Curse Breaking 101

CURSE brEAKING 101

I manage to text Esme a warning before we reach the car, so when Mel and I drag the new rug into the house, we’re all alone on the ground floor.

She huffs as she drops her end in the family room. “Are you redecorating? This doesn’t go with the current furniture.”

“No?” I give her my best innocent look. “But don’t you think it will be nice to lie on?”

She chuckles and shakes her head. “So you bought it for the texture?”

“You know how much I like fluffy things.” I frown down at it. “Do you really think it’s that ugly?”

“Not as ugly as the blanket you bought.” She plucks at the corner of the tangerine comforter sitting on the couch. “I can’t decide if you’re trying to give the guys a landing pad to aim for or if it’s a caution sign.”

“Why not both?” I pick up the box of ingredients I set by the door and head for the kitchen. “Are you here to mentor or judge my decor?”

“Why not both?” she repeats back at me and laughs at her own joke.

“Har har.” I spot the ingredients from the basement sitting on the island and set my box next to them, feeling guilty that Zane will have to wait a little longer for the healing poultices.

“Okay.” Mel rubs her hands together. “Let’s see these spells.”

“Give me a second to print them out.” I fiddle with my phone, sending the right files to the printer in the house so we’re not squished together over my tiny screen.

A whirring sound comes from the formal living room, and I walk into the small space to open an antique cabinet and grab the printouts. It’s a weird place for a printer, but with no official office, it’s the best we can do until we get to remodeling the basement.

When I return to the kitchen, I find Mel unpacking the box from her shop and lining up all the ingredients.

“We have three to choose from.” I spread the papers out on the counter. “Which do you think we should try first?”

Mel peruses the options and frowns, re-examining the ingredients. “Half of these aren’t even needed for these spells.”

“Oh, well…” I scratch the back of my head, my cheeks heating. “I, uh, also wanted to restock my witch pantry. We’ve depleted a lot of grandma’s stock over the last few months.”

Mel gives me a funny look. “Witch pantry?”

“Is that wrong?” I ask.

“No, not at all.” Her expression doesn't change. “But it’s not a phrase you’ve used before.”

“Oh.” Worried I’m making her suspicious, I focus on the printouts. “Must be something I picked up in Silver Hollow.”

“Must be.” She shrugs and points to the center spell. “Let’s try this one. It’s the easiest and least time intensive.”

I read over the instructions, and we pull out the ingredients needed. Lucky for me, Mel grabs the bottles while I read the items out loud, and I note which is what. The last thing I need is for Mel to wonder how I pulled the unlabeled ingredients if I don’t know what they are.

Grabbing the spell pot from under the island, which I marked with a poison symbol the last time we used it to make a potion, I set it on the stove.

“You really should keep your spell pots in a different location,” Mel says as I add the first of the ingredients.

“I need a She Shed for witches.” I tap in a few hairy strands of herbs. “Because no way will the guys let me put a stove on the roof.”

“You know, that’s not a bad idea.” Mel observes my work. “ Or you could use the fireproofed basement, since that’s what it’s there for.”

I stiffen, the bottle of iridescent liquid wobbling in my hand before I straighten it, preventing any extra from dripping into the pot. “But we hates the basement.”

“At some point, you’ll need to overcome your resistance to being underground.” When I remain silent, she sighs. “Well, you have been saying how you want to chop down the woods up here, and having a communal place for spell work, away from downtown, would be good.”

“I like that idea much better.” I find my special spoon with the handle that Haut wrapped in purple glitter tape and stir the ingredients together. “Kills two birds with one stone. Burn down the forest and plant a Spell Shack on its ashes.”

“I see therapy is working out all your trauma,” she says.

“We hates therapy,” I whisper to my brew.

“Someone needs to watch movies with fewer ring-hoarding hobbits in them.” She studies the bubbling liquid. “Don’t let it boil.”

“Tris picked the trilogy for date night.” I lower the flame. “Gollum is my precious.”

I continue to stir the potion until the murky liquid comes to a simmer, then pull the pot off the heat and remove the spoon.

Bringing out my wand, I circle it widdershins while reciting the spell. Magic shivers through me, raising goose bumps, and fine threads of silver spindle into the potion, turning it from gray to shimmering blue.

Surprised, I turn to Mel for confirmation.

“You did it on your first try!” She bumps her shoulder against mine. “You’re a real witch!”

“Wow.” I marvel at my potion. “I guess I really am amazing.”

“And so modest.” She pats me on the head. “Too bad we don’t have anything cursed to try this out on.”

“We could always?—”

She gives me a stern look. “No cursing things so we can uncurse them.”

My shoulders slump. I hadn’t actually expected the spell to work on my first try, and it’s not like I can whip off my wrist guard and slather my black mark in it to see what happens.

Then, it hits me. My secret bucket is full of curses. The realization must show on my face, because Mel straightens.

Suspicious now, her hands move to her hips. “Rowe, do you have something cursed that you want to experiment on?”

My shoulders hunch. Damn Mel for knowing me so well.

Aspen said to keep the stones a secret from the council, and Mel’s moms are a trinity, part of the very heart of the council. But this is Mel, my chosen mentor, who hates the system her mothers personify.

Pulse quickening, I meet Mel’s eyes. This will either be fine or shoot me in the foot. “We’re a team, right?”

“Right,” she says slowly.

“So I can trust you, right? ”

“You didn’t turn Tris into a goose again, did you?” She turns toward the hall off the kitchen. “Is he hiding on the back porch?”

“No, nothing like that.” I take a deep breath. “Wait right here for a second. Don’t move.”

I hurry up the stairs to Owen’s room and crawl under the bed. Dust bunnies migrated here during the construction, making my nose itch as I pry up the loose floorboard and pull out my secret bucket.

It feels heavy in my hand as I carry it back downstairs.

Curiosity fills Mel’s face as I set it on the kitchen island. “Okay, so not a goose.”

Now that the moment is upon me, anxiety takes hold. “I’m trusting you with a big secret.”

Her expression sobers. “Okay, I’m listening.”

“The first time I did this, it was an accident. It happened during the battle with the huntsmen, when I stopped Ros’s dad, Elias, from hurting him.” I peel open the lid and reach inside to lift out the stone bat. “After the battle, Ros found this. It’s his dad’s ability to turn into bats.”

Shocked, Mel takes it from me. “You separated the power from him without killing him? By accident ? No wonder you destroyed my wand! ”

I cringe at the reminder. That incident is what got me saddled with Aspen.

I reach into my bucket again, pulling out a rectangular stone etched with a spirit symbol. “This one came from my fight with Bryant. It’s the powers he stole from the witches he was using to control Rodney.”

I still regret that I wasn’t able to save the young werewolf, and in the end, he died protecting me.

Mel takes the stone. “You’re lucky your instincts freed Rodney in time for him to help Zane save you.”

Guilt fills me at the minor lie, but it allows Rodney to be a hero in his final moments. Had I told the town that Rodney tried to kill me to his final breath, and that Zane was the one to kill him, it would have seeded fear of vampires among the wolf shifters who already aren’t sure about their new residents.

Hand shaking, I reach into the bucket again and withdraw the wolf statue. “ This one I took with intention while in Silver Hollow. The werewolf was trying to kill me and had hurt Haut. I ripped everything paranormal out of him and made him human. Aspen and I used another stone that I gained from him to destroy the moon madness curse and free werewolves.”

Her head snaps up. “Aspen knows about this?”

I nod.

“And he kept it a secret?” Hurt flashes across her face before she shakes it off. “Never mind. I understand why he did. If the council knew you could do this…”

She shoves the stones back across the counter. “Put them away.”

I put the wolf and the psychic stone back into the bucket but leave the bat on the counter. “I want to destroy this one, if the anti-curse potion can do it. The thought of Ros’s dad being out there terrifies me. If he ever gets out, and he comes back here, I don’t want him getting his power back.”

“Okay, good point.” She frowns at the statue. “But why do you think this is a curse?”

“Maybe not so much a curse,” I say, the words slow as I try to give voice to what I’ve been thinking about these stones since Silver Hollow and now my talk with Delilah. “When I stopped the werewolf in Silver Hollow, I snatched out two stones. One that made the man a werewolf and one that was unnatural, the curse.”

She appears thoughtful. “That makes sense. ”

“But with the psychic stone and the bat stone, taking those didn’t stop Bryant or Elias from being vampires,” I continue. “It took what made them special. Ros said vampires sometimes gain these extra powers as they get older, but what if it’s from a buildup of feeding on witches? Stolen magic is curse-like. It changes who they were as vampires.”

“That’s an interesting theory.” Mel picks up the bat stone again, studying it. “I wonder how the power decides to manifest once it reaches a point of being able to take shape.”

“Bryant was warped and wanted control over others,” I whisper. “And Delilah said she was one of his favorite meals, though he fed on all of them.”

“Fucking asshole.” Mel knocks the bat against the counter, but it doesn’t break. “And I suppose Ros’s dad is a blood-sucking bastard, so why not manifest in a hundred flying bats?”

“It won’t break.” I shift my bucket off to the side. “I’ve tried bashing it with bigger rocks and burning it, but nothing has destroyed it so far.”

“Well, let’s give this method a whirl.” She hands me the stone. “No way do we want that jerk reclaiming this power somehow.”

Relief floods through me. Trusting Mel with my secret was the right decision, and I’m grateful she’s not judging me for it. Instead, she’s ready to help me destroy these dangerous curses.

“Rowe,” she adds, her voice soft, “I just want to say… You’re really coming into your own as an ethereal witch. I’m so proud to watch you embrace your magic.”

My cheeks heat at the praise. “I still have a lot to learn.”

“Well, duh.” She rolls her eyes at me. “The second you think you’ve learned everything is the second you fail. Never fall into the trap of believing you can’t continue to improve.”

“Yes, oh great mentor.” I bring the statue over to the potion. “Do we just drop it in and see what happens?”

She references the printout. “It says to anoint the afflicted object.”

I dangle the bat by one wing over the stockpot. “So…?”

Excited, she urges, “Drop it.”

I open my hand, and the heavy statue falls with a splat, vanishing beneath the shimmering blue liquid. The potion bubbles, filling the air with a sharp, tangy scent.

Worried, I turn to Mel. “Is it supposed to do that? ”

“I’m not sure.” She grabs my arm and pulls me back from the stove as the bubbles grow larger.

In the next second, the pot catches on fire, and hundreds of bats burst from the flames.

We shriek and duck as they fly around the kitchen, high-pitched squeaks piercing the air.

Then, one by one, they disintegrate into ash, covering the kitchen, and us, in gray dust.

I cough and wave a hand in front of my face. “Definitely need a Spell Shack.”

“Let’s not try this one with the wolf statue.” Mel sneezes into her sleeve. “We don’t need a flaming wolf rampaging through the house.”

“Good call.” I stand and head for the hall. “I’ll get the vacuum.”

Elias’s bat ashes can join Tris’s ex-girlfriend in the trash bag.