Page 26 of Cursed to Love (Cursed to Love #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

H is eyes already adjusted to the darkness, Blake was able to see Paige as she got up off the floor and took a tentative step toward him. He could hear Jake outside, pounding on the door, calling Paige’s name.

“Paige! Get out of here!” Blake screamed.

“Blake? Where are you? It’s so dark, I can’t see you.”

“Paige, you have to leave!” Blake yelled at her, his panic rising as he feared what Carolyn could do to Paige. He had to get her to leave. “Paige, bang on the door! Tell Jake to break it down.”

She hesitated, half-turned back to the door. “What?”

“Leave!” he yelled again.

“Too late,” Carolyn said in a sing-song voice.

Paige’s eyes widened as she looked up to where Carolyn hovered above her.

“Carolyn,” he pleaded. “Please don’t hurt her.”

Ignoring him, Carolyn lifted her hands, palms toward Paige, and sent a gale-force wind her way. Completely helpless, Blake watched in horror as the wind knocked Paige backward. Her upper back hit the floor and the momentum slid her forward until she came to a stop beside him.

Blake couldn’t turn his head, but he could see Paige from the corner of his eye. She wasn’t moving.

“Paige? Are you okay?... Baby, answer me.” Blake blinked several times to ease the strain of shifting his eyes so far to one side. “Paige.” He continued to call her name, and it felt like ages before she answered.

“B-Blake? Wh-What’s going on? How’d she do that?” Paige spewed the questions, her voice unsteady.

“I got stuck in a?—”

“I’ll explain,” Carolyn said, cutting him off, moving to hover over Paige.

“W-who are you?” Paige asked.

“I’m Carolyn. This is my house. Well… it was.”

Blake had heard the fear in Paige’s voice, and he wanted to tell her that everything would be okay. He didn’t know if he believed it himself, but he also feared saying something that would anger Carolyn.

“What do you want?” Paige asked.

Paige’s indrawn breath was audible when Carolyn moved and hung only inches above her

“I want people to understand what Keith did to me,” Carolyn spit out before moving back into the middle of the room.

“I don’t know who Keith is,” Paige said. “But I’m sorry he hurt you. Will you tell me what happened?”

Carolyn hovered high enough in the air that Blake had a perfect view of her features. Her eyes widened at Paige’s question before a dreamy look came over her. “It was 1975, and I had the most beautiful wedding dress,” Carolyn said as she launched into her story.

If Blake hadn’t already loved Paige, he would have in that moment. She was one of the most caring people he’d ever met. He had known that eight years ago, and yet he’d allowed his pain to overshadow that truth. Only now could he look back and realize that Paige hadn’t meant to crush him back then. She was loving and caring, but she’d also been young and looking for attention. Craig had taken advantage of that, and Blake hadn’t stepped up like he should have.

Now, Paige was stuck to a floor by an angry ghost, and she was listening to the woman’s selfish tales of woe like she mattered. At one time Carolyn should have mattered to someone, but Blake didn’t have any empathy for her. While she’d been alive, she had chosen to wallow in her self-pity instead of getting on with her life.

Blake only listened with half an ear, not wanting to hear the same complaints he’d heard Carolyn spew dozens of times already. He focused on Paige’s voice, her curiosity and compassion as she asked Carolyn questions.

“I’m so sorry he did that to you,” Paige said with sincerity when Carolyn finished her story.

“You understand why I was so embarrassed?”

“Of course. He should have told you how he felt long before that.”

Carolyn moved closer, her attention focused on Paige.

“No, you don’t get it.” Carolyn shook her head. “He shouldn’t have told me at all. He should have married me! I was supposed to be Mrs. Keith Merrill. He promised to look after me in the manner I deserved. Not embarrass me in front of everyone I knew.”

It wouldn’t matter how kind and sympathetic Paige was. Carolyn hadn’t changed her mind in thirty years, so he didn’t expect her to change it now. If they had any hope of getting out of their situation, it was going to have to come from an outside source. He couldn’t hear Jake yelling anymore, but he expected his best friend was working on a way to save them.

He didn’t want to think about the consequences if Jake didn’t come through for them, but he couldn’t ignore the possibility either. Because of that, he couldn’t wait to tell Paige how he felt.

Telling her he loved her while they were both stuck to a floor in a darkened room with a ghost hovering over them wouldn’t have been his first choice. Or even in his top ten, but he had to believe what he felt meant more than the setting.

Looking out of the corner of his eye, all he could see was her cheek as he spoke to her. “Paige?”

“I’m here,” she said quietly.

“I love you, Paige. I think I’ve loved you since the very first time I laid eyes on you. Dancing on that table, even out of rhythm to the music, you enthralled me. I’m so sorry I didn’t get my head out of my ass earlier to tell you.”

Paige sniffed. “I love you too. I can’t regret my actions because they gave me Emmie, but I don’t think I ever stopped loving you, Blake. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

He wished he could hold her. “You and Emmie are my life.”

Carolyn scoffed. “Paige, he’s lying to you. Can’t you see that? Men can’t be trusted. They’ll say they love you, and when they get to the altar, they walk away.”

“I know that’s what Keith did to you, but not all men are like that. I love that Blake told me he loved me, but I didn’t need to hear the words for me to know,” Paige said calmly.

Carolyn pursed her lips, eyeing Paige skeptically.

“He shows me with the little things he does every day. Like when he makes my favorite breakfast. Or when he lets me win at backgammon, so I don’t feel like a total dummy. When he takes my vehicle and fills it with gas, so I don’t have to stop on my way to work. Every time he walks by me and brushes his hand along my back because he doesn’t want to miss an opportunity to touch me, he’s showing me his love. He plays dress-up and tea party with my three-year-old because he loves us. When we make love, I feel?—”

“Stop!” Carolyn screeched. “It’s not fair. I hate that you get all that when I didn’t.” She lowered herself over Paige. “I want you to feel what I feel.”

Paige gasped before going completely silent.

“Paige? Paige? Paige, talk to me!”

When she didn’t answer, he glared at Carolyn. “What did you do to her?”

Carolyn floated over him, a smug look on her face. “I’ve tied her life force to mine. It’s a handy little trick I learned from the last owner of my house. She was a witch who loved to leave her grimoire lying around. You know all about witches and curses, don’t you, Blake?”

It dawned on him why his last episode came so close after the previous one. “You triggered my curse today, didn’t you?”

She grinned. “Yes. That was clever of me, wasn’t it? I sensed something different about you when you arrived. I just didn’t know that you’d be able to see my life or me.”

Paige’s breathing became deeper and then sped up. After a few moments, it paused before starting again.

The sound of her breathing pattern turned his blood to ice. Blake thought he’d felt ultimate fear earlier when Carolyn had trapped him, but it paled in comparison to the terror coursing through him now.

“You’re killing her,” he yelled through his panic. “Stop. Let her go. Please, Carolyn, don’t kill her.”

“No. Life isn’t fair!” she screeched again. “It’s not fair that you do all those things for her and no one did anything for me. I told you I tied her life force to mine. Since I’m dead, she’ll be dead soon too.”

“Take me,” he said quietly.

“What?”

“Take me instead. Let Paige live and you can have my life force. I’m sure you can figure out how to keep me here with you so I’ll be tied to you for eternity.”

Carolyn eyed him with suspicion. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I love Paige so much that I want her to live and be happy, even if I can’t be with her. She’s also a great mom to a beautiful little girl, and I want Paige to be able to continue showering her daughter with love.”

Paige’s breathing paused again, and Blake held his own breath, waiting for Paige’s to start back up. When it did, he exhaled, but with his growing terror, it felt like his lungs couldn’t get enough air.

“I can’t believe you’d willingly sacrifice your life for hers.”

“Of course I would; I love her. Carolyn, don’t you see that Keith lied to you?” Blake asked.

He did his best to make sure his tone didn’t hold resentment as he looked at the bitter woman hovering over him. He had to get through to her.

“Keith couldn’t have loved you. If he truly did, he wouldn’t have walked away. He would have wanted to make you happy every single day. I’m truly sorry he wasn’t what you deserved.”

Paige’s breathing paused again, for longer this time. She was running out of time.

He looked at Carolyn and tried to feel something, anything, for the ghost who was killing the woman he loved. If he could empathize with her, then maybe he could get through to her.

“Carolyn, I wished you had experienced the kind of love that Paige and I have. Maybe…” He purposely let his voice trail off.

“Maybe what?”

“Maybe if you let go and move onto the afterlife you’ll still be able to experience love there.”

“I don’t know…”

“Then, please, please take me, Carolyn. Let Paige go so she can keep loving her daughter.”

“You love her that much?”

“Yes, I do.”

Carolyn looked down at Paige. “I just wanted—” She choked on the last word as tears welled in her eyes. “I’m sorry… so sorry,” she whispered, then she disappeared.

“Carolyn?” Blake yelled as he struggled to release himself.

The invisible bindings on him snapped. He was free.

“Paige?” He rolled toward Paige, pulling her into his arms. Her face was pale as she gasped a breath—a normal breath—and opened her eyes.

Her hazel eyes were the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen. Tears leaked from his own as he leaned down and kissed her, too overwhelmed to speak.

The sound of wood cracking split the air. He held Paige tighter to his chest as he whipped his gaze toward the front of the house.

Jake kicked aside a piece of broken door, an ax in his hand. Dane, Ford, and Cade tumbled in next. His brothers all held industrial flashlights.

“Whoa, lower those things,” he said, bending further over Paige to shield them both from the bright light.

His brothers aimed the lights at the ground and Jake tossed the ax into a corner. “Are you guys okay?” he asked, coming over to them.

Blake looked at Paige. “Yeah. A little worse for wear, but we’ll be okay.”

“I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you too.” He gave her a quick kiss and looked up at Jake and his brothers. “I’m going to need a hand up.”

Cade crouched down beside him. “What the hell?—”

A starburst of light exploded around them.

Instinctively, Blake tucked Paige in closer, shielding her with his arms.

“I won’t harm you, my child,” an angelic voice said as the bright lights softened to a gentle glow that blanketed the room.

A woman with long, silky black hair, and petite features, floated several inches above the ground. Light emanated from her as her long robes fluttered about her body as if caught in a gentle wind.

“Are you a ghost?” Paige asked.

“Like Carolyn? No, but I am a spirit.”

Blake had been so focused on saving Paige he hadn’t thought about the curse until now. “You’re the one who cursed my ancestor, aren’t you?” he asked the spirit.

“Yes. He was a horrible man who had no love nor empathy for those around him. He needed to be taught a lesson.”

“But you didn’t teach him a lesson,” Jake said, his tone harsh.

The spirit shook her head. “No, I’m afraid I didn’t. He died just as arrogant, and lacking in empathy as when I cursed him.”

Blake wanted to point out that the spirit had to have been full of arrogance herself to think she had the right to make generations suffer because of one man. Her one action five hundred years ago had hurt and maybe killed countless people. He and Paige were only two of her victims. He would have loved to point all that out, but he’d had enough of angering spirits tonight. “Are you the witch that used to live in this house?”

“No. I’m a spirit, not a witch. You’re referring to the witch whose grimoire Carolyn read?”

“You know about that and yet you did nothing?” Blake spit out, his patience completely gone now.

“I couldn’t interfere,” the spirit told him in a tone that said Blake should have known that. Yet, this spirit had been interfering in his family’s lives for generations. Deciding, the witch wasn’t important, he asked, “What happens now?”

The spirit smiled. “Thank you for embracing love. The curse is broken.”

“That’s it?” Dane asked.

“For them,” the spirit said, gesturing to Blake and Paige. “The curse was cast centuries ago, and I cannot undo the past. The curse will continue for each person in Eamon’s line unless they find love and have it reciprocated by their thirtieth birthday.”

She faded away, leaving her legacy unchanged.