Read Online Hexed (The Gwen Sparks Series Book 4) by Stephanie Nelson - Free Book Online

was saying, but I felt the need to say it for Gwen’s benefit. If she still had hope then she would continue to search for a solution, and I desperately needed her to keep fighting. I worried that she would just accept that she would never retrieve her memories and just stop trying to put the puzzle pieces together. Having just won her over, I wasn’t ready to let her forget about me, which only contradicted my plans to keep my distance. Detaching from her wasn’t possible. Every time I thought I had things under control, I would take a step in the wrong direction, and it always led me back to her, like that little stunt in the hall at the FPD. I was an addict, and she was my vice. Did they have meetings for idiots like me? Hi, my name is Dorian Hade and I’m an addict.
    “She said I wasn’t right,” Gwen said, her eyes blinking as she refocused on the present. Her head swung toward me. “What did she mean by that?”
    My left hand curled into a fist as the coldness within me froze every bone in my body. I had never felt guilty about anything in my life before, but as I looked at Gwen’s questioning eyes, it smacked me right in the chest. All of this was my fault.
    “I don’t know,” I lied. “She’s crazy, Gwen. Don’t listen to her.” Everything started clicking into place for me: the unbalanced energy, the pixies, the guy with the hole in his chest, the hospital’s claims. I shot up from the bed and rubbed a hand over my face.
    “What’s wrong?”
    I stared down at Gwen, and the past replayed through my head, the moment I made my biggest mistake. A rogue had just attacked Gwen at her shop. By the time I made it to Broomsticks, he had already knocked her around quite a bit. She had lost a lot of blood and had trouble focusing. I remember the rage that consumed me when I saw her so helpless, not to mention the anger I felt towards her for not defending herself better. By the time I killed the rogue, Gwen’s life was already slipping from this world. I laid her on the counter, her body broken beneath my hands. When her spirit emerged from her body, my world stopped turning. Everything ceased to exist in that moment. In my very long existence, I had claimed millions of souls but this one was different, this one meant something to me. I forgot about my job. I forgot about what was right. I forgot about what was best for Gwen. In that moment, selfishness reared its ugly head and controlled my actions. I couldn’t send her to the hereafter. I couldn’t accept losing her. And I didn’t. Instead of guiding her to the realm of the dead, I placed her soul back in her body. My number one rule, and I had broken it for her, or maybe for me. I just could not let her go.
    An inexplicable feeling overcame me as I realized that everything that was happening was my fault. I knew that whoever paid Ms. Willow to hex Gwen did so because of what I had done. When she said Gwen wasn’t right, she meant that Gwen’s soul was already expired and not meant for this world. I didn’t know if those were her words or her employers, but I intended to find out. Who knew what I had done, and what did this mean for Gwen’s life?
    “Dorian?” Gwen’s voice brought me back to the present. She stood and closed the space between us. “What is going through your head? Did you figure something out?”
    I stared down at her and, before I could think about what I was doing, my arms were pulling her against my chest. I held her tightly, one hand on the small of her back and one hand cupping the back of her head. Someone was going to try to take her from me again. Whoever it was, they had better pray I did not find them first.
    “You’re scaring me,” Gwen said. “What is going on?”
    I couldn’t tell her the truth, not until I found a way to fix what I had done. She wouldn’t understand, not now that she couldn’t even remember that day. I told her in New Orleans what I had done, but I also assured her that it wouldn’t have any