Hexed and Vexed (3 page)

Except for the one very large fact that no one would believe: Olive had not hexed Campbell. It hadn’t even occurred to her to do so.
Ever
.

Hexing fell into one of those witching categories that were so taboo as to be almost illegal. Nothing they did could be constituted against the law, short of murder. Theft, hexing, fraud—some witches practiced those things on a regular basis.

But not Olive or anyone she associated with. Or so she’d thought. She rubbed her temples; an ache throbbed between her eyes. If she didn’t think it might knock her out, she’d make a concoction for herself and go lie down. However, Campbell hadn’t crossed over into the safe zone yet. She still had to be diligent.

He groaned and she rushed to his side. A quick touch to his forehead told her his fever had finally broken. His skin, drenched in sweat, felt cool to her fingertips.

“About time.” She took a deep breath. He might make it; he wouldn’t die on this beach while she stood helplessly watching. She had never treated a hex before by herself. Her mentor, Marie, whose business she had taken over when the other woman had retired, had done it once. She’d watched. Fortunately, she’d paid attention.

Keep them alive. The longer you keep them living, the more likely they’ll be able to throw off the evil
. Marie’s voice filled her head for about the hundredth time that evening. She nodded like the other woman stood next to her. Campbell would live.

“You’re going to be okay.” Her voice broke and she ignored it. There would be time for tears later. “I’ll get you home to Cindy. You can pretend this whole horrible time never happened.”

Campbell’s eyes opened. His brown depths weren’t yet clear. That would come back as he healed. His skin had regained its natural color. Another really good sign. She didn’t think he’d really woken up.

Touching the side of his cheek, she whispered to him. “Go back to sleep. It’s not time to be awake yet.”

“Olive.” He took her hand and tugged her down next to him. She lost balance and actually landed on the sand practically on top of him.

“Oomph.” He scooted until he’d swung his strong, muscular arm over her side, snuggling her closer until she spooned up against him.

Squirming, she tried to turn around and couldn’t. “What are you doing? I’m not going to leave you. There’s no need for this.”

Couldn’t he spare her heart some degree of hurt? He muttered something she couldn’t understand and tugged her harder against him. She huffed, once again trying to extricate herself from his embrace. He snored lightly in her ear.

This time Olive groaned. His breathing had changed. No longer gasping or making harsh breath sounds, he clearly slept deeply. How many mornings had she woken up like this? She’d teased him about his snoring while not so secretly loving it.

Sometimes she’d fall asleep before he came home, times when he’d worked late, studying or preparing to teach his next class. For Campbell, there was no such thing as being too prepared or too knowledgeable on any subject. If she woke up in the middle of the night, she’d hear him breathing next to her and know herself to be warm and cared for.

Tears welled in her eyes, and she let them fall down her cheeks. Maybe that was when he’d begun meeting with Cindy. How foolish she’d been to never suspect him of anything. For someone who had claimed to love her, to have loved her for most of his life, he’d never proposed marriage. That hadn’t bothered her either. Why rush things when all had been so perfect?

He’d had no issue with marrying her sister. Within six months of being together.

Her face heated and she yanked out of his embrace. Enough with being so pathetic. If the strange foray to this magical place taught her anything, it had to be that Campbell needed to become a part of her past. There would be a future without him. Hell, she could increase her business offering hex treatments. Maybe she could come up with some kind of hex-blocker. The possibilities were endless.

She jumped up. Campbell didn’t stir. As she put her hands on her hips, she regarded him. Anger aside, she would always think him the most the beautiful man she’d ever beheld. Maybe some day she’d be able to look at their ten-year time together, which had spanned friendship to love, with something other than sadness.

Turning on her heel, she headed back to the forest. He would have needs when he woke up. She could really use some chamomile. In the dark, she hadn’t been able to locate any. That didn’t mean it wasn’t there. Also, she wanted to get back to the stream to get some water. He’d need to drink when he awoke. Who knew the tortoise shell bun holder that held her always-out-of-control brown curls back would work so well as a makeshift cup-slash-ladle?

By the ancestors, she could always look back on the debacle as a sort of survival challenge she’d accidently shoved herself into.

There were so many tasks for her to perform that before she realized it hours had flown by. Her stomach rumbled again. She hadn’t eaten since the half an apple she’d consumed the night before. Watching Campbell suffer had killed her desire for food.

It had also been too long since she’d checked on him. She stood up, carrying the water with her. She could come back for the rest of the herbs she’d collected. The likelihood that he’d woken up was small. He’d need at least twelve hours of rest. Hopefully, her parents or his would arrive soon and he would get to go home where he could see an actual witch doctor. They’d have him on his feet again in no time.

Campbell hadn’t budged in the hours she’d been gone. She touched his skin. He still felt cool. Nodding to herself, she knelt next to him. If she could get him to sip some water, she’d feel better about leaving him again.

“Cam.” She brushed his hair aside. “I need you to take some of this. Sip. Okay?”

His eyes opened a fraction, and he followed her instructions. She cradled the back of his head in her hand while he drank like she might have one day done with their baby, one they would not have now.

Olive sucked in her breath.
No
. She had to stop doing that.

When he’d finished with the water, Campbell sat up and looked at her. He rubbed his eyes and yawned.

“Are you feeling okay? You might want to sleep some more?”

Campbell exhaled loudly. His brown eyes met hers. A breath she hadn’t known she held expelled from her body. His gaze appeared clear.

“What’s going on?”

“You don’t remember?” She set her hairpiece on the ground. If he couldn’t walk she’d get more water later. “Maybe that’s a good thing. Believe me, I wouldn’t want to remember it if I’d been through it.”

“I don’t understand.” His gaze roamed her body. “Olive. Where are we and why are you wearing that?”

She looked down at her dress. Her bridesmaid gown had certainly seen better days. “I had to rip it up to take care of you last night. The good news is there shouldn’t be much more time until we’re found. Then you go back to your life and pretend this never happened.”

“Pretend what never happened?” He tried to stand up and failed, falling backward. She rushed to his side and grabbed his arm.

“Don’t try to get up yet. You’ve been through an ordeal.” He didn’t seem to have hurt himself. “It’s going to take some time for you to feel like yourself again.”

“I think you’d better start from the beginning. Like explaining again why you’re wearing that dress. My head, it feels foggy like I’ve been asleep a very long time.”

“Hmm.” She bit her lip. “I don’t know that much about hexes. Maybe that’s a side effect.”

“Hexes?” He struggled to sit up on his knees. Reaching out, he grabbed her arm. For a second, his thumb ran over her wrist. Her pulse jumped. “Someone hexed me? Are you sure? Were you hurt? Are you okay?”

“Um.”

Fatigue plagued her every thought, her every movement. She wished he would quit touching her. As much as she understood his need for contact, the idea that it had to be her made her cringe. He loved her sister, he’d proposed, he’d watched her walk down the aisle. Stealing him back wouldn’t happen. And considering he’d betrayed her in the worst possible way, she didn’t want him either.

Except, of course, her stupid heart really did.

“Olive, baby?” He kissed her knuckles. “Are you okay?”

She jolted backward like he’d burned her. Hand scorched, she shoved it behind her back, having nowhere else to put it.

“Not okay. Don’t call me ‘baby’. That’s cruel, and you may not kiss me. Anywhere.”

His mouth turned downward and his squinted up. “Have I done something? Are you mad?” His hands fisted. “Tell me what’s going on. I can’t remember, damn it.”

Campbell never cursed except when he’d really gone around the bend. She’d sworn all the time in school. Eventually, he’d convinced her to speak like that made her seem low. She had too high a vocabulary to act like she didn’t.

“All right.” Her pulse pounded hard in her ears. “You want to know what happened? I’ll tell you that much. But no
baby
and no kisses. It’s not appropriate. What is the last thing you remember?”

“Would you at least sit down?” He squirmed around. “I hate you standing over there like you might bolt at any minute. Please. I clearly can’t get up.”

She nodded. He’d spent the night on death’s door. Hexed. Until help arrived, she needed to care for him. That included not letting him relapse because of stress. He wouldn’t be hers, but he’d be her brother-in-law. The father of any nieces and nephews she might have. And if she had to spend the rest of her life hiding from her family, then that would be what she would do.

Olive sat down in front of him with enough distance that he couldn’t reach her without struggling to do so. Her hand still scalded where his lips had been.

“Thank you.” He looked up at the sky and then back down at her. “You can’t believe how strange I feel. You said I’ve been sick, hexed. How long has this been going on? What are we doing on a beach?”

“Tell me how far back you can remember. Then I’ll know where to start.”

“Okay.” Campbell visibly swallowed. “I was sitting in the library at the University. Studying. I wanted to go home. That’s the last thing I can clearly visualize.”

Well, that told her nothing. “That could have been any night of any week. I’m not even sure what you’ve been working on. We need to narrow this down a bit. How close was it to the wedding?”

“The wedding?” He looked up at her with no comprehension in his eyes.

“Your wedding. How far away from the wedding were you? A day? Two?” Her head throbbed again.

“We had a wedding? By the ancestors, Olive. I don’t remember marrying you.”

If he’d struck her with a car, he couldn’t have harmed her more. She couldn’t utter a word. Her mouth fused shut; her throat shut down. All she could do involved sitting still and trying not to let her internal organs quit working.

He inched forward to her and took her hand in his. “Did we get married? Is that why I’m dressed like this? Did you wear that dress to it? I’m sorry I can’t remember. Not a thing. I feel like a heel.” He waited for her to speak, and when she didn’t, he continued. “Please say something.”

“You didn’t marry me.”

Now Campbell appeared to have nothing to say. He opened and closed his mouth several times. “Who did I marry?” His voice had lowered several octaves.

“Actually no one because I accidently zapped you out of the church and onto this beach.”

His eyebrows raised. “You did? You brought us here?”

“I know that’s shocking. Worst witch in witching school actually does a spell. Even if she didn’t mean to and has no idea how to get back home.”

Campbell hissed. “Don’t talk about yourself that way. You know I don’t like it. All of those people in school were jealous of you. Look at you now. Who cares about how many ridiculous spells you can do? No one does herb work like you.”

“You’ve been making fun of me with that phrase for months now. You’ll have to excuse me if I find your indignation on my behalf a little ridiculous at this point.”

“No.” His adamant denial rocked her back a few inches. “I would never, ever do that. I don’t care what has been going on that I can’t remember. In a million years, I would never use that phrase. I don’t think of you that way. I never have and never would.”

“Well then, you’re going to have to take my word for it.” She had to keep herself under control. Losing it would do nothing. His memory would come back. Just because he suddenly seemed so much like her Campbell, and not the version he’d become with her sister, didn’t mean anything. He wasn’t hers to have anymore.

“Olive.” He said her name and waited until she looked at him. “Who was I marrying when you used your very strong talent and moved us here?”

“My sister. Cindy.”

The truth hung between them. Neither spoke. The sounds of the ocean, the birds, the wind, they passed the time. Words were not said.

Finally, Campbell fisted his hands. “Is that some kind of joke?”

“Do I look like I’m laughing?” She wanted a nap. A big one. Alone in her bed where she could cry and curse her stupid powers that had zapped them to this place to begin with.

“No. You look drawn, like you haven’t been sleeping or eating. Your eyes are tired, and I don’t know, older somehow. Wary of me. There is clearly something going on here that I can’t remember, and it’s making me nuts because I am coming to strongly suspect that I made this happen to you.” He put his hands on his head. “I hate your sister.”

“Six months ago you both came to me and told me in no uncertain terms that although you hadn’t meant it, hadn’t planned it, you’d fallen in love. I think your exact words were that these things happen in life. You’ve said one version of them or another every time I’ve seen you since.” She held up her hand to stop him when he would have interrupted. “This dress I’m in? It’s my bridesmaid’s dress for your wedding.”

“And then I got sick? When you got me here? With the hex spell?”

She stood up. “Now you’re getting it. I’m going to go into the woods and see what food I can find. Collect the herbs. You might still have a reaction tonight. These things can hang on. Since you still don’t remember, it’s likely the hex isn’t fully out of your system yet. And I’ll get some more water. Maybe by then Cindy and our families will have used the tracker and gotten here.”