"Try this, and this, and that," Jamie said, setting down three potions in front of Rory next to the throw-up bowl that swished with the stench of failures.

"Jamie. We've been at this all morning." Rory retched and threw up again, almost sloshing it onto the floor. "I think I'm getting a magic overdose, the world is wobbling."

"It's not fair!" Jamie cried out and threw an empty glass bottle at the wall causing it to shatter. "That wasn't meant for you. Even if you had dropped it, you would have been cursed anyways because that's how death curses work." Tears ran down the sides of her cheeks as she stifled a sob. "How did they find out? I've done everything I can to mask this. And I can't—" She sniffed. "I can't remove it."

Rory nodded vaguely nodded, her face sickly pale as she threw-up again.

Someone had targeted her father and he in turn hurt Rory. It was probably the same fae responsible for cursing Toby. In a fit of rage, Jamie grabbed the cauldron and tripped it over, spilling the useless contents all over the floor. "I'm going to kill whoever did this. I'm going to wrap my hands around their scrawny throat and watch the life leave their body while I curse them until they beg me for mercy."

"Jamie . . . Breathe, hon," Rory said, throwing up again and topping the pot. "I'm going to go live in the bathroom." She grabbed her stomach and staggered across the room toward the rest of the house. "This is worse than a hangover."

Breathe. Jamie didn't want to breathe. She wanted to break something, hurt someone. She waited until Rory closed the hatch behind her and screamed, exploding everything around her in a flurry of black and gold magic. Glass rained from the air, cutting into her skin.

Everything was falling apart. She gasped a sob. Everyone she loved was getting hurt. What if it was her? What if she was doing it? How could she stop it? How could she end the curse that made her a danger to those she cared about?

Was this her fault?

"It's not fair," Jamie rasped, her entire body trembling. "Why now?" Looking down at the scar on her arm, she watched the power swirl around it with words matching the curse. If she didn't break it, as the ancestors wife, she would black out and wake up covered in Rory's blood.

There had to be something she could do to stop all of this. A sacrifice? A vow? A deal? The ancestor's loved deal's as much as any fae, especially the one's with high stakes that put lives on the line.

Jamie cleaned up the mess she'd made and slipped out the side door. What would Rory do if she found out what she was? She didn't want to know, she didn't want to risk losing her like she'd lost her friends. No one wanted to be associated with the cursed one, less they bring the ancestor's wrath raining down upon them.

Walking barefoot across the snowy landscape, Jamie came to the lake at the edge of the sectors and stripped herself of her clothes, wading into the frozen lake. Tiny, pinpricking needles of cold ripped at her skin with no forgiveness. She moved aside the snow to find dirt and placed it in one hand, summoning fire in the other. Closing her eyes, she let out a long breath, becoming one of the elements, and one with the ancestors.

When she looked up, multi-colored lights waved in the sky above her that only she could see.

"Yekira, why have you appeared before us?" Multiple voices echoed, curiosity and malice hanging upon each word.

The name the ancestors had assigned her sent shivers down Jamie's spin. The dark scar on her arm from taking a step too far burned. "I seek to remove a death curse."

"Though your connection to us is strong, our rage for the wolves run's deep than our adoration. Why should we help you save a wolf? A Shadow no less. They once slaughtered our kind," the ancestors hissed.

"Rory's different," Jamie whispered, tears falling down her cold cheeks. "I love her."

The lights glowed brighter in agitation. "Ah, love, one of the stupidest things that mortal's make far too many sacrifices for. Such a foolish thing."

"What must I do to change your mind? I'll give anything, do anything, please," Jamie begged, wading further in the water to reach toward the lights above her.

"Anything?" A fae appeared in the form of a raven and settled on her shoulder. It gave her the side eye. "You would seek a deal with us?" It's eyes twinkled with delight as Jamie knew they would. A dagger appeared between it's talons. "If you wish to preserve your love, you must sacrifice someone else, someone that you love the same."

The raven dropped the dagger in her hand.

Jamie stared at it, feeling the weight of such a decision begin to eat her soul and tear her apart from the inside out. "How can I make such a choice?"

"You said you would do anything, this is the deal. Are you not pleased? You could simply let your wife die," the raven said cocking it's head to the side and hopping down her arm to her hand.

"No I—I am grateful for the deal but it is asking too much. How can I choose?" Jamie asked, her body shaking from the cold surrounding her naked body.

"Life is full of choices. Lead your loved one here, commit the betrayal before us," the raven instructed. "Only then will we be pleased. Why are you so against the idea? You've done this before. You gave us Ain so that your father could live."

"I didn't want to she—she was hurting me, she wouldn't stop." Jamie grabbed her scar. "She wouldn't stop until she stopped breathing."

"Life is full of choices, Yekira, we cannot make you do anything, only ask. It is your choice what you do, remember that," the ancestors said from above.

Jamie took the dagger and sliced it across her palm. "As it is written." She dripped the blood into the lake. "Blood for blood."

The lights swirled as the raven disappeared and everything returned to the quiet of the undisturbed night.

Wading back to the shore, Jamie dressed and prepared to go back home. The skin on the back of her neck prickled. She whirled around with the knife in hand. "Come out, whoever you are."

"You're the traitor, aren't you?" A voice asked from the darkness, gentle and sad.

A glowing black and white wolf floated over the snow-covered field toward her. Something about them seemed vaguely familiar. But. . . Why was she seeing a wolf? Jamie knew she could see spirits, but she'd never seen the spirit of a wolf before. This didn't make any sense.

"I tried to stop you, Yekira," the spirit said. "But you didn't listen."

The breath left Jamie's body and the knife fell from her hand, clattering to the earth.

"Toby."