Page 41 of Alpha's Magic

“Yes, and animals too.”

“How did you manage that if your magic wants to turn dark?”

“He told me to imagine the sickness was my enemy. Then use my magic against just the sickness and not the person.”

“And he taught you the words to say?”

“No, he said they were evil and dark. He taught me others.”

What else did he teach you?”

“To use my imagination. Like when you were hurt by the poison arrows. I imagined the poison to be like spiders—I hate spiders—and I imagined that they were crawling through your veins. And I plucked them out.”

“You…what?”

“I plucked them. You know, I reached for them and pulled them out one by one and threw them on the ground and smushed them. It worked too, except when the king came, he didn’t understand what I was doing and made me stop. His priests took over.”

“I see. Tell me, how many spiders did you pluck out?”

“About six or so. But there were more.”

I pulled him closer and hugged him tightly. “Thank you for helping me. Did you learn about this technique in the book?”

“No. I did sneak back into my father’s office to find the book though. It called to me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I heard it call my name once when I was in his office alone. I picked it up and took it to my room, and I read some of it.”

I must have looked horrified, because he lowered his gaze and shrugged. “I was curious. It didn’t seem bad to me, even though my father had said it was. I liked the magical words in it. They felt good on my tongue. Better than the ones my father tried to teach me. So I started using them instead.”

“And you kept the book. You brought it with you when we left the cave?”

“Yes.”

I took a deep breath. “So you’ve had the grimoire all this time? You lied to me?”

He hung his head. “Yes. I thought you’d be angry if you knew.”

“I’m angrier that you lied to me.”

“I was chased out of my house that night the curse was laid. I didn’t have anything with me then. It was years later. I didn’t see the book again for a long time. I didn’t want to lose it again.”

“So how did you come to have it in your possession for the second time?”

“I told Grimora the story. And one day when he went to the village, he returned with the book. He said he bought it at one of the stalls that sold old books.”’

“Grimora bought it? Did he know what it was?”

“Yes. He told me I shouldn’t read it and that it wasn’t good magic. But it had my mother’s name inside, and I didn’t have anything else that belonged to her.”

“Your mother?”

“Yes. Look and see.”

I opened the title page and found it—a woman’s handwriting, flowery and elegant. Rowena.

‘She had a lot of books she brought with her from her home in Sudfarma when she married my father,” Leo said. “She made potions and tisanes for sickness. She gave them to the village girls.”

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