Page 1

PROLOGUE

I stood under the ancient oak at the far edge of the cemetery and watched as strangers buried the only person who’d ever truly known me.

The sky had been the color of wet cement since dawn, and it began to drizzle when the priest gave his opening words. I was too far to hear what he said, but I knew Deva would’ve likely rolled her eyes at it. She wasn’t big on priests. But this funeral was for those mourners down there. No one asked what I thought she would’ve wanted.

Because no one knew that I existed.

Cordelia Grace was a ghost.

I pressed my palm to the rough bark of the oak, seeking its steady presence to ground me. The tree didn’t care that my skin was deadly. Trees didn’t have hearts that stopped or lungs that shriveled. Not like people.

Deva fought the cancer that ravaged her body, while I was helpless to do anything but watch her fade into a hollow husk of what she used to be. She was all I’d had in the world. For sixteen years she was my guardian, my teacher, my best friend. So much more than an estranged aunt who’d stepped up to the plate when my parents decided they no longer wanted the burden. At twenty-three, she’d had no business raising an abandoned child—especially one like me—but she’d set her own life aside to do it anyway.

I watched a woman in a black hat gently drop a white rose onto a small mound of dirt. My fingers found the end of my damp braid, weaving the plait then unwinding it. The mindless motion helped soothe the gnawing ache behind my ribs while the rest of the mourners followed suit and dispersed.

I stayed under the oak until the last car pulled away down the gravel drive. Until hours had passed and the rain stopped. The clouds broke in patches, revealing a bruised purple twilight. Even the air felt heavy with grief.

Moonlight glittered on the puddles that had collected on the freshly turned earth. Deva was here. Not just under the ground where her ashes would nourish the sapling she’d been buried with. She was in the cool night air and the white lights of the stars. In the swish of the leaves and the cricket’s evening song.

“Hey, Dev.” My voice came out small, and I cleared my throat. “I brought you something.” I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out a small pouch of wildflower seeds. The lupine, coneflower, and poppies had been some of her favorites. “I don’t know when I’ll be able to bring you flowers, so I thought I’d give you these instead.”

Choking back tears, I scattered the seeds over the dirt and around the sapling. As they fell, the air shifted around me, subtle but unmistakable. It moved through the damp grass like a sigh and brushed my cheeks with the softest of touches.

Natural magic. The earth recognizing one of its own and paying its respects. I couldn’t grasp the magic, not like Deva could, but I let it move through me and bind me to this place. A large piece of my shattered heart would always be here, a fractal shape like the crystals she’d loved to hang in the windows.

I drew a deep breath, filling my lungs with the enchanted air, and scrubbed my eyes with the back of my hand. I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving, but I made a promise. To grieve, and then to live. Deva’s final wish was for me to go out into the world, despite the danger I posed, to discover a life she knew was waiting for me.

She made me promise to trust my instincts and follow my heart.

Only, now I wasn’t sure I could when my heart felt so broken.

1

CORDELIA

THREE MONTHS LATER

I woke up before the alarm on my phone even had a chance to serve its purpose. Orion was sitting on the windowsill, swishing his fluffy tail. The early morning light slid over his silvery-black coat, and his tufted ears twitched when he heard me stir. It was his fault I hardly slept last night, but I couldn’t stay mad at the handsome Maine Coon. Especially when he leapt onto the bed, nuzzled his big head against mine, and purred like a well-tuned engine.

“Hey, sweet boy.” I burrowed my fingers into his thick fur. “Good job keeping the monsters away last night.” Orion had been a sweet sixteen surprise from Deva. A companion for my lonely heart—one I couldn’t accidentally hurt. Because there was a darkness that lived inside me, and all it did was hurt.

It was why my parents pawned me off on Deva in the first place—not that I regretted their decision. I was sure they’d had no idea what to do with a child who could curse anyone within reaching distance whenever she had a tantrum. It’s not like I knew what I was doing. But Deva was a witch, and she knew exactly what I was.

A Jinx.

I didn’t have any control over my power. It was just a knee-jerk reaction whenever my emotions ran too high.

Piss me off? You’re cursed.

Make me scared? You’re cursed.

Catch me in a panic? Yeah, don’t even bother running. You’re cursed.

The magic would crackle and swell inside of me until it was leaking out of my pores, and a simple brush of skin was enough to impart my own special brand of doom. I had to grow up in isolation, away from other kids, until I understood it. I chose to remain in isolation as a teen because it was just safer. I couldn’t hurt people if I wasn’t around them. And that had been okay for a while.

I groaned and stretched in bed, cringing away when Orion swiped his sandpapery tongue against my ear in a shameless demand for breakfast. It was the closest I’d get to a kiss in my sad adult life. I palmed his dark face and smooshed a kiss of my own to his long whiskers before I shoved the sheets away and swung myself upright.

The carpet was worn and threadbare in places, looking original from maybe a hundred years ago. Same as the paint that was peeling off the walls. The windows were drafty, the a/c was broken, and my surly landlord, Mr. Mason, still hadn’t called someone to patch the ceiling that had been damaged when the apartment upstairs flooded.