Page 13 of Outlawed

“You didn’t run away,” I whisper into the quiet room.

Shepard knows I’m talking about him. “I promised I wouldn’t leave you again.”

I reach down and run my fingers through his hair. Lifting my head, I turn a little to look at Austin and frown.

“Please don’t ask me to leave. Aside from the fact that this is my house, I’m the one keeping your powers in check. I won’t go. I tried so fucking hard to stay away, Cece, but I can’t survive without you. It’s like living without my heart in my chest.”

“Gag me now,” Riggs grumbles.

“I’d keep your mouth shut if I were you. The more you remind me you’re here, the more tempted I am to throw you in a fucking cell,” Shepard adds. I stay silent, staring at the man who keeps saving me when I have no idea why he bothers.

“Why?” I ask Austin. “Why did you do that to me? How could you do that to me?”

He swallows as he lifts his hand. It hovers near my face. I don’t react, too exhausted to care. He slides it down the slope of my nose to my lips. He follows the path with his eyes, sadness and regret filling them. “Not sure the sheriff should be a part of this conversation.”

“Not sure I’m even the sheriff anymore. But regardless of that, if you think I’m leaving the woman I love with you, even knowing Riggs could kill you with his bare hands given the chance, you’re insane.”

Austin sighs, his eyes moving to mine. “How much do they know about who you are and what you can do?”

“Riggs knows a little more than Shepard. Or he did until earlier.”

Shepard tenses but then relaxes. He left for months. Not knowing me as well as the man who stayed does not rest with me, but with him.

“Fuck it.” Austin runs his free hand through his hair before he starts. “The Hart witches have lived in this town since before it really was a town. My family, the Dyers, have been here just as long.”

“I’ve read some of the history of this place. I remember the name Dyer. I just didn’t make the connection.” Shepard’s voice is rough and unyielding.

“Not every town is as steeped in fucking tragedy as ours, Sheriff. And you’re not from around here, so why would you assume anything?” Austin says before he continues. “Anyway, legend has it that during the persecutions where my ancestors worked on killing off Calliope’s ancestors, a curse was placed upon the land by a witch called Dorothy Hart. A blood curse that is cast at a witch’s death is binding. It tied the Hart line to this place. It was a penance, you see. If the Dyers or anyone, for that matter, succeeded in wiping out the Harts, then this town would die too.”

Riggs sighs. “A warning I’m guessing most didn’t listen to.”

“Men always think they know better, myself included at times.”

He goes on to tell them about Dorothy’s only surviving daughter, who fled, and the child that was born, who eventually returned after her mother’s death.

“Hatred has a long memory, and it seemed to infect this place. I know my parents and their little cult only fed into it, stoking the flames so the Harts had no allies left. Nobody expected Martin.”

I flinch at hearing my father’s real name. I can’t help it.

“He grew up around here, back when he was Martin Lewis. I remember him coming to my parents’ meetings sometimes, taking everything in, and you better believe that man missed nothing.”

“I didn’t know that,” I admit, but then why would I? I know nothing about what my parents’ lives were like before I came along.

“I only know what my mother told me. She said there was always something off about the man, and given that my mom was married to my dad, that said a lot. Even so, Mom was dumbfounded when your mother turned eighteen and Martin up and married her.”

That seems to be his pattern—marrying vulnerable eighteen-year-olds.

“Nobody knew they were even an item, let alone ready to marry. It was all swift and hush-hush. I doubt anyone would have known they married if he hadn’t changed his name, like all men marrying into the Hart family do.

“Nobody really saw her much after that. She stayed up at the ranch, and your father moved in a few weeks before your grandparents died in a car accident.”

“How convenient,” Shepard drawls.

“There were definitely some raised eyebrows. But people die in car accidents every day, so it was chalked up to a coincidence.” He looks at me again. “Nobody saw much of your mom after that. But six months or so later, the town learned she was pregnant with you.”

I try to think about what her life must have been like. She was young, just like Dawn had been, and then she lost her parents so tragically. Only to find herself having to care for this tiny human. She must have felt like the world was eating her alive.

“People would have thought she was dead if it wasn’t for the creams and elixirs she made for the townsfolk.”