Kiss Of The Alpha : A YA Paranormal Romance

Chapter 83: Chapter 83

Heather

I flipped through some more pages. If I was a betting girl, which I wasn’t, I’d bet this was the one that Luciana and the others didn’t want me to have.

"Anything good?" Xander asked.

"It’s too soon to tell. I’ll need help going through everything, but maybe. If there’s a way to fix to what’s going on with Serena, we’ll find it in here."

"Can I see that one?" Brent asked. I handed the newest book to him, and went back to the one with no title. Something about it called to me.

Unfortunately, every word was gobbledygook.

Rise to the west, and the soul to the east...Light the candles clockwise to find the one you seek.

I understood the words and maybe the sentiment behind them, but I didn’t quite get what they were accomplishing.

By the time Xander pulled into the St. Francis’s parking lot, I knew more about spells, but none of it was exactly helpful. Hopefully one of the other books would be marginally less confusing.

I slipped the books into my bag and hopped down from the car. Xander tossed me the keys, and I caught them. A few weeks ago, this would’ve been a shocker—my coordination used to be less than fantastic—but being a Were was good for some things.

Brent walked so close beside me that our arms brushed. If it’d been anyone else, I’d tell them to take a step to the side, but with Brent, it was comforting.

When we got to the edge of the parking lot, Adrian, Leslie, and Dr. Gonzales were waiting. Adrian and Leslie were the other two people—besides Brent, Serena, and Xander—that I hung out with.

I was really glad to see Adrian. Since he had more experience with the magic stuff, my first mission was going to be pulling him from class, but since he was here, we could dig right in.

Dr. Gonzales stepped forward first.

Oh no... My heart stuttered. "Is Serena—"

"No change."

I shoved my shaking hands in my pockets. "That’s good." I guessed.

"We were more concerned with you. When Brent ran off and we realized you were missing, we thought you might be coming back injured." Dr. Gonzales patted her black messenger bag. "But.you look fine."

"We had a little scare, but she’s okay." Brent put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me to his side. "I might not ever be fine again, but Heather’s snarky as ever."

"Shut up." I elbowed him.

Leslie’s eyes were red, making her green eyes bright. She tucked a piece of her curly red hair behind her ear. "Did you get Serena sorted?"

Her singsongy Irish accent rang clear. Leslie still had a thing for Brent and it’d been tense between us. This was the first time she’d directly spoken to me in a week.

"Maybe. It was worth the trip." I paused. "I tried to talk them into breaking the curse, but Luciana won’t unless I let her curse me and move in with the coven."

Leslie narrowed her eyes. She’d probably like it if I accepted Luciana’s terms.

"That’s never going to happen." I left no room for argument. "Anyway...I got some books from my cousins. They said the books might be helpful, so I’m hoping that’s code for definitely helpful. If all of you wouldn’t mind looking through them with me, that would be awesome."

"I have to go back to teaching, and you need to eat," Brent said.

"I’ll eat later."

"Heather."

I sighed. I wanted to keep working on this, but needed to stay level-headed, which made eating a priority. "Okay. I’ll go by the common room and grab some sandwiches, and then we can meet in the admin building in a few?"

The others nodded and Brent agreed. With that figured out, I made my way across campus. I wanted to run to the common area, but made myself walk. It was a fast walk, but I was keeping it together.

I was banking on these books, because Plan B was not an option.

But if the magic doesn’t work...

I silenced my inner doubt. It would work. I’d spend every second I had to make sure Serena was okay.

That was the only option.

After grabbing food, I reconvened with Leslie, Adrian, and Xander on the first floor of the administration building.

Leslie led the way to a conference room. Most of the space was taken up by a long rectangular table surrounded by chairs. A buffet table in the back held a stack of yellow legal pads, a cup of pens and highlighters, and a case of water bottles.

Maybe this was where they held the pack meetings? For some reason, I’d pictured them taking place in the woods around a campfire, like where we voted whether or not to keep Callista in the pack, but maybe they were usually more conventional than that.

We spread out around half the table. I sat on one side with Adrian and Leslie across from me. Xander took a seat at the head. I took the three books out of my bag and placed them on the tabletop. "This is what we’ve got to work with."

Xander reached behind him and grabbed a legal pad for each of us, then put the cup with pens and highlighters in the center of the table.

Adrian snatched up the nameless brown book. "I can’t believe they actually gave you this one." His dark brown eyes were wide with wonder as he looked through it.

With all the scribbling, I knew the book was different, but I wasn’t sure what that meant. "What’s the deal? Why is it all handwritten?"

"It’s a Book of Shadows."

Whoa. I’d heard of those. Only because I watched Charmed. It was a guilty pleasure.

On the show, the Book of Shadows was a family’s spell book handed down from generation to generation. "I didn’t know people had those in real life."

He carefully closed the book and ran his hand over the cover. "Yep. Every family has different spells, different ways of doing things. At least that’s what I was always told. It gets passed on to the oldest child from each generation."

That didn’t make sense. "Newsflash. I’m not the oldest in my family. Axel is. And I’m pretty sure Claudia and Raphael are older than me, too."

Adrian shrugged. "I guess I’m wrong. Maybe it’s not the oldest, but the most powerful?"

I moved uncomfortably in my seat. If that were true, then Claudia had taken a huge risk by giving me the book. No wonder Raphael had been against it.

Adrian opened the book again and Leslie scooted closer to him to read.

I started with Chapter One of mine. It had great information on the basics of witchcraft, explaining how magic was a test of one’s will and faith. But none of that specifically helped Serena. When I had a few days, I’d start at the beginning, but for now, I flipped to the back of the book.

The index had an entry for "breaking curses." That sounded much more applicable.

I started reading it and things got interesting. For all intents and purposes, the book implied that messing with anyone else’s curses was a bad idea. Apparently it caused ’adverse effects,’ which included illness, wasting diseases, and painful death.

That sounded like a bunch of not cool.

I scribbled down "NEVER try breaking a curse" on my notepad. Not that I needed the note to remind me, but it was good to keep in mind if I ever got desperate.

The Chapter went into some gruesome details—pictures included—of people who had tried and failed to break a curse. At the end was a note.

Although it is inadvisable to break another’s curse or spell, counteracting it can be achieved.

If the caster’s will and faith be stronger than those of the original caster, then the effects of the curse or spell may be lessened or even overridden.

The relief I felt was tangible. Now, all I needed to do was find a spell to counteract the curse on Serena.