Page 30 of Just a Little Wicked (Wicked Sisters #2)

“You’re really convinced of this whole reincarnation thing, aren’t you?

” Her voice dripped with doubt as she velcroed the strap on the gloves.

Her curly hair was bound in a ponytail, and the morning light ran a streak of gold across the side of her cheek.

They made an odd pair, two outsiders in a gym wearing jeans and boxing gloves, but other than the muffled sounds of panting lungs and the tempo of slapping feet coming through the closed door, there was no one there to gawk at them.

“Yeah, I’m convinced we’ve been reincarnated. I think it’s absolutely egotistical to assume we know the truth behind every mystery in this world. But I admit I have a secondary purpose for giving you a pair of boxing gloves.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m about to tell you something you don’t want to hear: we need to tell our siblings the truth about what’s happening. I texted Connor this morning and asked him to gather the family for a video call later.”

“Erikson!” She went to smack him in the chest with her glove, but he danced back a step. “ No . We agreed not to ruin their wedding.”

“The wedding can be rescheduled. Do you really think your family would ever forgive you if you joined the Shadow Council without giving them a chance to help stop it? Besides, this involves them too. You know that. You know the Shadow Council will come after them eventually.”

She swung again. He ducked out of her way a second time, and she glared. “I don’t want them involved yet. I still have two days to figure something out. If I can’t, then I’ll tell them.”

He darted forward and tapped her lightly on the shoulder with his glove.

A flush of red crossed her cheekbones as her temper flared.

“The two of us aren’t getting the job done, Win.

My brother is one of the best investigators in the world.

We need his help. We need your sisters’ brains.

We can’t continue to operate in a bubble.

Don’t you see? This is exactly what the Witches have and the Wickeds don’t: community.

You’re isolated and you’re scared, but we need the whole team if we have any chance of keeping you free. ”

She feinted left and he dodged—straight into her right fist. The punch landed squarely in his chest, hard enough to make him suck in a breath of air. “You don’t get to make decisions for me,” she snarled. “If I want to keep this from them, that’s my choice.”

“And what about their choices, Winter? Don’t they get a say?”

“No.”

He growled at her stubbornness and lightly smacked her other arm. “Stop being like this. You don’t have to take the whole world on your shoulders. Your family isn’t going to let you slip into the darkness without a fight, and you owe them that fight.”

She rallied with a flurry of one-two punches that kept him weaving.

A smile spread across his face as his blood heated.

Even though he was simmering with frustration, there was something else spreading through his veins, and it felt a lot like fun.

Muscle memory he didn’t know he possessed made his reflexes quick—as quick as hers.

He bopped her on the head, and she gasped with fury and attacked him harder.

He separated from her, both of them panting.

Sweat was beginning to dampen the back of his neck.

She let out a freezing battle cry and went feral on him.

He dodged and ducked and attacked with technique he had no memory of learning, the two of them moving in synchronicity as if they’d done this a hundred times before.

He was fairly certain they had. He’d heard enough stories over the years to fully believe in reincarnation, even though he’d never considered that he might be reincarnated himself.

When he’d arrived at Wicked Good Apples that spring, he’d spotted Winter on the property down by a bog, and the minute his eyes had landed on her, something had unfurled inside his chest, like a flower being watered for the first time.

He hadn’t recognized it for what it was then, or even in the months that followed, but now he realized his soul had simply recognized hers as the one he’d been looking for his entire life without even knowing it.

He truly believed they were meant to accomplish something together that they’d failed at time and again.

He didn’t know what it was, but the timing with the Shadow Council’s offer was too on-point to be a coincidence.

His instincts told him it was all connected, but he needed more pieces of the puzzle for a clearer picture.

Winter jabbed him in the belly, and squawked with surprise when he wrapped the crook of his arm around her neck and tugged her into his chest, pinning her in place.

“I’m bigger and stronger than you,” he said mockingly, knowing it would get under her skin.

He wanted to rile her up enough that she lost a little bit of that legendary control—enough that maybe a vision would slip free and give them new information.

He was gratified when a moment later he felt the pressure of something sickly and strong against his chest. She forcefully flung his arm off her and backed away. Her eyes were still hers, but invisible power pulsed around her, putting his ancient animal instincts on alert.

“ Stop ,” she warned. “I’m not in control. I need a minute.”

“That’s exactly the point.” He strode forward, and tossing his gloves aside, wrapped his palm around her bare neck.

Winter’s face instantly went slack as she plunged into a vision, swaying slightly into him as if she understood in her moment of vulnerability that he would protect her.

A few minutes later she blinked as she returned to present time, and instead of jerking away, she allowed her body to soften into his.

He was surprised, but he pulled her tight to his chest, alarmed when her shoulders trembled.

He pushed her back to scan her face, and was appalled to find tears on her lashes.

“Winter, are you hurt?”

She shook her head. “No. It’s nothing.” She wiped the tears away with her sleeve and tried to turn, but he held her in place.

“Why are you sad?”

She caught her lower lip with her teeth. “It was my vision.”

“What happened?”

She tugged the gloves off and pressed her fingertips to her forehead. “I think—I think you’re right about us being reincarnated.”

His heart thudded painfully in his chest.

“I saw us in the past again, but this time we were in the eighteen hundreds. I was a housemaid.” She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know why I didn’t get to be some rich lady in a mansion going to balls and stuff. You were a stable boy, and you were courting me.”

“Naturally.”

“You kissed me behind the house and whispered that you were going to marry me. And I was so happy. I loved you. Deeply.”

His breath caught in his lungs, making it hard to breathe. “Did we? Marry?”

She shook her head and pulled out of his arms, swiping the back of her hand across her eyes to smudge away the last of the moisture.

“It flashed forward a bit in the same vision—another fun new development to my talent. I was standing by a window, mourning you. It felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. You left me. Again.”

Erikson stared at her, perplexed. As a Viking, he’d left her. As a stableboy, he’d left her. He wondered if her abandonment issues ran deeper than her father running off after her mother died. What if he was responsible for them? It was an unnerving thought.

“Why did I leave?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s a stupid thing to be upset about. It wasn’t even me.”

“No, but we can feel the echoes of our past lives in our souls.”

She shuddered. “I don’t like that thought.”

What could her vision have meant? Why did past versions of him repeatedly leave her? He had a feeling that if he knew the answer to that question, he’d know what they were meant to accomplish together.

Winter collected their boxing gloves and carried them to the tub.

When she returned, her expression was settled once again, her hairline damp with sweat from their sparring.

She took a deep breath. “I don’t like being pushed into things, Erikson.

I don’t like that you made plans to talk to our families without consulting with me, and I don’t like that you brought me here to force another vision out of me. ”

“I hear what you’re saying, but Winter, when has anyone ever pushed you to do anything ?”

She arched a brow. “What do you mean?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised to learn you were bossing your teachers around in preschool, and that behind the scenes your family bends to your will, too.

No one puts up a fight.” He leaned closer, until his nose was almost touching hers.

“Well, I’m not them. I’m going to match you hit for hit.

I’m going to push you out of your comfort zone just like you do to me.

” She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could he added, “What’s that saying by Einstein?

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

You’ve done things your way your entire life, but white-knuckling your control and independently shouldering the burden of your curse isn’t working anymore.

Now it’s time to try something else. Oh, I have another one: Growth is where discomfort lies. ”

“Are you done?”

“No, I’ve got an entire pocketful of sayings. My therapist lobs them at me every time I visit.”

“You have a therapist?”

He nodded and traced a finger over the shell of her ear, his groin tightening as a soft little gasp escaped her lips. “Try being a public figure without a therapist and see how fast you crash and burn.”

She scowled. “Why do you have to have emotional awareness? It’s so . . . so annoying!”

“Why’s that?” he asked, following her out of the aerobics room. He tossed a wave to the gym employee behind the reception desk, and the man quickly stood and chased after them.