The Necklace

28: I Can't With Him

My mind spins as I stare at the final ingredient of Calvin's cure: a hair of an heir. He'd told me it was "taken care of" and something I wouldn't know about, but now only two options come to mind. Either Calvin really has an heir already... or he plans on me creating one for him. Given his history of deception, I can only assume the latter.

"What's going on, El?" Sienne asks, her brows furrow in concern.

I swallow, glancing down at the piece of paper in my hands. "This is the recipe for the potion Calvin needs to break his curse. He's shown it to me before, but the last ingredient was crossed out. He told me I wouldn't know what it was... and that it was 'already handled.'"

Sienne leans in to read over the recipe and audibly gasps. "Hair of an heir? His heir?"

"It would need to be. The footnote here specifies the heir must be from the spouse," Madame Ziad says, pointing to a line in small, foreign script.

My stomach twists. "So, he didn't want me to know that having his child was part of the cure. I just... I'm hoping he was lying about it being 'taken care of.'" My voice falters, laced with worry.

Dread sinks in. What if he was lying when he told me that I can't get pregnant from having sex in a dream? What if everything he's said has been a half-truth, part of some calculated plan to bind me to him in a way I hadn't anticipated? I'm filled with questions, but the only clear answer is that I can't see him tonight. I need space to think.

"I have to leave now," Madame Ziad says suddenly, rising from her chair.

"Wait! How can I reach you?" I plead, practically begging her to leave me a way to contact her.

Reluctantly, she gives me her phone number, cautioning me not to wear the necklace if I call. Calvin's threats have clearly worked; she's genuinely afraid of him.

Once Madame Ziad leaves, I slump into my chair across from Sienne, my mind churning. The "hair of an heir" changes everything. How could Calvin keep this from me? Was his plan all along to get me pregnant without my knowledge—or my consent?

"What are you going to do?" Sienne asks gently, placing her hand on my arm.

I take a shaky breath, trying to pull myself together. "I need time to process this. I'm not seeing him tonight."

"That's probably for the best," Sienne agrees. "But how are you going to avoid him? Won't he just show up in your dreams?"

"I just won't wear the necklace to bed. It'll make me wake up sick, but I'll feel better once I put it on in the morning."

Sienne frowns. "How long can you keep that up?"

"I don't know. All I know is I need some time to think."

That night, I leave the necklace off and experience my first "normal" dream in what feels like ages. There's still a touch of the supernatural—crows flitting in and out of my vision, like shadowy warnings—but it's nothing like being with him.

I wake up the next morning and feel like death. My body feels like it's been hit by a truck. The pounding in my head is relentless, and I feel like I'm going to vomit. With shaking hands, I fumble for the necklace on my nightstand and clasp it around my neck. I can already begin to feel a sense of relief as the symptoms begin to recede.

I follow this routine for the next 2 nights. I take the necklace off before I go to bed, wake up feeling disgusting, and then put it back on in the morning. I've noticed that not wearing the necklace for a 1/3 of the time is starting to catch up to my body and I'm not recovering as quickly as I did the first night. Wearing the necklace used to provide nearly instantaneous relief, but now it takes more than half the day to feel normal and I imagine it'll get worse if I keep it up.

"El, you don't look so good." Sienne's voice is filled with worry as she studies my exhausted face. "Are you going to avoid him forever? It's super fucked up that he didn't tell you about the baby piece, but maybe it's time to confront him about it instead of slowly killing yourself trying to avoid him."

I sigh, guilt and hurt swirling together. "I know, but I just feel so stupid, Sienne. I like him—probably too much. It feels like this whole time, he's been trying to seduce me just to get me to marry him and have his child. That way, he can finish his stupid potion, break his curse, and then what? Leave me here with a baby and a shattered marriage? What if he's just using me?"

Sienne pulls me into a hug as tears prick at the corners of my eyes. "I don't know, El. But you're not going to find out any more than you already know by avoiding him."

I spend the rest of the day trying to recover, clinging to the relief the necklace brings, but my body is heavy with fatigue, and the headache barely fades. That evening, I decide to read before bed to distract myself, but I end up drifting off without meaning to.

When I open my eyes, I'm back in that room. My pulse quickens as I sense him staring at me from his usual chair across the room, his eyes blazing with anger.

"Have you been avoiding me?" Calvin asks, his voice laced with fury.