Verveville's Curse

Chapter52

Kaida’s pov

I couldn’t sleep.

The candles had burned low in my chamber, the air thick with smoke and silence. Axel was long gone to his patrols, but even if he had been here, I wouldn’t have rested. My mind was restless, pulling threads together, threads I didn’t want to hold but couldn’t let go of.

Willow.

That girl was no ordinary wolf. No ordinary witch either. The test had proved it. I had watched her drink all three cups, one after another. Her face had twisted a little, her throat had burned, but she swallowed it down like it was nothing.

I had prayed she wouldn’t pass. I had prayed she would stop at one. That maybe I had just imagined the surge of power I felt from her earlier.

But no. She passed all of them. Wolf, witch… hybrid.

That word alone scared me. Hybrids weren’t supposed to exist. Not anymore.

I pressed my hands over my face, dragging them down slowly. “Who are you, Willow?” I whispered into the dark.

I kept seeing her sitting in the courtroom, her voice trembling, her hands shaking under the table, but still she had lifted her chin. She didn’t even know what she carried inside her. That was the worst part.

And Kael… my brother. My Alpha. He had no idea either. Or maybe he did and just refused to admit it. I wasn’t sure which frightened me more.

I rose from the bed, pulling a cloak around my shoulders. The halls were quiet, the pack asleep. My feet carried me without thought, down the stone steps, through the long corridors, until I reached the old library.

The smell of dust and parchment hit me the moment I pushed the door open. The shelves rose tall, filled with stories, histories, forgotten names. I lit a single candle and walked between the aisles. My fingers brushed along the spines, searching, searching.

I started with the witches. The old records of covens, bloodlines, forbidden pairings. My hand trembled as I opened one of the cracked books, the script inside faded but still legible. Witches and wolves were never meant to mix. Their bond was dangerous, destructive. But here and there, I found traces of it, whispers of children born from secret unions, children who carried power neither side could control.

Most of those stories ended in blood.

I shut the book fast, my heart hammering.

I pulled another one on Verneville. Willow’s lost kingdom. Her people burned, scattered. I read about a queen, Kali. Strong, feared, beautiful. Some said she was more than a witch, touched by gods. Others claimed she betrayed her kind for love of a wolf.

I stopped, my breath catching.

Could it be?

Kali. Willow’s mother. That much we knew. But her father… that part was never spoken of. If Kali had truly lain with a wolf, if a child had been born of that union…

My stomach turned cold.

I closed the book, pressing my forehead against the cover. “Saints help us,” I whispered. “She doesn’t even know.”

I saw again the flicker of power that burned from Willow when I touched her hand after Kael marked her. It wasn’t just wolf strength. It wasn’t just witch fire. It was both, tangled together, fighting and yet whole.

She was stronger than any of us realized. Maybe stronger than Kael himself.

I sank into a chair, the candle trembling in my hand. My mind raced through questions I couldn’t answer. Why hadn’t anyone told her? Why had she been left to grow up blind to her blood? And who was her father?

I thought of Kael again, of how fiercely he had claimed her, how he looked at her like she was the only thing that could steady him. Did he know what he had tied himself to? Did he know that by marking her, he had bound himself to something more than a Luna, more than a mate?

I buried my face in my hands.

Part of me wanted to run to him now, to tell him everything, to spill my fear in his lap and beg him to listen. But another part of me stayed quiet, knowing Kael wasn’t ready. He carried too many burdens already…the weight of the pack, the ghosts of Verneville. To throw this truth on him now… it might break him.

Still, the thought haunted me, if Willow didn’t know, someone would have to tell her.

The question was who.

I lit more candles. I traced bloodlines with trembling fingers. And finally, in the corner of an old scroll, I saw it.. a note, written faintly, almost faded away.

The child will rise. Born of wolf and witch. She will carry both light and shadow. She will be the key, or she will be the end.

I sat there with the scroll in my lap, my lips numb, my chest heavy.

It was her. It had to be her.

Willow.

The girl who laughed softly in the halls. The girl who wanted to be Luna. The girl Kael loved.

And now… the girl who might one day bring everything to ruin.

I closed the scroll and covered my face with my hands. My whole body trembled as I whispered, “What am I supposed to do now?”

Because the truth was too heavy, and I was the only one holding it.

I sat there until the candle burned low, staring at the shelves, the weight of what I had read pressing down on me. My chest felt heavy, my throat tight.

Finally, I blew out the light and rose. My hands brushed over the books one last time before I turned away.

As I walked back through the halls, I caught myself whispering again, soft enough that only the walls could hear.

“She’s a hybrid. She’s both. And she has no idea.”

And that secret stayed locked in my chest, burning like a coal I couldn’t put out.