“I don’t even remember making the decision. Like I said, blessings and curses aren’t about rituals. It’s more a matter of will. Something needed to happen to Dan, to make him understand the pain he’d put Zoe through, and it was like this moment of clarity inside of my head, where I willed it into being. He took Zoe’s voice from her, so I took his voice from him.”

He squeaked. “Permanently?”

She scoffed. “No, just whenever he tries to defend himself from an accusation. Even if he’s innocent, he won’t be able to say so. He won’t even be able to write a defense. If he tries, it will just come across as nonsensical strings of letters.”

“Oh, well, that doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Well, I also fixed it so anytime he thought about treating someone the way he treated Zoe, he would throw up until he managed to feel some remorse. But that only lasted a year,” she admitted. “I think he learned faster than your ancestor.”

Leonard shrank back. “Yikes.”

“I know. It’s bad. But I didn’t make his entire line suffer. Just him. He was the one who deserved it.”

“I can’t say I approve, even if he did deserve it,” Leonard noted.

“Yeah, and I’m OK with you not approving. I just want you to know that I wouldn’t ever use it against you. I would never hurt you,” Charlotte promised him.

He kissed her temple. “Let me think about the curse removal thing, OK? Maybe we should both take some time to just think about all of this. We’re moving a little fast and maybe you should think about long term stuff, like whether you want to stay here in the Bayou, which is my plan for the near future, and whether you can live with my being cursed if I decide not to have it removed.”

She opened her mouth to object and he held up a hand. “Let’s both just do some thinking.”

She nodded. “All right.”

6

Charlotte

She woke to what felt like thunder rattling her trailer apart. She shot up in bed, checking her phone for missed calls or weather alerts, blearily registering the blows raining down on her door. It was only three a.m.

She’d only dropped off to sleep an hour or two before, stewing over her conversation with Leonard, and wondering if she’d managed to derail their relationship before it even started. The lack of sleep made her slow and stiff, so she was unprepared when Zed’s voice boomed from outside, “Charlotte! Wake up, please! It’s started!”

She stumbled to her door to find Zed, wide-eyed and shirtless, panting on her doorstep. If she was not such a loyal person–and not deeply afraid of what Dani could do with those lightning balls–she would be much more affected by the sight.