By a Charm and a Curse(72)

I have a terrible, terrible thought.

“Where were you earlier?” I ask.

“Doesn’t matter.” He steals another furtive glance toward the carnival and I do the same. At the edge of the tents are two figures. I freeze.

But Benjamin doesn’t see them.

“Emma, I know you’re nervous about breaking the curse, but—”

I whip around to face him again. It all clicks. His stumbling over nothing. The happy, sloppy smile. And the only, only reason he’d bring up the curse now, after all that happened.

No.

If I could still feel, his skin would be hot to the touch. If I could smell, the scent of flowers and alcohol would be all around me. If I asked him, he’d tell me his mouth feels as though it’s lined with flower petals.

“You didn’t.”

“I did.” His eyes are unflinching. “I love you, Emma.”

I want him and everything he’s offering. But can I watch him almost die?

I turn away, and that’s when I see the two dark shadows peel away from the alley and start walking toward the Ferris wheel.

“Benjamin,” I say, gripping onto his arm.

“It’s going to work, I promise. We’ll follow Katarina’s instructions and the curse will break. I’ve drunk the wine. You know my true name, but just in case you need all of it, my name is Benjamin James Singer.”

He moves across the small space that separates us and kisses me.

His mouth is soft and insistent, and one hand reaches up to cradle my cheek. He’s not just warm, he’s a fire, and I want to bask in his glow. My eyes flutter closed, and for a brief second, everything is okay because I am with him. When he pulls away, the heat of him lingers. The night is alive with colors that hadn’t been there seconds before. A thready pulse of life throbs in the center of my chest, my hands and arms trembling with it.

“Kiss me when you get down there, Em,” he says, pressing something hard and cold into my hands.

And then he throws himself from the car.

“No!” I lean over the edge, dropping whatever it was Ben gave me as I grip the side of the car tight. Ben seems to fall forever, his golden hair rippling in the rush of air. I can’t look. There’s a terrible crunch and a scream of pain, followed by the sound of splintering wood.

Far, far below me Benjamin lies like a broken doll in the dust, his legs splayed out at an angle that’s all kinds of wrong. Blood trickles from the side of his mouth, the mouth that had been kissing mine moments before.

And in the dirt beside him are the broken remnants of a remote control.





Chapter Thirty-Nine Benjamin


I am on fire.

My glasses are skewed across my face, and between that and the tears, everything is blurry. A swirl of golden lights tilts above me, and I fight the bile rising in my throat. Something hot coats my tongue, my throat. And a stabbing, searing pain marks every breath.

I’ll be fine as soon as Emma gets here.

I’ll be fine…





Chapter Forty


Emma


I throw my leg over the edge of the car, hunting for purchase with my foot. My fingers grip into the metal edge of the door until I feel it digging into my skin. The breeze plays along my bare legs as I climb out, whipping my skirt around, threatening to tangle it between my legs. The night air is cool, and when the realization hits me, I stumble over nothing and have to struggle to keep from falling.

I can feel again.

The metal beneath my fingers cuts into my softening flesh, the line of bulbs that outline the skeleton of the ride give off a halo of warmth. Pine and sugar ride the air and fill my lungs. My heart pounds in my chest, each thumping beat a reminder of what Ben is losing. Because Ben is wrong; he’s either dying down there or he’s cursed.

And if either of those things is true, I’ll never be able to forgive myself.

I stretch from strut to strut, picking a path down the Ferris wheel’s frame. One step down. Then another and another. That’s when I hear Fabrizio yelling below me.

“That dumb asshole,” Fabrizio says. Benjamin cries out in pain, and my head fills with images of Fabrizio kicking Ben, torturing him while he’s dying on the ground.

The Ferris wheel lurches, and I wrap my arms around the struts to stay on. It moves slowly, putting me closer to the ground, closer to the two waiting brothers. Fabrizio watches the passing struts as though timing them, and then leaps aboard. He’s much quicker than I am, climbing around toward me as I try to climb down. That’s when I feel it.

At the center of my chest, where my heart has been pounding again for the last minute, something cold and heavy settles and spreads like poison. And then I know—I know—Ben is dying because I haven’t transferred the curse.

Antonio waits at the base of the Ferris wheel, ready to grab me if Fabrizio doesn’t reach me first. I don’t know what they plan to do, but I can’t let them catch me, because if they do, I might not get to Benjamin in time. So I hook my arm around the strut and wait for the Ferris wheel to curve closer to the ground. Then I jump.

It’s too much like that first night, falling into nothing. But it’s over much more abruptly. I crash into Antonio and we hit the ground hard, the tumbler bearing the brunt of my fall. We’re a tangle of limbs and knees and elbows. When I stumble away, my right leg crumples beneath me, but I can limp over to Benjamin faster than the Morettis, who are still sprawled in the dirt.