“Who are you?”
“Eden,” she states, like that explains everything. “It’s almost my sixteenth birthday,” she says, as though this isn’t the strangest conversation.
“Happy birthday,” I offer, more confused than anything.
“Thank you.” She’s wearing jeans and a t-shirt, looking casual. She crosses her legs and hooks her fingers around her knee. “I have a proposition for you.”
Those words send a tingle of warning down my spine. For a moment, I forgot I was in the middle of a challenge, but her words are the reminder that I need. I don’t know who she is, but this is still a test.
“What is your proposition?”
“This trial is all about sacrifice.” She may be young, but there’s something almost ageless about the green eyes looking back at me.
“What kind of sacrifice?” I don’t know what it is they want me to do. I’ve been hopeful that Lucida has the right vision in mind for our coven, but there have been a lot of shitty things that have happened with the council in the past. And if they want me to do something immoral just for a place on the council. Screw that. I want to help people, but not by destroying something else.
Eden looks around the room, as if seeing it for the first time. She smiles at a wood carving of a squirrel before she explains. “Would you give up your place on the council to reverse my curse?”
“What do you mean?” I’m immediately on alert. Who is she? The firstborns of the most powerful families in Mystic Hollows are the ones who suffer from curses. She must be the oldest of one such family.
“I’ll be sixteen in less than a month. Soon my curse will take hold. Bargains have been made, and if you agree to give up your seat on this council, I’ll be free from my curse.”
I frown at the girl. “I don’t know if they told you, but there’s no way to break the curse if it’s been passed down to you.”
“Well, that’s not true.” Eden raises a delicate brow. “I know for a fact that two of your friends have had their curses broken.”
“There was a fated bond. True love. No witch in this coven can wave their hand and break your curse. I’m sorry.” I truly am. I know how awful having a curse is.
Tears swim in her eyes. “So you’re saying you won’t give up your seat on this council to cure my curse.”
I think about Ambrose’s mother passing along her curse, and then never being able to look at her son. I think about my own father, not only passing along his curse to me, but adding another on top of it. I never set out to join the coven council, but once I was picked, I had hopes that I could do something good for this community. But who am I to say that this person isn’t the next leader? That an act of kindness to her will spur her on to do incredible things for other people. Maybe it’s just a drop in the pond, but those ripples can make waves eventually.
“Yes, I’ll give up my seat if it means you don’t have to suffer.” I mean the words. I can help the coven in other ways outside the council. I don’t have to have a seat in the inner circle to do good.
The girl smiles at me. “You don’t even know what my curse is.”
“It doesn’t matter. Any of us with a curse have been forced to suffer unspeakable things. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
The girl’s smile drifts away. “What if instead I could reverse your curse?”
My curse will eventually kill me. The painful bouts of sickness will only get longer, and inevitably, there will be morebad days than good until I’m so sick my body will cease to work. The pain will literally kill me.
“And what is the price for that?” I ask. The fire is still burning brightly, but I shiver, feeling cold. A finger of dread traces up my spine.
Eden’s eyes flutter, and she licks her lips. “Your curse will transfer to me.”
“This is hypothetical. Why bother asking these questions.” I shake my head.
“No, I have a potion created by a powerful witch.” She pulls a vial out of her jacket pocket. “Here.” She holds it out to me.
I eye it like it’s covered in hexes, but gently take it from her fingers.
“Smell it,” she prompts.
I don’t know what kind of spell would transfer a curse. In hundreds of years, the only cure anyone found for the Briar Witch’s curse was to pass it along to their children. Although I suppose this is another potion that passes the curse along. It doesn’t eradicate it. It just makes it someone else’s burden. I push the potion back to her. It doesn’t matter if this is real or not.
“No. I would rather give up my place on this council than give my curse to a child.”
“What if it went to someone else?” She leans forward, a twinkle in her eye.
