Page 112 of A Game Cursed and Deadly

I blow out a quiet laugh. “Yes, I trust Esme.”

“And I do, too.” She pauses. “Do you… do you love Esme?”

I lick my lips. My feelings are mine. Sharing them with Esme, even with Mei, is one thing, but Marta is a stranger to me. “And if I did?”

“Well, everything my family’s taught me would lead me to believe you’re incapable of loving,” she says, and I can’t help a bitter laugh. Ironically, everything my family has taught me would have led me to believe the same.

And yet, here we are.

“But everything I see with my own eyes leads me to believe the opposite.” She turns her face to me, though I keep mine forward. “I’m trying to rewire what I know, but I need some help getting there.”

I sigh. “Esmeralda owns every unoccupied space of my body and soul. Even the ones that I thought were my own are filled with her now. She’s in every breath I breathe, every thought I think. She told me once she’d want someone who’d put her happiness first, so I’m trying to be that someone.”

Marta runs a hand through her hair. “So you love her.”

“So I love her.”

“And she loves you?” Marta asks.

I have no hesitation in answering, “yes.” Esmeralda thinks she’s about to die for me and doing so willingly.

She plucks invisible lint from her silk camisole. “Am I losing her to you? Is that why it felt like she was saying goodbye, earlier?” When I sneak a glance at her this time, there’s wetness on her cheeks. “You’re taking her, aren’t you?”

“I’m not.”

Marta’s head whips up, and our gazes meet.

I sigh. This is the most important person in Esme’s life, right now, and Esme values her. Having her on my side, rather than against me, would be worth it. “Your cousin believes she’s going to die when the curse runs out in a few days.”

Her eyes go wide. “She what? And you’re saying it just like that, like it’s no concern?”

I flex my fingers into fists. “I am, because it’s not. I won’t let her die. There’s another way to break the curse, but Esme isn’t powerful enough to do the spell.”

She perks up. “Am I?”

“I don’t know, do you have two decades of shepherding souls and a few years of feeding off an Acuran under your belt?”

“Feeding off…” she shakes her head. “You know what, no. Subject for another time. I do not.”

“I guess there’s no harm in you trying the spell, but I doubt it’ll work.”

“Then what’s the plan B?”

“All Soul’s Day thins the Veil. We’re going to request an offering, a book of sigils from the Beyond, that will allow me to channel my power to Esme.”

“Does Esme know about this plan?”

I shake my head.

A door down the hall opens, and we both quiet. Footsteps cross the hall to the staircase, then disappear downstairs.

“If she knew, she’d find a way to stop it,” I say.

“But this would save her life, wouldn’t it?” Marta counters. It seems counterintuitive, and I agree with her. If it saves Esme, it’s worth it. But I know my little witch enough to realize she wouldn’t see it that way.

“It would. But it’s the same sigil Isabel demanded of me, the one she cursed me for not giving her,” I explain.

Marta sucks in a breath. “The one that would make you her subject?”