Page 51 of Alpha's Magic

I wanted desperately to see my mother.

Not because I loved her but because of the opposite feelings I felt consumed with. I needed to see her and ask her about my father and why she’d tried to kill him with that horrible potion I’d taken. I needed to find out why she hadn’t come after me to try and help me. I was her only son. Did she hate my poor father so much and did that hatred extend to me too? It must have if she’d stopped searching for me.

Asher tried to talk to me, but I didn’t want to listen. I only wanted to go to Amalinia’s house to see my mother and demand the answers to my questions. I needed to know why she’d allowed her sister to abandon me to my fate. Why the hell had she hated my poor father so much? Why didn’t she love me? Had she ever loved me?

Amalinia said she still had some magic.

Well, so did I.

Rozamond was beyond my reach, but my mother was still here, still nearby. I couldn’t wait to go find her and demand answers. And possibly get the revenge I felt like my soul needed. But first I needed her to take this curse away from me forever, so I could finally remove the amulet. I had tested it in the bath that time and I could feel the hairs prickling on my back.

I wanted the curse gone.

I jumped to my feet and ran out into the hallway, but I hadn’t made it more than a few steps when Asher grabbed my arm to stop me.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“You know where. I have to see her. I’ll force her to take this fucking thing off me.”

“What fucking thing? What are you talking about?”

“Nothing. Never mind. I just need to see her.”

“No. Revenge isn’t the answer, Leo. Everything connects to everything else, don’t you see? I know you have all these bitter feelings inside you—so do I. But if you act rashly and do something you’ll regret later, then you’ll only wind up hurting yourself. We’ll take her to face the king’s justice—show him what his queen and her family truly did, since he thinks to blame you.”

“But it isn’t over, don’t you see? No, you couldn’t, because I haven’t told you the truth about me. I want to show her.”

I pulled my amulet out of my shirt and showed it to him. “If I take this off, I can show her what she did to me!”

He took hold of it and stared into my eyes. “Do you mean this necklace? You think this is some magic charm that took away your curse? Leo, listen to me—there is no magic in this.”

I reeled back away from him, pushing away his hand and shaking my head. “No, you’re wrong! Grimora left me a note. The note was with this amulet, and he told me it would take away my curse! And I put it on and it did!”

Asher shook his head. “Tell me exactly what the note said.”

“It said the amulet might give me my heart’s desire. And it did! It took away the curse.”

“Love, I think it was Rozamond’s death that removed the curse. Listen to me. Seeking revenge is a never-ending loop of suffering and hatred and negative emotions. It destroys you as surely as the person you hate, and you can never break free from its curse. But if you can put that hatred aside…” He held out a hand to me. “Give me the amulet, Leo. Give me all that hatred and misery and pain, and let’s throw off this chain and take away those awful, negative feelings for once and for all. Love is so much more powerful than hate, darling. Let me show you. Please, Leo.”

I looked into his beautiful eyes and knew that what he said was probably true. If he felt no magic in the amulet, then it must be true. But still…

“What if I take this off and I become the beast again? It would kill me, Asher. I know it would! I can’t go back to that again. What if—what if it makes you not love me anymore?”

He gazed down at me and shook his head. “Nothing in heaven or on earth could ever do that. I’ll love you as long as I live, Leo. And even beyond that.”

I tried to turn away, but he pulled me back into his arms and kissed me tenderly. “I promise I’ll love you forever, Leo. No matter what happens. Trust me, sweetheart. Take off the amulet.”

I took a deep breath and looked into his eyes and saw the truth of his words shining there. I slipped off the chain from around my neck and stood there waiting. Waiting for the curse to return but nothing at all happened. I was still human, the same as before.

Asher put his arms around me, and I sagged against him, too tired and wrung out to even think. I just leaned into him and felt the relief and love sweep over me. It felt as if I’d finally come home.

****

It was much later in the evening before I recovered enough to leave his arms. Asher had allowed Amalinia to go back home at some point. It had been a long day for her, though no more so for me. It would take me a while to think through all Amalinia had told us. The story had been ugly, and I still didn’t understand all of what happened that night. Asher said that with Rozamond dead, we may never understand it, but he thought most of the tragedy had stemmed from her greed and ambition for the throne of Sudfarma.

Though her father would be king, she would wield great power as the crown princess and Alfrid was an old man. She would have known that she’d be queen one day in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, she could make a brilliant marriage to King Harrison, perhaps, with a little more help from her magic. Asher said he suspected Harrison never knew what hit him.

But first my father and I were standing in her way. She had to get rid of both of us. She had used my mother to stay close to the family and when my mother had expressed the idea that my father wasn’t as much in love with her as she wanted him to be, it must have been Rozamond who’d seized that insecurity she felt and worked on it as often as she could, insinuating and sowing doubt. She had been the one to suggest she make him one of her love potions. Only what she made him wasn’t about love at all. Rozamond had been there that day and made sure of that. It was no love potion she gave him.

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