Anathema (Causal Enchantment #1)(36)

Cursed? My eyes shifted to Sofie, who sat in her chair, looking ready to explode. “What is he talking about, Sofie?” I asked warily.

Sofie’s jaw clenched. “I didn’t mean to—”

Mortimer cut her off. “Sofie is the reason for our problem. She played with magic for her own selfish gains and we are all now victims of the results.”

I glanced back at Sofie to see her minty green eyes alight with fire, but she said nothing.

“You’ve probably been wondering why things have been … tense … between us these past few days,” Viggo said. “It’s because Mortimer and I are so angry with her for what she’s done to you.”

“What did she do, exactly?” I asked slowly, again looking at Sofie. Her eyes were focused intently on a spot on the Persian rug.

“Sofie, please explain,” Viggo urged, adding, “Only what’s necessary. No need to confuse the girl.”

Sofie swallowed. When she began speaking, her voice was emotionless, as if she spoke by rote. “You are the primary channel for an incantation that will solve our venom issue. That necklace and the two identical statues—the one in the atrium and the one in your … dream,” Sofie hesitated on that last word, “they’re all conduits.”

“Conduits for what?” I asked, glancing down at the pendant. Her gift.

“These dreams you’re having … they aren’t dreams, Evangeline. It decided the best way to fix our problem was to search the universes for another world like Earth, one where vampires exist and their venom is intact.”

“Who decided?”

“The spell.”

I frowned.

“It’s all hocus–pocus,” Viggo murmured. “Don’t worry. We don’t understand it either.”

Sofie ignored him. “You’re being transported to another world—one that is identical to ours.”

“And there are vampires there as well?”

She nodded. “It seems you’ve found some already.”

My stomach dropped. “They’re … vampires?” I whispered, my face twisting in shock. “All of them?” My Caden is a vampire? He was so sweet, so kind, so beautiful. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to. I hesitated before asking, “How is my going over there supposed to fix this problem for you?”

“Sofie told us that you would be transformed into a vampire and come back with the ability to convert humans,” Mortimer answered flatly.

“That’s not what I said!” Sofie yelled.

I barely heard her. Mortimer’s words were like an electric shock coursing through my body. “I’m supposed to be a vampire?” I whispered, my eyes wide.

“I wanted to tell you, Evangeline! She—” Viggo glared at Sofie “—swore me to secrecy. Said she’d hurt you if we told you!”

I bolted off the couch and pushed past Max, having heard all I could handle. The pendant. I looked down at the precious gift Sofie had given me only days earlier. I needed it off, away from me—forgotten. As if it never existed. My hand flew to the chain and I yanked it hard enough to snap the clasp, just as Sofie shrieked, “No!”

Before I could take another step, I crumpled to the floor, excruciating pain surging through my body, running along every nerve to my fingertips, seeping down into the core of my bones. I gasped, unable to breathe, or scream, or see, the intensity crippling. I was sure I would die. I wanted to die.

And then the pain vanished as instantly as it had begun. My eyelids fluttered open and I saw Sofie leaning over me, fumbling with something around my neck. “There, it’s fixed,” she murmured to no one in particular. Her pale green eyes lifted to mine then, full of anguish. “I’m so sorry, Evangeline,” she whispered, “but please don’t take this necklace off again, or you will die.”

11. Cursed

Sofie’s warning rang in my ears as she scooped my limp body into her arms as if I were a frail child. She carried me back to the couch I had stormed away from and set me down gently. I wanted to fight back, to resist her help, but I couldn’t even lift my hand.

“What just happened?” I asked, my voice hollow.

“Sofie’s curse, darling. I’m so sorry. Witches can be such wicked creatures,” I heard Viggo murmur.

I rolled my head to regard Sofie. The distress in her eyes appeared genuine. But I knew better than to believe it now.

I turned back to stare vacantly at the coffered ceiling. Seconds strung into minutes as energy slowly returned to my limbs. My jagged breathing competed with the crackling of the fire as the only sound in the room.

Physically, the hurt had vanished. There were no residual aches or pains, no scars to serve as evidence. It was as if had never happened. Emotionally, though, the injury was as real as if Sofie had held a hot branding iron to my chest. The fantasy I had unwittingly created in my head, where I was finally welcomed and accepted—even loved—had instantly crumbled to dust. Of course there was an ulterior motive. Of course Sofie wasn’t doing all of this because she enjoyed my company.

I am such an idiot.

Still too weak to fight gravity, my hand slid up over my stomach to touch the pendant, to feel the smooth stone rolling under my fingertips. It was no longer mere jewelry. I could sense the chain coiled around my neck as surely as if it were a tight noose. Closing my eyes, I pictured Sofie ready to kick the stool out from under me.