside, Travis burst into laughter. “That’s him? That’s who you want to do this for?”

Bitter anger closed my throat. I couldn’t—and didn’t—want to give him the satisfaction of an answer.

“No, I mean it,” he said, following me as I made a straight line for Jennie’s car. “That’s the guy you want to
save?
He looked pretty damn happy to me.”

“Let it go,” Jennie said.

“It doesn’t make sense.”

I froze mid-stride and twisted around. “What part doesn’t make sense? That he’s happy because he’s made to be? That he’s only happy because he thinks he is? She took away his free will. He’s not really happy. He’s not.”

Jennie pulled on my sleeve. “Get in the car, Sarah. Travis doesn’t know when to shut his mouth.”

“But the point is he thinks he’s happy,” Travis said. “And he’ll never know the difference. If you’ve killed her like you said you did, we don’t have to worry about her cursing their heir, so what does it matter? The curse is over and that’s what’s important.”

I locked gazes with him. “It matters.”

I threw the car door open and jumped inside. Jennie and Travis stood outside talking for a few more minutes. When they finished, he tapped on the glass. Jennie got in the car and lowered the window from her side because I sure as hell hadn’t been planning to.

“Traitor,” I mumbled.

She grinned and looked out her window, pretending she wasn’t listening into the conversation.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey.”

“Listen, I’m not going to help you save him, but I’ll be around for my sister so we might as well get along. Jennie told me about your aunt’s library has a bunch of old journals and since lover boy ran us out of the diner, I was hoping we could go back to your place and talk. You have a lot more learning to do about the Wiccan world.”

“Fine.” I shrugged. “Follow us.”

He slapped the car door, then ran off toward a sweet looking Jeep Wrangler. The sight of the shiny black paint and large muscle wheels made me ache for my own SUV.

Jennie backed out of the parking space and gunned it. The small car’s engine hesitated at first and then roared to life. “I think he likes you.”

I gave her a withering glare, but she only shrugged in response.

Whether Travis had a drool-worthy Jeep didn’t matter. Nothing was going to throw me off my mission to rid Drake of his binding to Marlene.

CHAPTER THREE

Jennie and I took our usual spots on the couch in the library. With Mom still not home, Travis walked through the house to get a “sense” of the witch who used to live here. Now, he was walking around the old shelves pulling out dusty volumes one after the other. He seemed oddly interested.

I turned toward Jennie. We’d been close since my aunt died. She was there while I recovered from my injuries and then afterward, too. My only friend in Adams, she’d given me rides to school every day and then home to weed through the journals. There’d been plenty of opportunities for her to tell me what she really was. What Courtney really was. She’d kept the witch world a secret from me and even though I tried not to be, I was pissed.

“I know what you’re thinking,” she said.

“She’s thinking how incredibly hot I am,” Travis chimed in.

Jennie took one of the throw pillows from the couch and threw it at him. “I definitely don’t miss this part.”

“You should’ve told me, Jennie. Instead, you lied and told me you were a Wiccan virgin and didn’t know what you were doing.”

“I didn’t lie about that,” she said. “I
am
a Wiccan virgin. I had Natural abilities. We don’t need to rely on Wicca to give us power, we’re born with it. Our father passed it down to us. I never needed Wicca before in my life so I didn’t lie to you.”

I eyed her. “So you didn’t used to do spells?”

Behind us, Travis chuckled. He was listening in to our conversation and I sounded like an idiot.

“No. I didn’t need to perform magick spells. It all came from here.” She pointed to her head then her heart. She glanced back at her brother and whispered, “I don’t like to talk about how I lost my power. It’s not something I’m happy about. Practicing Wicca has helped me, yes, but I’m also pissed off that I even need it. I want the powers I used to have.”

Her eyes watered. To change the subject, I asked, “So what kind of stuff could you do?”

She shrugged. “Little things. Big things. It depended on what I needed.”

A flower from a vase on the coffee table twitched. Or at least, I thought it did. I peered at it more closely. It moved…upward. Jennie caught me staring at it and she smiled. A white lily lifted from the vase and floated through the air to Jennie’s outstretched hand. She smiled down at it. “Stuff like that.”

My heart beat like mad in my chest. “Did you…?”

She shook her head, so I searched for the only other magickal being in the room. Travis’s smile didn’t have the same pompous air it had from the diner. His eyes met mine, he shrugged, and then wiggled his fingers at me.