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Wes
Sethsteppedoutofthe tree line, looking tanned and relaxed, like he’d been on a perpetual vacation for the last four years. I should’ve known he wouldn’t be able to resist flying home. He must’ve stopped by the shop looking for Audrey, and her grandma sent him up here. It didn’t matter this time though. Audrey and I were solid.
“But has she told you she loves you?” a soft hissing whispered in my ear.
No. She never said she loved me.
I shook my head. She hadn’t said the words yet, but we’d been together for less than a week. She hadn’t been in love with me like I’d been with her for years. It would take time, but she’d get there eventually. I grabbed on to that and held it as old doubts, hesitations, and second guesses snapped their jaws at me, threatening to drag me under.
“What if it’s because she still loves another?” the voice whispered.
I shook my head again, clearing the smoke that had wrapped around me and burrowed itself into my mind. It was a trick. Not real.
“See for yourself.” Black tendrils curled outward, beckoning me to look at Audrey, to the love that lit her eyes when she saw Seth for the first time. “You killed her light, remember? But it’s back now, and she’ll never look at you the way she looks at him.”
I lost my hold on the present, on reality, on my magic. Dragged down into the depths of my own mind, where my worst fears festered. Horse-flies, black as night, landed on my arms. Swarms of them crawled over my skin, weighing me down. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t shake them off. The buzzing in my head reached a crescendo, and I couldn’t do anything other than watch Seth approach with determination.
“Audrey.” Seth gripped her waist and lifted her into the air. She laughed as she threw her arms around him. “I missed you so much.”
“What are you doing here?” She rubbed her hands along his jaw. She never used to do that to him, or anyone else she’d dated. That was something she only did with me. A part of me died right then and there. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
“I came back for you.”
He kissed her, and she leaned her body against him, like he’d knocked her off her feet. But I was the only one she clung to like that. Even when they were together, she never melted into him like she did with me. This couldn’t be happening. It wasn’t real.
The flies disappeared, and I began inching my way out of whatever trance I’d been sucked into. I had to break free of this nightmare. Find Audrey. Fight this thing.
“Finally. I’ve only been waiting for four years.” She planted kisses all over his face.
I fell back under. Caught in a black net that wrapped around my throat and held me down. The smoke wasn’t showing me memories, but was it showing me the future? Would this be where it would end for me and Audrey?
“Wes said the two of you are together?” Seth asked.
“Only because you weren’t here.” She narrowed her eyes at me. So cold and angry. Like the day she told me that she’d rather I cross the street than so much as walk past her. “He was an okay substitute, but now I don’t have to pretend anymore.”
“I’m never letting you go again. I never should’ve let him talk me into leaving without you.” He held her hands between his. “Come with me this time.”
“It’s all I’ve ever wanted.” She curled her lip as she glanced at me. “I never asked to stay here in the first place, but I’m free to leave. There’s nothing on this island for me anymore.”
“Audrey, don’t listen to him.” I reached for her and she spun away from me, clinging harder to Seth, like she didn’t even want me to touch her. “He doesn’t really want you. Why didn’t he come back until now?”
“You kept us apart.” Seth spit at my feet. “This is all your fault. What the hell kind of brother are you, lusting after my girlfriend for the five years we dated?”
The smoke swirled all around, leaving only enough space for me to view Seth and Audrey giving each other adoring looks. “You can forget her,” a voice whispered.
“I can’t.” My voice came out as dry and cracked as the dead grass beneath my feet. “I tried to let her go for years. I don’t know how.”
“I can show you.” The smoke’s hiss tickled my ear as it circled me, pushing me toward the walled-off entrance to the cave, where the dull birthstones were embedded into the arch. “It’s your magic that connects you. Once you trap it in the stone again, the magic that connects you will die. Your memories of her will be trapped in here too. You’ll be free.”
Audrey had said we weren’t supposed to trap the magic within the stones…for some reason. I couldn’t remember why. Couldn’t remember anything but the near constant anguish I felt from loving a woman who’d never want me, never forgive me. Who wanted nothing to do with me because of my own actions.
“Bind the curse, let it take your memories of her to hell with it.” The smoke swirled in harder circles, like a snake within a glass bowl eating its own tail.
I turned back to Audrey, too taken with Seth to pay me any mind. She wanted to be with him, wanted to leave the island with him, hated me for telling him to go without her. Wasn’t that why she’d shut me out? It had to be.
I couldn’t go through this again. Not now that I knew what it could be like between us.
I lifted my hand and placed it against the emerald.
