Page 45 of The Sister's Curse

She lifted a shoulder. “Some folks say Bayern County is at the center of a bunch of spirit roads, and many spirits come here and stay. Or maybe they can’t leave. Maybe it’s because of all that underground water. Mom said this place is like a big piece of fly tape, where we all get stuck and wriggle around until we die.”

A fly zoomed past me in the room—or something I thought was a fly.

On my phone I pulled up pictures of the symbols on the beach and the skull in the mailbox. “Did you do these?”

She shook her head. “That wasn’t me.”

I didn’t think I believed her. “Do you know what they are?”

She leaned forward and squinted at the photos. “Looks like an ouroboros, a snake eating its own tail. It’s about the cycle of decay and rebirth. What goes around comes around.”

“Do you know why someone would put that here?”

She shrugged. “I don’t have any insight into another witch’s casting.”

“Another witch?” I echoed. There were witches…plural…in Bayern County? “Who might have done this?”

“Like I said, this is a place where powers converge. Lots of people tap into that. Could have been anyone. But if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you.” A smile played on her lips.

My attention was snagged by the familiar sound of claws clicking on hardwood. I turned to the hallway to see a red fox trotting into the room. It looked at me and yawned with a squeak before going to sit beside Vivian. The fox glanced into the opossum cage, then slipped under Viv’s hand.

“This is Sinoe,” Viv said.

“She’s gorgeous.” I extended my hand to the fox. She sniffed my hand and stared at me with brown eyes.

“She’s been with me since she was a pup.”

“Another bottle baby?”

“Sort of. She never really domesticated herself. She comes and goes as she pleases.”

I turned my attention back to the investigation. “I’m working Dana’s case. I want to know what you know, if there’s anything you can tell me that might jog something loose.”

Viv leaned back and draped her arm across the spine of the couch. “Of course.”

“Did you have any contact with these…Kings of Warsaw Creek before or after Dana’s disappearance that made you think they were responsible?”

Viv sipped her tea. “The police said those fuckers weren’t allowed to talk to me and I wasn’t allowed to talk to them. But we went to the same school, so of course that didn’t last long. When I walked by them in the hallways, they’d bang their lockers to make me jump, and flick their lighters at me.”

“Ugh.” It slipped out before I could stop it.

“Yeah. I wanted to fuck them up, destroy those sons of bitches who were going to get away with everything because they’re dudes and they’re rich.” Viv drummed her fingers on the back of the couch. “Mom told me to let her handle it, that justice would prevail. And if it didn’t, her curse would.

“But then my mom went insane, got locked away, and I was alone to make my own curses.”

“How did you curse them?” I ventured.

“Many ways. So many ways.” Her dark eyes glittered. “I poured my blood into the ground and the creeks, asking for them to get their just deserts. I stuffed jars with sulfur and nails and piss andburied them all over the county. I carved their names into candles and burned them down at every black moon ever since. It’s taken such a long time…Those motherfuckers must be seriously magically fortified.”

“Viv, how…open are you about doing all this hexing?” There was nothing illegal about what she admitted to doing, but…fuck. The honesty was a bit terrifying, no matter how deluded she was. Maybe it was hereditary. Maybe she’d just lost her mind. Maybe she could keep it together, refocus her trauma to help wild animals. But I wasn’t sure.

She laughed. “I make no secrets about how much I hate those assholes. I want them to suffer. But I’m not about to get arrested.”

“I’m confused about why you’re telling me this.”

“Because,” she answered matter-of-factly, “you’re a sister in these things. In things that creep around the dark.”

I shook my head sharply, swallowed, and shifted tactics. I asked her where she was yesterday and the night before that.