The Transfer of the Curse

BAMBI

~Black.~

Black as the Alaskan forest at the darkest hour of night.

~Dark.~

Dark as the deep Atlantic, far from the coast of Maine.

Darker even than the blank slate of sleep right before a nightmare…

This was all I could see.

I felt like my eyes were closed, but I was blinking.

I sat on the ground and clung to Ekon, waiting for the moment to pass. The moment of blindness would pass.

It had to.

Because if this was Devina’s doing, I knew I’d be blind forever.

I had faced the evil witch once again, and just as every other time, I had been an inch away from death.

It must have been the shock that had taken away my sight; that had made it so I didn’t know where I was; that had made the murmurs around me sound as loud as alarm bells; that made the air acrid in my nose…

Soon, when the shock wore off, my sight would come back to me.

I dug my fingers into Ekon’s arm. I would hold onto him, burrow into his strong, warm body to keep me safe until I could see again.

I pressed my face into his chest, his soft hair tickling my cheeks. I breathed in the warm, musky scent of his body.

~This~ was home. ~This~ was safe.

I would stay here…until my sight returned.

“Oh… Oh, Goddess,” Ekon moaned above me.

I clung tighter to his chest as it rumbled with his words…tighter as his breathing grew increasingly ragged and his arms around me were so tight I could hardly breathe.

My heart pounded in my ears as I blinked and blinked, waiting for my sight to return.

“Bambi,” Ekon cried, and his voice was strained to breaking…

Manically, he ran his hand over my hair.

His panic made my dark world feel like a prison, and the safety I felt in his arms immediately reversed.

I pushed away from him as he fought to keep me close.

We struggled against one another, and I heard from Ekon’s uneven breath that he was crying.

I could hear the others whispering around me.

~Where are we? What are they doing?~

~When would I feel in control of my life again?~

I continued to scratch at Ekon until I finally separated myself.

Finally, I could breathe freely.

“Bambi, I can see.”

Ekon’s voice broke once more. As he said the words, the awful truth became clear to me.

Even before he said it…

“Devina took your sight…and gave it to me.”

~Oh, Goddess.~

An unspeakable anxiety overcame me.

The darkness would not pass. It was not just for a moment…it was forever.

Someone took my hand and clasped it tightly.

“Just breathe, Bambi,” I heard Rose say.

Someone took my other hand, and I let the contact calm me.

“In…out…” Holly began, “In…out…”

I forced myself to follow her rhythm. As my breathing slowed, I began to regain my composure.

But an anguished scream pierced through my meditative state.

~“Fuck!”~

My mate.

He wailed as if in physical pain. I heard him roar as he stomped over the ground.

“Ekon,” Rose warned.

All over again, the darkness became oppressive, as if a cage was closing around me.

My mate was the one who made me feel safe. But now, as he stormed around me, an unseen force of rage, I felt even more scared.

EKON

~“Reverse it,”~ I demanded.

I stopped pacing for long enough to stare down at Rose, Holly, and Bambi.

“Reverse the curse.”

My breathing heaved from my chest.

I could hardly process what was happening.

Here I was, seeing my Bambi from my human eyes for the first time…appreciating her beauty as a man…

But I couldn’t enjoy it.

Because she was suffering.

I tore at my hair, a wolfish growl rising from my throat.

~“Ekon,”~ my mother warned again.

I balled up my fists.

~My mother.~

This was her fault! She had ~invited~ Devina to the compound!

She had failed to protect my mate from my evil sister. And then she’d brought us here, to the beach town we had visited when I was younger, leaving Devina in control of ~my home~.

“You’re going to reverse it,” I spat. “You’re going to give Bambi back her sight ~right now~!”

“Calm down—”

But I didn’t want to hear anything else my mother had to say.

“You’re going to reverse this because ~it’s your fault~.”

“Ekon, it’s not so simple—”

“Mother, ~you better fucking listen—~”

But just as anger was taking a hold of me, I was torn out of it.

Because Bambi was crying.

She whimpered as tears ran down her face, pouring from her eyes. Her pupils were now a milky white.

The anger disappeared, and in its place, I felt completely empty.

“The spell can’t be broken until Devina is dead,” Holly said in dismay.

“And even then, it would require a dangerous form of dark magic…”

My mother looked up at me sadly. In that moment, young Tyler looked as old as my mother would have been.

“Nothing comes without a price, son…”

I felt tears form in my own eyes.

Finally, my sight had been restored. I had ached for this day for so long…

But even though I had what I wanted, I had nothing.

I had lost everything.

My compound…

My mate’s sight…

~And her love too.~

After discovering the truth about what I had done in the Great War, how could she ever forgive me?

I had taken Bambi’s parents and her ability to see.

She would be better without me. It would be better if I just disappeared…

I began to spiral, my newly found sight clouding as the darkness of my soul consumed my mind.

“Ekon?”

Her voice pulled me back. The voice of the woman I loved.

I looked at Bambi, struck anew by the beauty of her features…the softness of her expression as she looked at me, the one who could never deserve her.

Her milky pupils stared out vacantly. She couldn’t see me anymore. She didn’t know where I was.

She lifted her hand from Holly’s and held it in the air before her.

Automatically, I rushed for Bambi. I fell to my knees and grabbed her hand in mine.

~There is something more important than my sadness…~

The revelation struck me with tremendous force.

My mate needed me more than ever.

If I lost myself in my own depression and insecurities…

If I numbed the pain with alcohol, my old, ever-failing friend, I couldn’t be there for her.

With my other hand, I traced Bambi’s cheek. I wiped away the single tear as she leaned into my touch.

I could no longer be impulsive, explosive… I could no longer be unreliable.

I vowed that I would be there for Bambi. I would be the man she needed…

I would show her how to move through the dark.

BAMBI

Ekon’s hand was strong around mine.

We stayed like this a moment, on the ground as he crouched before me.

Then he rose and pulled me up to standing. My mate wrapped his other arm around my waist.

“I’ll meet you back at the house,” he said to the others.

“We’ll see you there,” Rose replied.

“What house?” I asked. “Where are we?”

The urgency had passed, and in its wake, I was exhausted. I melted into Ekon as he held me, and we began walking.

“We’re in Maine, Bambi. Near Portland, not far from where you grew up. I used to come here with my mom every summer.”

Being in my home state encouraged me… I knew this ocean air. I had known it my whole life. But I was still scared to move forward without seeing where I was going.

Ekon sensed this.

“Don’t worry,” he said softly, “I’ll lead the way.”

I walked awkwardly, but eventually I learned to trust Ekon’s lead. We walked slowly, and Ekon spoke quietly as we moved toward the crashing waves.

His calm mood soothed me, making me feel like I was going to be okay.

I didn’t have to think about the dark future stretching before me. I just had to put one foot in front of the other, holding Ekon’s hand.

“I think Mom teleported us here because it’s her favorite place,” he told me.

“What’s the house like?” I asked.

“It’s pretty big,” he chuckled. “And it has an ocean view. And a greenhouse.”

I smiled at the thought.

I liked greenhouses for the smell and the warm, humid air. Even without my sight, I would enjoy going there.

“Let’s sit?” Ekon asked.

I lowered myself to the sand, and Ekon arranged himself behind me so that my back was against his chest and his legs were around me.

I leaned all my weight into him. I nuzzled his neck as more tears came.

This time, I didn’t know if I was crying because I was sad or because I was so thankful for him…

So overcome with love.

“What’s it like to see again?” I asked.

“Surreal,” he replied. I felt him kiss my head, breathe in my hair. “I just can’t—”

“Stop,” I told him. “Even though I’m blind, I want you to enjoy your vision. Okay?”

He was silent for a moment. How I wanted to see his face…

I wanted to know what he was thinking.

But as I clung to his body, I realized from his posture that he was feeling the same way I was.

~Exhausted…but calm.~

“I’ll try,” he replied. We stayed quiet for a moment as he stroked my hair. “I love being able to see you, Bambi.”

I smiled.

“You saw me as your wolf,” I said.

“I love seeing you…as a man,” he replied in his deep, grisly voice.

We stayed quiet, listening to the sea.

“Bambi,” he whispered.

“Yeah?”

“I’m going to teach you everything I know, okay?”

His calm, reassuring tone made me smile all over again.

“I know,” I replied. “Thank you.”

“No, Bambi,” he repeated. “I’m going to be there for you the way you’ve been there for me.”

We were still as he spoke, holding onto one another.

“I’m going to be better. No more bullshit with alcohol. No more letting my anger get the best of me. No more secrets.”

His chest was hard and warm under my fingers.

“You can rely on me, okay Bambi?” I hugged him tight. I believed him.

For better or for worse, things had changed. ~We~ had changed.

And then he whispered words that gave me hope.

“I’m going to teach you how to see without sight.”