Zoe's only wish is to be able to run barefoot through grass, but she knows it'll never happen. Ever since she was born, she's been unable to touch anything living without it instantly dying. It's a curse she would do anything to get rid of, but that...
When I finally saw him, I was a nervous wreck. I had been waiting for at least thirty minutes and all of the different scenarios I had played in my head had gotten my emotions twisted. But all nerves disappeared and became happiness immediately when my eyes landed on him.
I walked to him with a wide smile on my face that I didn't think could go away. It did, though, as soon as I got about ten steps away from him. He had stopped walking towards me and when I tried to get even closer, he took a step backwards. There was even a flash of fear in his eyes.
I stopped and also took a step back, as well as withdrew the excitement I had felt. He was afraid of me. He actually thought that being too close to me would be harmful for him. He had called me a monster and a murderer, but did he really think I was capable of killing him?
That thought alone turned my heart to shattered shards.
"I... I'm sorry," I said and hung my head.
"For what?" he asked and there was the same viciousness in his words as there had been yesterday. Fear was gone from him and hardness, harshness, had come instead. He crossed his arms over his chest and his eyes glared at me.
"For everything. But please, you have to trust me," I said and looked back into his eyes. Met them hard and hoped that he would see the sincerity in mine. "I would never harm you."
"Trust you?" he said with an icy laugh. "How am I supposed to trust anything you say or do or even how I've felt about you? How do I know it wasn't all just a spell?"
My heart sank. Of course, that's how he thought, and nothing I said or did would be able to change that. He could explain everything by saying it was all just witchcraft. I had lost his trust.
My eyes fell again and landed on his neck. I had been too preoccupied to notice what hung there. A black leather band with a clear blue stone hanging from it. The same as the amulets around the house and my only way to make him believe me.
"Do you know why I asked you to wear the amulet?" I asked as I gained confidence in my voice and stance. I straightened myself.
"How should I know what goes through a witch's head?" he scoffed.
"I asked you to wear it because I didn't want you to come unprotected. My coven wants your father dead and wouldn't hesitate to harm you to succeed in that. But those amulets, they work." I gave him a fleeting smile. "I tried one on. I foolishly thought it would take my curse away, but it didn't. It did make me unable to use my magic, though. As long as you're inside your house and protected by the amulets around you, no witchcraft works on you. So it's safe to assume that the same is true for when you're wearing one. Any spell I would have put on you would have been broken the moment you walked in through the fence surrounding your home. I even felt it yesterday, felt as I passed through the gates and my magic stopped working. Your feelings are your own."
"Lies!" he threw back at me.
"It's not. And I know that deep down you believe me. Please Felix, I would never hurt you. I lo..."
"Just shut up!" he screamed, and I got the feeling that he did so to mask that his voice was breaking. "It's all just a bunch of lies! Considering what you've made your skin into being, you have to be a powerful witch. You've definitely found a way around the amulets."
My body shook, and his words echoed in my head. Of all the things he had said over the past 24 hours, that was without a doubt what shocked me the most.
I had told him about my mother. Shared with him how I had never been able to live a normal life. Shown him how desperately I wanted to find a cure. How in the name of Hades could he possibly think I had willingly made my skin into what it was?
"What I've made my skin into being?" I repeated slowly before my voice rose to match his shouting. "Do you really think I choose this! Do you really think I want to be unable to touch anything living? That I wanted to kill my mother? Or want to be used by my coven as a weapon! I was cursed before I was born and there's almost nothing I wouldn't do to change it. I..."
There was more that I wanted to say, but I had noticed Felix looking over my shoulder, clearly looking at something. Or rather, someone.
I moved my hand to take off one of my gloves as I turned around, but even as I did that small action, I knew I would never be able to kill the man I ended up standing face to face with.
They looked so alike. The same eyes, hair, nose, body type. Looking at Harry Jackson was like seeing into the future of what Felix would look like. The only difference was the cruelty in Harry's eyes that I just couldn't imagine on Felix's face. But that small difference didn't matter. Nothing in this world would have made me able to kill the man in front of me.
As I realized that, I felt a small stabbing pain in my arm. I slowly looked down to see a syringe.
The effect of its content was immediately. My eyes got blurry. I lost focus. But I still had my eyes on Harry Jackson's face and could see his mouth move.
"Sleep tight, witch," I heard him say, but it was as if he talked through water.
I managed to turn back and caught sight of Felix. The fear in his eyes was the last thing I saw before losing consciousness.
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