Pivotal.
The word landed like a stone in still water, sending ripples through everything I thought I knew.
I turned to look out the window at the loch. What Liora was describing sounded…terrifying.Pivotal.
My thoughts flashed back to that day by the loch, panic gripping me, as everyone in the Order worked to rescue Zara and Liora, while holding the Kelpies back.
And I’d been helpless. Full of heart, but empty of magick, only able to stand by and offer support where I could.
But I’d felt it, hadn’t I? That tug inside me. Like a hook beneath my ribs, pulling at something I’d spent years trying to bury.
“There’s more,” Liora said.
Of course there was.
“During your reading, before Mitch interrupted us, I saw something in your chart. In your seventh house—the house of partnership.” She hesitated, choosing her words carefully. “There was a dark strand, Agnes, that was coiledthrough your love line. It was, I don’t know, barbed and kind of, pulsing, I guess? Like something alive.”
My throat tightened. I couldn’t speak.
“I didn’t know what it was then,” Liora continued. “But seeing that thread at the loch, the one connecting you to the Stone ... I think they’re related. I think whatever that dark strand is, it’s tied to your bloodline. And it’s tied to whoever you love.”
There it was.
Spoken aloud, finally, by someone other than my grandmother.
“My grandmother,” I heard myself say, the words scraping out before I could stop them. “She warned me. On her deathbed. They were her last words to me, actually.”
For three weeks I’d waited. Hoping against hope that Gran would rouse again and tell me something different. Tell me that I was free to love whoever I wanted. But she didn’t, so her words stayed with me, her edict final.
Liora went very still and I sucked in a breath before continuing.
“She said the women in our family must never love fully. That the loch takes what we love.” I pulled in a shaky breath. “And if I let myself love Graham, truly love him, the water would claim him.”
“Oh, Agnes,” Liora breathed.
“She made me promise, well, I did. I had to. She believed it. As do I.” I crossed my arms over my chest and rocked forward. “Graham and I were dating. Back then.” At Liora’s surprised gasp, I realized that this was part of my life that not everyone knew. She hadn’t been around then, and I guess I hadn’t been very open about my past with everyoneI’d met. It was easier, sometimes, not to think about what Graham and I once had for a very brief glimmering moment in time.
“I’d fallen in love with Graham. And the moment I admitted it to myself—the moment I let myself want a future with him—I started having nightmares. The loch, pulling him under. His face disappearing beneath the surface. Every single damn night.”
Liora’s grip on my hands tightened.
“So, I ended it. Just like my gran had asked me to do. To save him.” My voice had gone hollow. “I told him I didn’t love him. I watched his heart break, and I let him believe it was his fault. Because I thought—” My throat closed. I forced myself to continue. “I thought if I didn’t love him, the curse couldn’t touch him.”
“And you’ve been living with that ever since,” Liora said softly. “All these years. Pretending you don’t care for him.”
“Aye,” I said, turning to look back out at the loch.
“I think we need to dig deeper, no? Like, surely we can’t just accept this?”
I jerked my eyes away from the loch to see fierce determination light Liora’s face.
“Surely there are some records? There’s got to be something.Anythingthat can help us break this for you.” Liora’s jaw set.
“I don’t know,” I said, leaning back and twisting the bracelet more rigorously on my wrist. “I need …I need to research more. I need information. That’s how my brain works, Liora. I can’t just accept that I can break a familial curse on vibes alone. Like, I’m all for thisShe-ra,let ’em hear us roarmentality of women kicking butt anddestroying all the things, but also, you know, I need like concrete actions to take. I don’tdovibes.”
At that, Liora’s lips quirked in a smile. “I mean, I’ll admit, I’ve coasted through a lot of my life on the fumes of vibes alone, but I get it. But you don’t have to do it alone. That’s sort of the whole point of having friends, Agnes. Especially friends who can literallyseethe threads of fate.”
I laughed, despite the unease that slipped through my gut. Why had I always just accepted that this was the way of things? I’d pushed aside my own chance at happiness out of fear of what could happen to Graham.Because I loved him too much to take the risk that he could die.And I’ve never doubted what my gran had told me as simply gospel.She was my person.
