The Miracle's Curse

Mistakes Made in Sorrow

Mari started at the basket of fruits she had bought from the market and put on the kitchen counter. She sat on a red stool and rested her cheek on her palm. She hadn't eaten all day, but she wasn't hungry. Earlier she had tried to eat but her stomach felt upset. It started happening to her a few days ago, but it hadn't gotten too bad yet.

Leon hadn't returned in three days. It would be the fourth in an hour when the sun fully set. He either found a good trail or nothing at all. Either one worried her. She had forced herself to walk around but she had been feeling awfully downcast and lonely. The pit of desperation she had filled with hope a month ago was emptying.

Her head spun around when the door clicked open. At first she assumed it was someone looking for a miracle, but it was Leon, carrying a large chest with a frown as propped open the door with his boot.

"You're back!" She grinned as she raced to help him. He insisted he could carry it and simply asked her to move the books off the coffee table. Once it was cleared, he dropped the heavy chest onto it with a huff.

"You will not believe what I found, Lynn. I was going to come back sooner but—" he cut off with a small gasp of surprise as she wrapped her arms around him. "Lynn? Are you okay? Did something happen?"

She pried herself off him. "I'm okay. What did you find?"

He eyed her for a moment before he cleared his throat and motioned to the chest. "Open it."

She fumbled with the lock—she didn't know why she was shaking so badly—and tossed the lid up. Inside were rows of gleaming yellow vials. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "Where...what...?"

"It wasn't hard to find others with Hints who also said a green-eyed Protector gave them this 'medicine' and they got worse. I told them to take a vacation, same as Jason, and had them give me all of their supplies." He tapped his scar. "I don't know how he got it or from where. It boggles me." When he turned his gaze back to her, he was startled to see her staring at him with a smile. He quickly hid his surprise. "What did you do while I was gone?"

"Walked around and read." She frowned for only a moment but smiled again. "I'm glad you're back."

He blinked and his cheeks turned light pink before he looked away from her. "Well, I did miss your company too, I suppose. It was weird to not be digging you out of trouble." He waved at the glass bottles. "What do you make of this?"

"I don't know." She flopped down on the couch. "I don't know what he was doing or why. I don't know how he got into this mess. He was the most stubborn man I met and the best strategist. Whatever he did, it was for a reason. Nothing has happened so maybe his plan didn't work this time." Her fingers tugged at the edges of her bandages. "This could all be for..."

Leon sat next to her but the look he had in his gray eyes made her fall into silence. Whatever he was, he was handsome. She was sure of that.

"What's wrong, Lynn? Really. The first time we met you were determined to break into The Pearl, with or without my help. What happened?"

She hesitated. The truth was on the tip of her tongue but she couldn't say it. 'I'm not going to tell him I'm giving up on this. He would think of me as a coward. I'm not. Or, I wasn't. But...if we keep digging, we might find something I never wanted to see about Adrian.' "Nothing's changed." She nearly winced at her own lie.

He narrowed his eyes but let it go. He made his way to the kitchen and grabbed an orange apple. "You went to the market. That's good."

"Yeah, apples were cheap this season." Mari grimaced at how awkwardly she spoke. She ran her fingers through her untied hair. Without it in a ponytail, it went down a bit past her shoulders. It was neither long nor short.