Broken Curse

8

I stood in the middle of the den in front of the fireplace, and all fifteen pairs of eyes were on me. Beatrice sat in the recliner on my left with Amethyst standing behind her, while Sage sat in the recliner on my right, with Samuel behind her. The other witches stood behind the couch, and the remainder of the shifter group sat on the ground.

I should’ve probably sat down, but I was extremely restless. Apparently, I’d been gone for over a day, so I guessed I had a lot of pent-up energy. “Yes, and it’s crazy.”

“But she’s dead.” Gabby’s cold words filled the room. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“When a witch dies, they become part of nature since magic never truly ceases to exist.” I was still coming to grips with this too. Maybe all of these haunted houses were real. It could be the leftover magic of witches guarding their homes or secrets.

“That’s what older witches believed, but that thought had died out with the advent of modern medicines and science.” Beatrice crossed her legs and leaned back in the recliner. “Which proves that some knowledge gets lost or altered after time.”

“So, what’s our next step?” Samuel asked as everyone looked at me for guidance.

They expected me to have answers, and the problem was I had none. I don’t know what to do. I needed my anchor.

Go with your gut. Aidan stepped closer to my side and took my hand, supporting me.

“Well, she said there is a piece of the puzzle that can be found with each girl.” We had to figure out what she meant to move forward.

“We combined your blood, and that didn’t work.” Rowan paced behind the couch, her pacing under the lights making her red hair seem more orange. “So … what else could it be?”

She was right. If the puzzle piece was found with each girl, you’d think it would be blood-related, especially considering how important blood was for witchcraft. We had to be overlooking something.

“What about your marks?” Aidan moved my hair to the side and looked at my full pentagram birthmark behind my left ear. “That mark is important. Could it be something in there?”

“He’s on to something.” Coral glanced at Gabby. “Yours is the top-right vertex, right?”

“Yeah.” Gabby nodded. “We all know that.”

“Stop with the attitude.” I wasn’t in the mood. “Otherwise, you can leave.”

Her eyes widened at the annoyance in my voice, but she remained silent and sitting.

“Oh, my God,” Ivory breathed. “We’re missing the top vertex.”

I scanned each girl, thinking of their mark. “You’re right. I thought it was meant for me since I have the whole star, but what if there is another girl.”

“But how do we confirm that?” Sunny blinked as she tried catching up with everything, seeing as she was the newest addition with the least amount of experience.

“With the map.” Honor chuckled like we had it figured out. “Amethyst, do you know where it is?”

Amethyst took off toward her room. “Of course. I’ll be right back.”

The more I thought about it, the more I was certain that was the missing piece. Aidan, if this proves to be right, the original witch warned me not to trust her at first. That each drop of her blood has its demons. I didn’t want to be that transparent with the group of girls before me, but Aidan needed to be in the same place as me. There’s no telling where we’ll find her.

It doesn’t matter. He wrapped an arm around my waist and kissed my cheek. We’ll figure it out together.

Amethyst’s footsteps hurried back down the hallway, and I tensed. For all I knew, we might have to drive back to California, which would suck huge monkey balls.

She placed the map on the coffee table. Each marked girl stood over the map.

“It’s just like what we did with the witch’s diary but on the map instead.” I smiled at Sunny, hoping to ease her nerves.

“Okay.” She stared at the map, concern still showing on her face, but she nodded.

Like every other time, we dropped our blood in order, from me and the clockwise vertices. We were all here in Columbus, so that’s where each drop of blood crawled to. However, when Sunny mixed her blood with ours, it inched northeast and stopped at Athens, Georgia.

“There is another girl.” Gabby sucked in a breath, disbelief lacing each word. “I thought this would lead to a dead end.”

“So, there are six girls.” My mind began racing like crazy. “I’m technically not one of the sides … I’m the center that caused the star to rise.” Why hadn’t we figured that out together?

Coral laughed without mirth. “The Hallowed Guild was never supposed to know the true number of girls, and the witches assumed it was five.”

“Then, we need to go get her.” That was our only option.

“It’s only three hours from here.” Beth stood, ready to go.

“No, we leave tomorrow.” Aidan met my gaze. “You’ve been out for twenty-four hours with no food or rest.”

“You just said I’d been out—”

“It wasn’t rest, and we both know it.” Aidan arched an eyebrow, daring me to contradict him.

Even though I hated to admit it, I was exhausted. I glanced at the clock on the wall and realized it was already seven in the evening. “Fine, but we leave first thing.”

“That’s fair. We’ll get there early enough to get a room.” Remus motioned around the house. “It’s safer to be here than out there. Maybe we can even get there and get back in a day.”

“It would be ideal.” We were safest here under the coven’s protection. “Let’s go grab something to eat and get to bed early.”

After eating, I took a quick shower and headed back into the bedroom. Aidan was already lying there, and his honey eyes met mine.

“Joining me?” He held his arms out wide for me to crawl into.

I was happy to oblige. I settled against his chest, and he pulled back so our eyes met. “I was so damn scared.”

“I’m sorry. I tried connecting with you, but she had my wolf blocked.” I never wanted to go back to that place again. It was scary as hell. “It was dark, cold, and lonely.”