Chapter Text
Nancy had lied to him. Ace knew it. Well, he was pretty sure. Ninety percent sure, in fact, but that was steadily dropping by the second. Maybe she was right. Maybe he just didn't want to hear the truth.
Maybe it was just too hard to accept that she didn't reciprocate his feelings.
Ace stared at the door from which Nancy had exited minutes earlier and shook his head.
No, that's not it.
Afterall, she had almost kissed him. That, he was sure about, and he held onto that certainty with all that he had.
But it wasn't just the near kiss.
It was everything.
It was the way he caught her looking at him sometimes, the same way he knew he looked at her when she wouldn't notice. It was the way she held him as though she never wanted to let go. It was the way she had looked so hurt – not angry – after he had missed their appointment at the loft, and then the frustrated text that followed. And, it was the way she had clearly taken time to end things with Park (in the middle of the apocalypse) the day after he told her his feelings. And, and…
and she had nearly kissed him.
She had nearly kissed him, right before that stupid barometer broke.
Ace's focus shifted, turning to stare at the traitorous object.
Why did the barometer break?
He walked towards it, a familiar discomfort balling in his gut. The barometer had been a gift and as far as he knew, it had never been dropped or damaged. The temperature in the room was stable, and nothing else had moved. Sure, glass was sometimes known to spontaneously break – he knew of someone whose shower screen had broken one night without warning – but for all three panels to break at once…
"Please don't break any more of my stuff."
No response.
Ace wasn't really surprised. Whatever this was, it didn't feel like a ghost. He didn't have that sense of being observed, of being watched from something unseen. But Ace had become quite good over the last six months at identifying when things didn't feel normal, and this definitely fit the bill:
A friend acting strange without clear cause, check.
Objects seemingly changing state of their own accord, check.
Him getting hurt by unforeseen circumstances, check.
The last criterion was mostly an attempt to infuse some much-needed humour into Ace's life, but it had unfortunately become a fairly good indicator recently. He rubbed subconsciously at the place over his heart, which only a couple months ago he had feared being torn from his body by a supernatural entity wearing a somewhat ridiculously large hat (by today's standards, anyway). If it hadn't been such a successful killer, it almost would have been comical.
Ace pulled out his phone, texting the one person whom he thought might be able to help.
His phone beeped immediately in reply.
Be there asap.
Ace sagged in relief. At least he didn't have to be alone. He sat down to wait, never taking his eyes off the broken piece of equipment.
True to her word, Bess arrived in under ten minutes. Ace suspected she had already been in the area, given that Addy worked downstairs. They had been growing closer ever since the events at the Veil and Ace was happy for them, despite his own rapidly deteriorating connection to Nancy.
Bess let herself in after knocking once, and instantly beelined for the couch opposite to where Ace was currently positioned. She frowned at the barometer, her own sixth sense tingling, but for now, she was more concerned with her friend.
"Hey, what happened? Are you okay?"
"No," Ace answered honestly, ignoring the first question, if only for the moment.
He expected himself to sound upset but instead, he just sounded slightly confused. He supposed that shouldn't be too shocking, given that beyond feeling concerned for Nancy, his second most predominant emotion was one of bewilderment. Nancy wasn't acting like herself. Or rather, she wasn't acting like how she acted most of the time. She did occasionally push people away out of love to protect them, or to protect herself. Ace had witnessed it too many times to count during the fiasco with the Hudson family. He had previously believed that was why Nancy was avoiding him too, but now he wasn't so sure.
He pressed his lips together in frustration. All he wanted was for them to be safe, just for once. Was that really too much to ask?
Probably.
Bess let him think for a minute before shifting forwards on the couch, drawing towards him. She took the barometer with one hand, placing it on the coffee table between them, before squeezing his palm with the other. She repeated her first question, less urgently this time now that she was satisfied Ace wasn't in immediate danger.
"Do you want to tell me what happened?"
Ace nodded. He knew Bess would understand, and she might be able to help. At the very least, she could tell him whether he was right about Nancy acting strangely.
So, he did. Not about the trail of breadcrumbs that supported his suspicions about Nancy's feelings, but about Nancy coming over impromptu and the suspected almost-kiss. He told her about the yelling – though he left out the exact wording to spare himself from having to repeat it – and about her leaving just as quickly.
Bess listened intently. Her brow furrowed again as she picked up the barometer, staring at it as though the object might be able to enlighten them as to what, exactly, had happened here.
"It just broke?"
"It just broke," Ace confirmed. "And then she left."
"Oh, Ace," Bess said, turning her attention back to her wounded platanchor. "I'm sure Nancy didn't mean it. And this…" She tapped the surface of the barometer. "This is something supernatural."
"Well, Nancy seemed quite certain it was just me."
Bess hesitated, starting slowly, before throwing caution to the wind.
"She's been acting weird ever since the Veil. And you and her… you're hopeless. Honestly, I've tried to stay out of it, but I can't. She likes you, I'm sure of it."
Ace stared at her, feeling something in his chest expanding inside of him.
Relief, that's what it was.
He wasn't crazy.
He was right.
It quickly deflated; if his suspicions were correct… then something was seriously wrong with Nancy. Like, Gorham Wraith level wrong.
"How did Nancy react?" Bess asked, looking down at the object in her hands. "When the barometer broke?"
Ace cast his mind backwards readily, to the moment seared in his brain. He saw her eyes widen, her brows knitting together.
"Surprised. Then, she looked almost… scared."
A thought, seemingly from nowhere, suddenly occurred to him.
"What if… what if it was Nancy?
Bess looked at him curiously.
"What do you mean?"
"Nancy is descended from a Woman in White. And she thought Temperance did something when you saved me from the liminal space, with the dagger and the blood. But what if it wasn't just a tracking spell? What if it… awoke something? A power in Nancy that she can't control, like – "
"Like with young ghosts," Bess continued, her eyes lighting up. "And if it only came out in periods of high emotion, that would explain why she's been avoiding you, specifically, and not everyone."
Ace tried not to flinch.
"If Nancy was worried about hurting you, she'd stay away to keep you safe."
"Exactly," Ace said, feeling relieved that Bess had ended up with the same conclusion that he had.
"It's a good theory," she said thoughtfully. Bess tapped on the surface of the broken glass. "But there's only one way to find out for sure."
"Does Nancy know you've been coming here?"
Bess looked up from her place by the table, where she was clearing a space amongst the clutter. They were in one of the rooms recently turned to storage in Icarus Hall, where the stained-glass windows were sending a kaleidoscope of colours across her face.
"No," Bess said with a grimace. "She can't stand the sight of anything Temperance related after the Veil. She moved everything from the main hall into here and hasn't been in since. She'll probably get around to sorting it eventually. I imagine she'll just send most of it to the Historical Society."
She began organising ingredients into a haphazard circle.
"Some of this could be dangerous," Ace said, eye catching on a withered item that once appeared to be someone's finger.
"Well then, its lucky..." Bess said, walking over to a nearby bookshelf and withdrawing a heavy-looking volume, "That I know how to tell what's dangerous and what's not."
Ace raised an eyebrow.
Bess opened the book with a familiarity that almost proved her point, running a finger down the list and double checking the various items splayed around her. Unfortunately, Ace still remembered the mishap with the truth serum that had wreaked utter havoc on the town. Even watching from afar through the liminal space, it had been disastrous. It had been terrible for him personally as well, as he was quite sure that the serum had played a key role in pushing together Nancy and Park.
But it had not just been him; he had also seen it blow up the relationship between two of their closest friends.
"Hey," he said, the thought prompting him to their absence. "Do you think we should have told Nick and George?"
"About your near-kiss with Nancy?"
"No," Ace muttered, "Just about Nancy generally."
"They already know something's off. And I'm not sure you would want them here. Nick is entertaining his parents, and George is busy stress-studying."
"And they don't know you sneak in here either," Ace added.
Bess gave him an annoyed look.
"Yes, that too."
She turned back to the book, reading something, before bending and heaving a large, black, and rather suspcisious-looking object onto the well-worn table.
"What are you doing?"
"This spell should tell me what kind of magic affected the barometer," Bess said. "I just need to put it into this pot..."
"Cauldron," Ace corrected her.
Bess shot him an annoyed look.
"Into this pot. And then I can start..."
She grimaced at the page of instructions.
"Sorry, Ace. This is more extensive than I thought. It could take a while."
Ace nodded.
"No problem. I guess I'll just... sit over here."
He moved to a nearby armchair, long limbs folding as he sat to watch Bess. It was like a dance, the way she tore the herbs and pinched the powers, tossing them on top of the barometer with a well-practised flourish. Even so, it was harder than he remembered to keep still, and Ace managed it for less than five minutes. He wasn't used to waiting and doing nothing; he hated not being able to help. He needed something to analyse, a way to puzzle this out for himself.
Not for the first time, Ace wished he had placed more security cameras throughout the loft. He found it difficult, though, to reconcile that ethically. But if he had, he'd be able to pause and rewind to that moment with Nancy, to find what went wrong and where…
Ace straightened. There might not be a camera positioned inside, but there was one outside. It was the first thing he did when he moved in, mounting a camera in the hallway. And he had put it facing the door to keep track of anyone coming and going, supernatural or otherwise.
"Bess?"
She didn't reply, focused as she was on the cauldron – pot – in front of her.
"I'm just going to…" He shook his head. "I'll be back soon."
Ace jogged to the car, pulling his laptop from the back seat. Once again, this situation proved why he could never afford to go anywhere without it. True, he could check the footage from his phone, but the default interface was incredibly obnoxious on mobile devices, and he was yet to find the time to build his own. He had recently discovered that tended to happen when you were busy solving supernatural mysteries. Your personal projects kind of dropped to the wayside.
Back on the couch inside, Ace balanced the laptop across his knees. He was surprised to find himself nervous, evident by the several times it took to get his password right. Glancing at Bess, Ace doubted she had even realised he was gone. Using his phone as a hotspot, Ace logged into the online storage, scrolling past a years' worth of footage to click on the folder with today's date. He knew what time it had been exactly, busy as he was with getting ready for work the next day and setting his multiple morning alarms. Pulling the toggle to several hours earlier, Ace slowed when the timestamp read 16:00. He moved deliberately through the video, waiting for the familiar head of strawberry-blonde hair.
There she was.
Ace watched as Nancy, an uninvited but not unwanted visitor, entered into his apartment. The door closed behind her; Ace would have to rely on his memory for what happened next inside. He skipped through the footage until she appeared again, trying not to wince as she turned back to yell something into the room beyond. For once, he was grateful for the lack of audio.
His eyes homed in on Nancy's face as she pulled the door shut heavily behind her. He stared at her as she stood outside the loft, breathing heavily, chest rising and falling in rapid succession. Her face was scrunched, close to tears, and Ace pressed the space button, freezing the video on the still. Nancy was pained, and her hardened mask – which was up so often these days – had slipped.
She cared, that was obvious. She cared so much. This was not the face of someone who did not feel anything for him. It was not the face of someone who merely felt bad because they had just turned down a friend.
No.
This was the face of someone who felt exactly as he did.
As though, despite the events with the Soul Splitter, his heart had been frozen and stolen away by the Copperhead anyway.
Ace pressed play again, watching as Nancy mouthed something to herself. He couldn't lip read as well as she could, but this he could make this out easily, having seen the words so many times before.
Get it together, Drew.
Then she was gone. Another sigh, another second of footage, and Nancy disappeared out of the corner of his frame. Ace rewound the video, pausing again on the shot of her near-tears. She looked so... sad. He wanted nothing more than to reach through the display – through time itself – to comfort her. To take her hand, to hold her, and ask her what the heck was going on.
Someone pushed the laptop screen downwards.
"Earth to Ace."
Ace looked upwards to find Bess watching him, an affectionate look on her face.
"Sorry."
Ace closed the laptop quickly, pushing it to the side. He looked up at her expectantly.
"Did it work?"
"It worked," Bess said, though she didn't look particularly happy about it. "It was a curse. I'm not sure what kind, but some form of a curse definitely caused the barometer to break."
Well, that explained why she wasn't smiling.
"But that's not all," Bess said, eyes flickering between Ace's in concern. "Given that it was a curse, I had a… suspicion about who might be responsible. And since we're surrounded by her belongings, I was able to confirm it."
Ace stared at her. Nancy owned Icarus Hall now, so did that mean it had been her, after all? Or was Bess referring to…
"It was Temperance, Ace," Bess said, her anger hiding the small flicker of fear she felt at saying her name. "A curse placed by Temperance broke the barometer."
She placed a hand on his shoulder, comforting him before her next words.
"I think… I think Temperance must have cursed Nancy."
Ace was surprised to discover he did, in fact, still have a heart, just as it crashed through the floor into the depths of the hidden tunnels below.
"Okay, let me get this straight," George said, standing over the broken barometer. A curse, Ace and Bess had decided, called for reinforcements. Even if that meant Bess admitting she'd been breaking into Icarus Hall, and even if those reinforcements were currently stressed about lawyer (and Nick) adjacent things. "Before Temperance died, she used her final breath to place a curse on Nancy, one of her last living relatives."
"That's right," Bess said.
"Wow. I mean, I knew she was awful but that's… wow. What a bitch."
Bess gave her a reproachful look.
"Sorry, I know you don't like the word, Bess, but she was! She was a bitch."
"Okay, well, regardless, we need to work out what the curse is."
George threw a doubtful look towards the large pile of books Bess had pulled from the shelves.
"Right, and remind me why we can't just ask Nancy again?"
"We can't," Bess said, her voice jumping an octave. "We don't know what could trigger the curse. When Temperance hexed the children at the Youth Centre, even just Nick and I talking about it caused a partial retaliation."
"Okay, okay." George looked at Ace, "Can you explain to me what happened again?"
"Nancy and I were at the loft – "
George gave Bess a knowing look.
"We were talking, and then… and then the barometer broke," Ace said, avoiding her eye.
"Talking," George said, sounding unconvinced. "Sure. And what were you talking about?"
Ace stared at her, the words tumbling out in an embarrassed mess.
"Romantic relationships."
George looked at him, looked at Bess, and then back at him.
"You really think I'm buying this?"
Ace didn't reply.
"Fine," George huffed. "So, you were talking about… romantic relationships, and then the barometer broke. Let's pretend that's what happened. But why would Temperance care about your or Nancy's love life? Seems a bit below a two-hundred-year-old witch, don't you think?"
"Yes, well, Temperance never fell in love herself," Bess said. "So maybe…"
She trailed off, eyes going unfocused.
"Bess?"
"That's it!" Bess said, standing and moving to another table. She began pushing around pieces of paper, sifting through them in a frantic search.
Ace and George looked at each other, perplexed.
"What is?"
"I know I saw it somewhere here…"
Bess leaned down to another cabinet, shuffling through a stack of letters before giving a strangled cry.
"Yes, here it is, look!"
She walked back to them, pressing the paper firmly onto the table and smoothing out the edges.
"Temperance never fell in love," Bess continued. "But she believed that Charity wouldn't help her because of the love she felt for her husband. Personally, I think Charity just didn't believe in bringing about the 'New Genesis', but Temperance never saw it that way. She saw her daughter's love as a weakness, as something that was being exploited by the Marvins. In her own, twisted way, she acknowledged the power of love. Except her takeaway was how it could be turned into a weapon."
Ace and George stared at the paper, gazing past the wrinkles to the words on the page.
"I found this when I was looking around – "
"Snooping," George amended.
"Fine, yes, when I was snooping around through Temperance's belongings months ago."
After several moments, George raised her eyes to Bess.
"Let me get this straight. You think Temperance placed some star-crossed lovers curse on Ace and Nancy?"
"It makes sense!" Bess said, "Look, it's all here. And the ink is fresher than the rest, the paper newer, and Temperance wrote this herself, a modified version of another curse."
It was a compelling argument; there was no doubt this had been a recent addition to Temperance's collection.
"But why would she leave it just lying around?" George asked, frowning. "Seems a little dumb."
"Because she's an arrogant, egotistical sociopath?" Bess asked, shaking her head. "She probably never thought Nancy would actually follow through with it. And even if Temperance thought it was a possibility, she wouldn't have believed anyone else capable of breaking one of her curses."
Bess looked at Ace, her face glowing.
"This is it, Ace."
Ace was still starting at the paper, unsure. If Bess was right, then that meant Nancy felt the same way he did. But a curse wasn't good news, even if it brought answers.
"This is it," Bess pressed again. "It explains why the barometer broke when you two almost kissed – "
"Kissed?" George asked, raising an eyebrow. "And here I thought you were just talking."
"I don't know, Bess," Ace said, eyes not having moved from the paper.
"She said something to you," Bess said, not giving up. She had that feverish feeling she always got right before it all came together; Nancy wasn't the only one who gained satisfaction from cracking a good mystery. "Nancy said something to you, after she decided not to swing at Temperance."
Ace looked up at her, his focus suddenly torn from the page.
Bess was right. How had he forgotten that? He'd even asked her about it afterwards… but she'd said it was nothing. He hadn't really believed her, but with everything else that had happened, he had just chalked it down to Nancy being Nancy.
To keeping secrets that would be revealed in due time.
Except this time, she hadn't told him anything, even a month later.
"What did she say?" George asked, looking between the two of them.
Ace frowned, thinking. It didn't take long. He remembered that it had been one of those heavy looks, weighted with meaning, and then Nancy had said:
"'I'm doing this for us.'" He glanced back down at the paper, where the words 'Juliet and Romeo' were titled in dark, bold ink. A last game by Temperance Hudson. Ace found little humour in the play on words. "She said, 'I'm doing this for us'. And then later, when she ran to save the town, she said 'I'm so sorry'."
Bess spread her hands wide, welcoming the final crux to her theory.
"There you go. Nancy must have known about the curse, and she hesitated because of you. But when she saw the destruction of the town, she knew she had to go back, and that's why she said sorry."
"It's all circumstantial – "
"Come on, Ace," George said, her voice growing frustrated now. "Nancy likes you. I know it. You know it. And you like Nancy. The barometer broke when you tried to kiss – not when you were talking, which was useless information, by the way – and what? You think Bess just happened to find a curse that is directly applicable to this situation? These are people's feelings; you're not always going to get any hard evidence. I swear, you're both as bad as each other."
"Yes, well, to be fair, Nancy doesn't exactly have a great track record in the romance department," Bess said mildly.
Ace tuned them out. He looked at the barometer, at the paper; picked it up. He needed to think. He moved back to the couch, away from the watchful stares of Bess and George – though, truthfully, George's was more like a glare.
He thought about earlier today when he had been so sure…
He thought about the way Nancy had been avoiding him for the last month, which he still believed was connected to her feelings for him.
He thought about her face on the laptop – Get it together, Drew – and about all the instances he had conjured up right after Nancy left.
Then, the way it always did, the pieces of the puzzle appeared in front of him, as though suspended in mid-air. And one by one, Ace watched as they slotted together, as Bess's theory became clear. And in it, he saw the story of a vengeful Hudson ancestor, desperate to unleash the power that hid underneath Horeshoe Bay. He saw Temperance referring to Nancy's 'blindspots', as she put it, and saw how, through her eyes, love was nothing more than a point to be manipulated.
Ace saw, as Bess did, the most likely reason for Nancy's avoidance: that Temperance had cursed her. Cursed her to stay away from him, to deny the way she felt, even if it hurt them both.
Ace found the revelation brought little comfort.
Nancy was cursed.
And worse, she believed herself to be alone in this. He looked back at the paper, his eyes refocusing on the final line.
No wonder Nancy had been scared.
This was a curse to separate entwined hearts. In as permanent a fashion that Temperance could muster.
"If you're right," Ace said to the room. "Then this says I'll die if either of us ever acts on those feelings."
"Pfft," George said, striding over and snatching the paper from him. "So what? Bess is practically a Woman in White now. I'm sure she can break it."
Bess followed, taking the paper more gently from George's outstretched hand. It was a complicated curse, more so than any of the others she had seen. Definitely more complex than any she had attempted to crack before. For a second, she was forced to accept that maybe Temperance had been right to leave the instructions for the curse lying around. If Bess couldn't reverse it, then that was almost worse. Both Ace and Nancy would know about the curse but be unable to do anything; unable, even, to talk about it, lest admitting it triggered some form of response. And worse, too, for Bess to know that she had been beaten by Temperance again, a mere pupil going up against her teacher.
Then she looked up and saw the other two watching her. She saw the pride on George's face, and the hope on Ace's, and she shoved her doubts away.
She could do this.
She could beat the final ghost of Temperance Hudson.
For her friends, she could do anything.
"It will take some time," Bess said firmly, wanting to set clear expectations. "But I'll try. I'm sorry, Ace, but you'll just have to be patient."
Ace nodded.
"I can be patient."
And he could be.
For a chance at happiness with Nancy, he could outwait a curse.
Easy.