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“And what?”
“It doesn’t matter. Whether you believe it or not, I was trying to protect you. That’s what I’m trying to do now.”
“I don’t feel protected. How do I know your family isn’t hiding in the shadows now? Or that they won’t break into my dreams? I trusted you. I thought I was falling in love with you. Now I know it’s all been a lie, and everything and everyone I care about is lost to me.” I wanted to cry, yet the tears wouldn’t come. Maybe I was dehydrated.
Eric padded over to me and knelt by the bed. “Sorrel,” he said tenderly, “I can imagine the horrors you witnessed today. I lived them for most of my life. For that I am truly sorry. And I take full responsibility for my part in all of this. But there is something bigger afoot here. I don’t know exactly what. But my father is right about one thing—there are no coincidences when it comes to the curse.”
Part of me ached for him. I couldn’t imagine growing up in his family. Though how could I trust him, or even myself, after everything that had happened? “How do we know that when the curse doesn’t work right? I should be dead.”
Eric sank farther to the floor. “I know. Are you sure your book was destroyed?”
I nodded, trying to keep out the images of it going up in flames along with Eric’s great-grandfather. “Except, I still feel connected to it.”
Eric pursed his lips together. “Hmm. I hate to ask this, but how do you know your mother is dead?”
I stroked Tara as a tear rolled down my cheek. “I could hear her.” Her dying words would forever haunt me.
Eric tilted his head. “How?”
“Can’t you speak to your family through your mind?”
“No. That must be a Tellus gift. Or an Aelius gift?”
I shook my head. He needed to quit saying things like that. “No. That’s impossible. Besides, my mother would have said something. I think.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s just that she didn’t know a lot about the other families, and she kept from me how to destroy the books. But she would never keep something like that from me. Besides, we both know that family no longer exists.”
“We also thought destroying the book would kill you.”
“True, but it was broken.”
“That’s another mystery.”
“Well, what about your book? Why haven’t you been bound to anyone?”
Eric shrugged. “It’s withheld that information from me.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“How old are you?”
The tiniest of smiles appeared on his face. “Forty-one. How old are you?”
“Thirty.”
“Figures you didn’t lie.”
“The only thing I ever lied to you about was my mother’s death. And now she’s dead.” Her death was really starting to sink in, and it created within me an incomprehensible void. So much so it made it hard for me to catch my breath.
Eric took my hand. For a moment I reveled in the comfort I always felt when we touched. I needed it. It filled some of my loss, even though it was all make-believe. I pulled away half-heartedly. “Our connection was never real, was it? You never really wanted me.”
“Sorrel.” He hesitated.
“Just tell me the truth.”
He heaved a heavy sigh. “I don’t know.”
I snuggled down under the covers with Tara, willing myself not to cry. “I’m tired.”
“You should rest. I’ll watch over you.”
“Why bother?”
He rested his warm hand on my cheek. “Regardless of what the curse has or hasn’t made us feel, one thing I know without a doubt is that there is something special about you. Something well worth protecting.”
“I don’t want your protection,” I lied.
His hand dropped. “I understand that. But it’s all I have to give to you.”
His words pierced my broken heart, and I turned away from him.
“I am sorry, Sorrel.”
I was too.Chapter Twenty-FiveEric
Eric couldn’t help but smile over at Sorrel as she slept against the passenger-side window. Her beautiful tresses cascaded down around her heart-shaped face that still bore the cut from his mother. Sorrel refused to even try to heal it. And she wanted to hear nothing about the light show she had put on. It was almost as if she were afraid to realize the truth about herself. On the other hand, she was tenacious as hell. She’d woken up late last night intent on going to Saint Augustine to give her mother a proper burial and wouldn’t hear a word to the contrary. Eric gave in only when Sorrel informed him her mother had passports and plane tickets for her to use. His plan was to make sure she had safe passage out of the country, and then he was going to destroy his book.
The curse may not have killed Sorrel, but if indeed her mother was dead, it meant that destroying his book should kill his father and grandfather, thereby releasing his mother from the binds that tied her to his father. He hoped that once his mother was free, she would forget about seeking her revenge on Sorrel, though he couldn’t count on that. At least she would have no resources and Sorrel would have a new identity. It was the best plan he could think of. Sorrel would have to be on her own to discover the truth about herself.
