Kiss Of The Alpha : A YA Paranormal Romance

Chapter 84: Chapter 84

Heather

I flipped back to the index and searched for anything that sounded helpful. The way I figured, there were two real options. Breaking the curse wasn’t one of them. We either needed to put Serena’s wolf back to sleep or we needed a spell strong enough to override the original curse, which would release her wolf.

Everyone else at the table was all about finding the latter, but getting Serena’s wolf to chill seemed like the safest option. Then this new spell wouldn’t have to be stronger than Luciana’s spell or even override it. It just had to work alongside it.

I lost all track of time. The scratch of my highlighter against the glossy finish of the crisp textbook pages and the scraping sound of pens against paper filled the room. Occasionally Adrian and Leslie whispered to each other about possible spells, but I tuned them out. I was determined to find answers.

After a while, my eyes were watering and my back was stiff. I stood and stretched, my joints popping as I leaned back. "Do you see anything in the books for a spell about either releasing or quieting a wolf?"

"Leslie and I found a couple possible spells to try," Adrian said.

That was promising. "Xander?" I said.

He was reading the blue book, his nose nearly pressed into spine. He held up a finger.

Okay. He needed more time. "Well, mine is about as useless as meta class." I had to take metaphysics with the freshmen. The class tried, and, in my opinion, failed miserably to explain magic in scientific terms. "It’s got all these theories about how magic works, which is great, but no actual spells that could be helpful." I sighed.

"What does it say about breaking spells?" Leslie asked.

I flipped through the pages to find a passage that I’d marked. "The meat of it boils down to this passage. ’The abilities of one witch will determine the abilities of each work of magic.

It has a bunch of junkola after that and then the next part is good. ’The longevity of the work is determined by the strength of the will enforcing said work.

The potency and sustainability of a work can be partly determined by the strength of the witch’s will. Most works of magic wear out in time, but when breaking a particular work, the abilities of the caster must be weighed against those of the breaker.’" I glanced up from the book. "So if I want to break the spell, then I have to have stronger willpower than Luciana. If I don’t, the whole thing could backfire."

Now it was time to share my crazy idea.

"We basically need Serena’s wolf to not fight her anymore, right? But we’re thinking like wolves—about freeing Serena from the spell. If we can’t do that safely, then why not try to put her wolf back to sleep? We wouldn’t have to worry about anything backfiring then. Or who’s stronger than who."

"Might not be such a horrible idea," Xander said. "I was reading about the dangers of breaking a spell, too, but this one says it differently. Basically, if you want to break the spell that she put on Serena, then all you have to do is want it more. But it’s hard to quantify how badly someone wants something. It’s a huge risk. Do you think you want to break it more than Luciana wants to keep it?"

I slammed my book closed. "How the hell should I know?"

Xander rocked back in his chair. He ran his fingers through his blond wavy hair, making it fro-out a little. "Well, if you try to break it by will, and fail, then you could end up making her much worse. Not to mention that it could rub off on you, too. You could get sick in the process."

Great. I didn’t want to make Serena’s curse any worse than it already was, but I had to do something. Breaking the curse was still the option I liked the most, but it might not be the safest.

"How was the other book?" I asked Leslie and Adrian, stalling.

"We found a couple contenders that could maybe break a spell."

Nice. I leaned toward them. "And?"

"Aaaand I’m not sure where we’d find some of the components for some of these potions," Adrian said as he tapped his pen on his notepad.

"One of them even calls for the blood of the caster," Leslie said.

Luciana had to give me her blood? Yeah, that would never happen. "Not in a million years would she give us her blood."

We were quiet afterwards, each of us lost in our own thoughts.

I would’ve felt better about trying a spell if I could talk to Donovan. He knew more about dealing with this than any of us. It would be nice to get his opinion before attempting anything, but that wasn’t going to happen.

Screw it. I wasn’t going to try anything that would be even more dangerous for Serena. "As much as you all might not like it, I think we drop the idea of breaking the curse, and instead focus on finding one that will work alongside the curse to quiet her wolf."

Leslie’s face was red as she yelled a stream of curses at me. I sat there quietly, letting them vent their anger and frustration. When I had enough I stood up. "Stop." The word had enough power to get them to instantly shut up.

"Here’s the problem. Anything we try to counter the spell with has big repercussions. Serena is extremely sick. We cannot make it worse for her or she’ll die. Something made her wolf fight against her curse. The two parts that make up Serena are at war after three years of being totally fine. So, we put the wolf back to sleep and she should go back to being fine." I sat back down. "Maybe one day we can find a way to break the curse for good," I said softly. "But right now, none of us know enough to fix this. So, we do our best to keep Serena alive."

"I agree." Xander slid his chair back from the table. "It’s our best shot."

"No! I refuse to believe that. It’s because she’s one of them." The disgust was clear in Leslie’s voice. "Look at her. She hasn’t even accepted her own wolf. Why would she help one of us?"

I growled. My wolf surged faster than ever before. "This isn’t about getting Serena’s wolf back. It’s about keeping her alive." I slammed my hand on the table, and it groaned. Anger was not my friend right now, but I couldn’t rein it back. "You’re too close-minded to see what’s best for her."

"What’s best is making her whole." Leslie spat the words at me as she leaned over the table. "Her wolf wants out, and we should be helping to free her. Once that happens, she’ll be okay."

"Don’t you get it? Trying to mess around with that curse could kill her!" Fur rippled along my arms. "Shit. Not now."

Leslie pointed at me and turned to Adrian. "Look at that. Her wolf is begging to be set free and she’s too scared to let it. It’s unnatural. And she’d have us imprison one of ours. I’ll not stand for it."

I turned my back to them as I tried to get myself under control. My stomach burned with the need to change. My knuckles popped.

I will not change. I will not change. I will not change.