Broken Curse

27

“Yes. Someone informed him of what I tried to do last night, and he came stomping into my room.” Endora straightened her shoulders. “And I did what I had to do.”

“Which was?” I couldn’t tell if she was upset.

Oh, come see for yourself. Ada laughed loudly in my head. You won’t want to miss out.

“He came into the room, threatening me for hurting his cousin, and ignoring Beatrice when she asked him to stop.” Endora scratched her nose. “So I handled it, but Beatrice asked me to get you to free him."

My stomach dropped. “Free?”

I raced into the room and saw something that I couldn’t unsee.

F

inn was handcuffed to the bed similar to the way Endora had been last night, but with “weak asshole” Sharpied on his forehead.

His nostrils flared. He mumbled some words, his focus on Endora, and suddenly, her brown hair turned fuchsia.

“Oh, my God.” Ada snorted.

“What?” Endora surveyed the area.

“Your hair.” Honor at least tried to restrain herself. “It’s pink.”

Endora picked up her hair, and her mouth dropped open. “Change it back.”

“Let me out.” Finn yanked against the cuffs like he expected them to fall off.

“I brought her here to do that.” Endora marched over to him. “Change it back or she won’t let you out.”

“I’m confused.” This had to be a crazy-ass dream.

“You aren’t the only one.” Aidan’s brows furrowed. “How did this happen?”

“He charged into the room, ranting about her trying to kill you.” Honor stood from the bed. “I guess he forgot about us being shifters because Endora knocked him out and handcuffed him. After writing her loving note, she headed to your room.”

“Stop.” Finn was an odd one. He hated shifters and tried to dislike me. But we were cousins, which made him feel conflicted. Even though he had betrayed us by talking to The Hallowed Guild, he’d made it clear that I was to be protected. “Once I let you loose, change her hair back.”

“Fine.” He glowered as I unlocked the cuffs.

He swung his feet over the bed and stood. He tensed and muttered something, causing her hair to go back to her natural color.

“Come on.” Ada took his hand and ignored his attempts to pull it free. “Let’s go get that Sharpie off your forehead.”

“Sharpie?” He rubbed his forehead and looked at his fingertips.

“It won’t come off that easily.” Ada smacked his arm. “Unless you can magic it off, rubbing alcohol will have to do the trick.” The two of them left the room.

“What’s the plan today?” Endora sat on the mattress and crossed her legs. “Use me as target practice? Practice voodoo on me?”

“That’s not fair.” I needed to bond with her, but I wasn’t sure how. “We don’t want to hurt you.”

“Just kidnap me and cut me off from the world?” She huffed and stared out the window. “What do you want from me?”

“For you to be part of our family.” Even Logan and Gabby felt like they were part of my family now. Because of our pack link, they were, but it went deeper than that. I felt a kinship with each one of these girls and their mates. We’d all been given different challenges to become who we needed to be.

She arched an eyebrow in disbelief. “Against my will?”

“No, she’s never done that.” Honor hugged me. “She’s saved us all and never pushed for us to do anything we didn’t want to do.”

“Until me.” She fell back on her elbows. “Story of my life.”

“The whole ‘woe is me’ thing won’t work anymore,” Aidan growled. “You tried to hurt my mate, and the only reason I’m not tearing out your throat is because it would upset her.”

Emma, Ada connected with the pack’s mind link. We need you in the family room.

I’d never heard her sound like that before. “Let’s hurry.”

I rushed to her with the others right behind me.

“Is something wrong?” Endora asked as she followed us.

In the living room, the mattresses had already been put away, and the rest of the pack wasn’t here. Sunny lounged on the couch, but distress flowed through our bond. My heart froze when I took in Finn’s pale face.

He faced me with Ada by his side. Ada held a white paper towel soaked with rubbing alcohol, but there weren’t any ink stains. He must have used magic since the writing was gone without a trace.

Finn’s neck tensed, and a vein bulged. “I received a message from The Hallowed Guild.”

“Okay.” I didn’t think he’d want to remind me that he’d been working with our enemy behind our back.

“They demanded to know where you are.” He licked his lips. “Now that they’ve learned how many of you there are and that all the girls have been found, they’re getting desperate.”

“Spit it out,” Ada growled, “or I will.”

“You didn’t tell them, did you?” Aidan said with rage.

“God, no.” Finn took a step back. “I realized I was wrong, and I haven’t been talking to them, but they sent me a text on the phone they gave me.”

“Oh my God.” Ada snatched the phone from him and tossed it to me. “Just look.”

Now that you aren’t helping us anymore, the blood of your race is on your hands. We’ll start with the Alpharetta coven.

“Why would they tell us that?” Honor scratched her head.

“Because they want you to show up,” Endora jutted out her hip. “Which I’m assuming you will do, but if you don’t, they’ll still win. Fewer abominations in the world.”

“We can’t allow them to attack a coven for no reason.” I couldn’t live with myself if we didn’t help. Sunny, call Eric and see what he knows. “Where is this going down?”

My gut told me that both Aidan’s and Barry’s packs were involved.

Sunny pulled her phone from her pocket.

Not here. As much as I wanted to trust Endora, she had to earn it. I don’t want Eric to be found out.

Got it. Sunny opened the front door and called over her shoulder, “Be back in a minute.”