A Touch Spellbound

A Touch Spellbound Zodiac Cove: Book Six Sonia Hartl Zodiac Cove Publishing LLC Published by Zodiac Cove Publishing, LLC Copyright © 2023 by Sonia Hartl All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to real people, places, or events are coincidental. Cover Designed by Natasha Snow Designs www.natashasnow.com Copy Editing by Monique Conrod Dedication For anyone who has fond childhood memories of Mr. Peanut, this is not a dedication so much as an apology. My mind is sometimes a terrifying place to be. Content Warnings Body horror Death from drunk driving Emotional abuse, isolation, and manipulation Physical abuse Gore and wounds Death by drowning Contents 1. Jocelyn 2. Rafe 3. Jocelyn 4. Jocelyn 5. Rafe 6. Jocelyn 7. Rafe 8. Jocelyn 9. Rafe 10. Jocelyn 11. Jocelyn 12. Rafe 13. Jocelyn 14. Rafe 15. Jocelyn 16. Jocelyn 17. Rafe 18. Jocelyn 19. Rafe 20. Jocelyn Epilogue Afterword Character Key Also By Sonia About the Author Chapter one JocelynHow much longer could I stay behind this locked door? I wasn’t a princess in need of saving, but I wasn’t trying to save myself either. I’d willingly climbed the tower, kicked down the ladder, and refused to take my rightful place in the kingdom. It had worked for me for years, but staring down the destruction of the place I still called home, despite everything, I had to ask myself an honest question. At what point did protection become just plain cowardice?My fingers dug into my balcony’s iron railing, the cool metal biting into my palms. The sting of gripping the rail too tightly didn’t even register above the roar in my ears. Protect Rafe or rip open his wounds? Hurt him or hurt us both? Fear or courage? I’d spent too many weeks turning myself inside out, convincing myself that I wasn’t needed, that the others could handle this curse without me. But it had just become abundantly clear that was a bunch of bullshit.I’d been curled up in bed, attempting to knit a hat Kenna would never even pretend to like just to spare my feelings, when the ground began to rumble. Same as the night magic entered my body and gave me a sense of wholeness I hadn’t felt since I kissed Rafe all those years ago. A night that haunted me worse than the death of my fiancé.As I clung to my headboard to keep from falling off my bed, and the sound of people screaming and running down the hall filled my head, for one brief moment, I wondered if it would be better for everyone if the walls just came down around me. I immediately dismissed the thought. It wasn’t my own. But the fact that it had crept into my mind at all terrified me. Who was I becoming? How had I let things progress this far? Once the earth stopped trying to toss me around my bedroom like a tennis ball, I went out to my balcony to get a view of the damage. I’d been having trouble getting air into my lungs ever since. Water lapped at the white oak veranda below me. Gentle waves brought bits of sand and seaweed to the back door of the hotel that had been my home for the last seven years. The beach was gone. All of it. The final phase of the curse had begun. I held my fist to my mouth and bit down hard on my knuckles, drawing blood before I realized what I’d done. Grinding my teeth together, I worked my molars back and forth, shaving off imperceptible amounts of enamel along with countless years of my life. A sense of being trapped clawed at my throat. Far worse than when the ferries stopped running. Worse than when the sun went down for the last time and the street lights went out.The time I’d generously been given to acclimate myself to working with Rafe was over. Which was ridiculous. We were adults. There had once been a time when he’d been the source of more guilt than I knew how to carry. But that was a long time ago. I didn’t know him anymore, and he certainly didn’t know me.So why did the idea of working with him make my insides quake worse than this most recent attack by the curse? Why had I let things go this far?I knew the answer, of course. Because I’d been willing to let this whole island sink before I’d do anything to hurt Rafe. I’d gone full-blown villain for a man who’d happily feed me to the curse’s sharks, free of charge. My parents must be so proud.The French doors several floors below opened, the only sound disturbing the quiet that had settled over the hotel. The residents who had been staying here had gathered out front, making the back end of the hotel feel like a hollow shell of a luxury liner turned ghost ship. The emptiness pressed in on me, more so than it did in the dead of winter when I was alone, without the company of tourists I led on tours through the forest in the summer. Shunned by everyone except my cousin Kenna, who risked too much being seen in my company.But no matter how many times I told her it wasn’t worth it, she snubbed her nose at the town and stood by my side. The way I’d once expected Rafe to, before I’d made the choice to kick down the ladder of that aforementioned tower. With a deep sigh, I turned away from the miles of beach that had been swallowed by the ocean’s waters, but the sound of voices I recognized drifted up to me. I wasn’t usually one to eavesdrop, mostly because