Divide (25 page)

If. So many ifs.

Icy fingers wrapped around my wrist, and a barrage of images of her with Mick bombarded my mind—
memories?
I gasped for air, my lungs burning along with the rest of me.

This was the final push the beast needed.

“Holland! Stop! It’s what she wants! Stop! Please!”

Mick’s words didn’t make sense. He didn’t make sense. Who was he? Who was I? I was no one. I was fire. Pain. Heat.

I was scorched black skin, dripping from brittle bones. I was a hollow face, landing in the cold dirt. I was everything and nothing all at once.

“Mother!” Donovan. “Holland!”

I was Holland Shayne Briggs.

And then I wasn’t.

I was fire. I was pain. And then I was ice.

As frigid cold slowly replaced the heat, I stiffened. Freezing.

So cold.

Then I was solid. Cement.

Unfeeling, unmoving.

Gone.

Mick

“Holland, no!”

My shout echoed off the rocky walls, the terror in my voice shocking even me. She couldn’t be gone. She couldn’t be a statue already! It wasn’t supposed to happen like this! None of this was supposed to happen so quickly!

Dislocating something in my hand, I pulled free from one of the shackles, pain radiating like acid through my arm, matching the burning pain in my lips and streaking across my abdomen. Ro continued to pound on the other restraint as I reached out to Holland.

“Holland! Please!”

Tears streamed down my face, the first time I’d really cried since my father died.

I felt a pop and heard a loud snapping sound as Ro finally got the other shackle undone. I fell to the ground, the sudden release knocking me off balance. On one hand, I crawled toward her, my injured arm cradled to my chest. With my good arm, I scooped her up off the ground and tried to turn her over.

“Rosemarie!” I shouted. “Help me!”

We should have had more time!

She rushed to my side, then turned Holland over in my arm, and I looked down into her hardening face. Her lower body was already fully changed; she was almost a statue. My tears fell on the cold, gray face of the girl I loved, and I screamed. “Why?”

That wild laughter we’d heard earlier carried from somewhere in the cave, but I couldn’t move, couldn’t leave Holland’s side. As my tears fell on her face, I watched the statue of Holland Briggs slowly solidify completely. Cracks ran along every inch of her pale gray form.

“Mick, don’t give up. You can’t give up,” Ro whispered.

I looked at my crazy little sister squatting beside me and shook my head.
Don’t give up?
Was she blind? I was holding a goddamned statue in my hands! Could she not see?

“Kiss her, Mick. And tell her again.”

“Tell her again?” Ro wasn’t making any sense. Tell her what?

“Yes.
Tell her again.
” Ro placed her hand lightly on my shoulder. “Tell her what you told her at the house when she was sleeping.
Say it
, Mick. Say it again.”

I gazed down at the face of the statue and swallowed hard, pushing my broken emotions aside.

“I love you, Holland Briggs. Please don’t leave me. I love you. I know I’m not supposed to. I know it’s too soon. But I love you so much. Please don’t leave me, Holland.”

I leaned down and kissed her rigid, cement lips. I imagined the way her mouth used to move with mine, how we fit together so perfectly, and how she kissed me—trusting me even before she acknowledged that she did. I remembered how holding her felt like home, like everything was exactly as it should be, and I knew it was the universe, not the curse, that had brought us together each time.

More tears fell onto her still form as I let go of everything that never would be again.

A loud noise sounded from the mouth of the cave, startling me, and I watched Ro—eyes wide and mouth agape—as she jumped up to run toward the sound.

“Cam!” she shouted, her voice shrill with barely restrained panic.

I watched in the direction she headed, long after she’d disappeared from my sight. I wasn’t ready to let go of Holland.

“Cameron needs you, too, Holland. You can’t leave us,” I whispered.

I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the sometimes timid, always defiant girl I had only just begun to love.

I wasn’t ready to concede to failing the one thing I was destined to do.

A few minutes—or maybe hours—later, Cam and Ro appeared in my line of sight. I watched them through tired eyes, unable to move or speak. I didn’t know how long I’d sat there, or how long I would remain. I just wasn’t ready yet.

Something seemed strange about them, off even—they seemed stiff, I guessed—but I couldn’t figure out what it was.
Maybe they’re cold.
I tilted my head, the grief-induced fog slowly clearing from my mind.

“You guys okay? You look—”

My body tensed. They were both rigid, inflexible. Like toy soldiers. I watched them march from the mouth of the cave to the opposite wall. They trooped right through the flames of the small fire, as if it didn’t burn brightly beneath their feet.

Cam’s forehead was crusted with drying blood that had dripped into his eyes before beginning to coagulate, and I wondered if that was a result of the loud sound we’d heard, the one that caused Ro to flee the cave earlier. Had he fought with Donovan? Had he won? I searched the cave, then the entrance, but didn’t locate the silver-tongued bastard son.

I brought my attention back to Cam and Ro. “Cameron?”

He gripped a large blade in his hand. The silver point dripped crimson liquid, matching the stains on his fingers and the smears on the sleeve of his jacket. As he took his rigid steps, his arms pumped to the beat of his march, and the blade slashed his side with each downward swoop.

Prompted to move, my adrenaline returning rapidly, I pulled Holland’s statue to the darkest nook of the cave, then turned around at the sound of the witch’s now-familiar cackle.

“One, two, three, four…hup, two, three, four…”

She laughed again as she came into view, stopping just shy of the fire. The flames reflected off her alabaster skin, painting shadows on the surrounding walls.

“Hup, two, three, four…company
halt
!” The witch giggled—an innocent, childish sound that didn’t match the menacing glint of her eyes.

Cam and Ro stopped abruptly, just inches from the cave wall. At the same time, they both lowered their arms, Cam’s movement bringing the knife into the meat of his thigh. He didn’t even cringe as he stabbed himself in the leg. And he didn’t remove the blade.

“About-face!”

I watched in shock as Cam and Ro turned around to face the witch. I scanned Ro’s face, searching her eyes for any signs of life. She gazed straight ahead, her eyes unmoving, unblinking…lifeless. Cameron’s eyes held that same vacant stare.

“What have you done to them?” I demanded.

“Oh, they’re such good little soldiers, don’t you think?” She winked at me, then returned her attention to Cam. “They were caught misbehaving.”

“Where’s Donovan?”

“He’ll be along. Poor dear has a broken wing.” She looked back at me, wiggling her fingers. “Nothing I can’t fix though. Not to worry.” She ran her hand over the side of her head, bringing her palm back covered in blood. She frowned, then focused again on Cam and Ro. “Remove the blade from your leg.”

Cam did as he was told, the action stiff, forced.

“Good boy. Now stab your left leg instead.”

“No!” I shouted, but my cry was useless. Cam did as he was told, bringing the knife blade down into his good leg. I cringed. He left it there and continued to stare blankly ahead.

“I’ll kill you,” I stated through gritted teeth. “Release them.”

“You’ll do no such thing, and I’ll release them when I’m good and ready. They assaulted my son.” The witch looked past me, and her eyebrows shot up as a wide smile spread across her bat-shit crazy face. “Ah. Pity—” she shook her head, “—look at sweet Holland now.”

I closed my eyes, trying to think of what to do. I had to stop this. I had to keep this woman from forcing my family to go through this again, even if it was too late for me. I had to protect Holland from reincarnating again and reliving this cursed fate. I glanced behind me, briefly resting my gaze on the statue of the girl I’d so quickly loved and so quickly lost. I had to break the curse for her.

“Mother.”

I turned at the sound of Donovan’s voice, then raised my eyebrows as he limped into the cave. Broken wing, my ass. His knee was turned at an impossible angle, bone protruding from his pants. I smiled sardonically.

He flipped me off.

Fuck you, too, mate.

I turned back to the witch, but she wasn’t watching me. In fact, she didn’t even acknowledge her son as he dragged his mutilated leg behind him, then leaned against the cave’s wall.

Smiling wickedly, the witch watched Cam and Ro. She raised a hand in the air, then waved her fingers back toward her. Cam took a few small steps forward. The witch turned her hand, palm out. Cam stopped. I flicked my gaze between the witch and Cam, watching in horror as each of her movements forced Cam to move unnaturally.

“Watch this,” she whispered. She flicked her wrist in a quick half circle. Cam mimicked the gesture, turning to his right, then turned again to face Ro. My heart raced as I realized how the witch had positioned Cam. With another flick of her wrist, Cam removed the knife from his leg, then held it to his side.

“Cameron! Stop!”

I moved as quickly as I could. My back was now to the witch, so I couldn’t see the final movement she made, but I knew the second she’d done it. Cam brought his knife hand out to the side, hovering just inches between his body and Ro’s.

“No!” I lunged for my sister. In the blink of an eye, Cameron stabbed the blood-covered knife into Ro’s side. I reached them just a second too late, falling to my knees between them. Kneeling on the cavern floor, my gaze locked on the hilt of the blade sticking out of my baby sister’s side.

“Bloody hell, Mother, is this necessary?”

Agony ripped through me. My dislocated wrist throbbed, and my good hand shook as I reached for the knife in my sister’s side. I knew enough about the human body to know that the wound wasn’t in a fatal location, so without another thought, I reached for the weapon—

“I wouldn’t do that, mate,” Donovan said through clenched teeth. “The blade is the only thing staunching the bleeding.”

His words registered just a second too late. Ro didn’t even flinch as I removed the dagger from her side, just kept staring straight ahead, that dead gaze almost as disturbing as the knife in my hands that dripped my sister’s blood.

I turned around, clenching the knife tightly behind my back.

“Ooh, this should be fun,” the witch squealed, her lips pulled back harshly over yellowed teeth.

I tilted my head—had she aged since I’d first seen her?

“What harm do you think shall come to me with my own knife, hmm?”

I stepped toward her silently.

“What shall I do to you?” She narrowed her eyes, calculating. “Donovan? Come to Mommy. I have a chore for you.”

“I can’t move my blasted leg, Mother. Mind using a little magic on me first?”

She rolled her eyes. “Children. Always so needy, though you’ll never have to suffer them, will you?”

I took two more calculated steps forward, nearing my target. Images of Cam stabbing himself…of Ro’s bleeding side…the horrific picture of Holland’s frozen face…all of these things flipped through my mind like a slideshow of purpose, drive, keeping my pace steady and my head clear. The icing on the cake was her calculated reminder that I’d never have a family, never be a father.

I stood just a few feet in front of the witch. She smiled at me, taunting, completely unafraid of the man before her. I gripped the hilt tighter, then brought the knife to my side and took another step forward. Then another step. She still didn’t move, confident in her ability to beat me. I had nothing more to lose. She should have known better.

“Mother?”

“Not now, dear.”

One more step forward. If I swung now, Donovan would rush me, sure, but with that busted leg…I had to take a chance.

“My knife can’t kill me, silly boy. Neither can rocks, though Cameron learned that the hard way.”

I looked down into the wild eyes of the woman who’d cursed my family and now stolen from me the one girl I’d been born to love. Her gaze was fierce and unwavering. She still didn’t move, and I could barely see her chest rise and fall with each breath our faces were so close.

She smiled, her teeth glinting in the firelight.

“Mother!”

She flung her hand to the side, slamming Donovan into the wall. He cried out in agony, then slid to the floor, gripping his injured limb. “I said
not now
!”

I brought the knife up to rest in the nook below her ribs—another millimeter and she’d be impaled. She reached for my face. With her touch, the surrounding cavern fell away. The forest disappeared. The snow melted. The ground swallowed us whole.