Cursed Fate: Cursed Series #4 Read Free

as a team. Now our business is dying and no one is willing to set foot in this place. It’s crazy how four best friends can turn a corner and fall apart in the blink of an eye. First we lost Dault, then the news that Linc isn’t expected to regain full movement in his arm pushed him to leave town. So much hit us at once that there was no way for us to pull Cursed Magic back together.
    This was the one place I could go to find myself, yet now it’s the place I go to hide from myself. Taking another sip, I pull the bottle away from my mouth and stare through the transparency of the glass. Knowing drinking alone is wrong, I debate tossing it into the trash…nah, I’m already drowning in a mental state of depression— might as well finish what I’ve started…hell, I’m no quitter.
    Leaning my head back against the cool leather of the chair, I raise the bottle to my lips again and take a long sip. A bitter taste fills my mouth as my tongue sweeps out to lick a drop of the amber liquid from my lip. I’m falling hard and fast, not knowing if I’ll be able to pull myself back out again.
    I swore to myself I’d never let it get this bad again, my life was ruined once before. But now I fear it could be worse than ever.
    The sound of the bell from the front door pulls me out of my fog as I jump to my feet.
    Shit, did I forget to lock the door?
    Who the fuck could possibly be here?
    No one knows that I’m even here…or so I thought.
    Tossing the half empty bottle into the trash, I move through the room and out into the hallway. The shop is dark except for the neon lights shining in through the front windows. A female silhouette begins to walk toward me and my heart skips a beat.
    It’s her, the one woman my heart ached over for such a long time. The physical connection is like a magnet pulling her body closer to mine. I can feel her long before our skin begins to touch one another. Her presence is so close, yet she feels so far away.
    I don’t know what we were thinking. It could never work; we were just a fix of convenience when we both needed the comfort of a warm body. The only problem…my soul craved for her again and led me to feel things I haven’t felt in a long time. She was my safety net, or so I thought.
    “Steve, what are you doing here?” She asks, as her small frame stands before me. “Have you been drinking?”
    Shaking my head and blinking my eyes, I try to focus on the beauty standing before me.
    “How…w-why…ww-what are you doing here?” I stutter in response.
    Her warm hands reach out for my arms as she trails her fingertips along my triceps.
    “Don’t ignore my question, Steve. Why the hell would you start drinking again…after all you went through to get sober?”
    She pauses for a brief moment and I can feel the guilt pulling all the air out of my lungs. Looking into her hazel eyes, I want to tell her how I’m feeling. The pain of everything is just too much to deal with—I need something to take it away. It just sucks that the only cure for my illness is in a bottle.
    “We need to talk, Steve. I’ve been looking for you all day.”
    Trying my damnedest to fill my lungs with air, I take a step back from her and look down to the tile floor.
    “Ashley, why the hell would you be looking for me? We haven’t seen, let alone spoken to each another, in weeks.”
    As she removes her hands from my arms, a sigh of air puffs from her chest.
    “That’s not my doing, Steve, and you know it. You left me in that alleyway… you walked away from me when I told you what I wanted. In fact, you’ve closed yourself off from all of us.”
    Moving past me, she pushes through into my room and flips on the light. My eyes squint shut due to the intensity of the florescent lights.
    “Why are you here?” I ask in a harsh tone, rubbing my eyes while they adjust to the brightness.
    Turning around to face her, I catch the glaring look she returns in my direction. With one hand on her hip, she rests her other