Page 16 of Spookily Yours

“Unless I… No.” She pinched in between her brows. “I’m going to have to brute force it. If I untangle the threads…”

You… What? How?

“You really don’t know a lot about witches, do you?”

Probably as much as you know about demons,I thought sarcastically.

“Fair point.” She sighed. “A lot of these books say the same things. There are a few different methods we could try. But I don’t think you’re going to like them.”

Try me.I’d do just about anything to get out of this form. To stretch my actual legs again.

She flipped back open a book, pointing at the passage on the page. “Simple Curse Breaking Spells,” Willow read off. “One. Let a source of living water carry it away.”She raised an eyebrow, and I shook my head.

“I’d rather not.”

“Two. Take a purifying bath with a blend of salt and—”

“I think it’s safe to say anything involving water will also involve my claws.” I hissed out, retracting them as if in demonstration. “The longer I stay in this form, the more catlike my reflexes become. It’s… involuntary.”

Willow nodded. “I can try this spell, but for best success, I would need to know who cursed you. Then I could bind them and stop the curse at its source.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“What?”

“Going after the witch who cursed me.”

What if you get hurt?I didn’t like the idea of her risking herself for me.

“I—” Willow’s cheeks pinked. “Well, I’d be okay. I can handle myself.”

Oh. I hadn’t realized I’d projected that last thought into her mind.

She cleared her throat. “Besides, I don’t have to find her necessarily, just… know her presence? Even if you just show me your memory, I think that would help.”

I hesitated. If she saw the memory, she’d know too much.

The witch who’d cursed me… Fuck. She’d been a seer. I was looking for a powerful one, and yet… I’d almost fucked everything up.

I was just lucky the curse she’d cast on me hadn’tfullyworked. If I’d fully become a cat, losing all access to myself and my powers, I would have lost my mind. I would have been stuck in this form for all of eternity.

“So let’s try the spell. What do we need?” I’d do anything to keep her away from that memory.

She scanned the list. “I think I have almost everything—except a belonging of yours. And some black salt. But we need to do it on the full moon, too.”

“When’s the full moon?”

Willow gulped. “Tomorrow.”

Which meant if it failed—I could be stuck as a cat for a whole extra month. Still, it was worth it.

“Let’s do it.”

My little witch nodded, scooping up the few books she’d selected into her arms. “Let me just check these out with Simon, and then we’ll run into town to get the other things for the spell. Do you think you could get something of yours?”

I paused. Something of mine? I barely had anything to my name. Was anything trulymine? Not my title, nor my position. Even the clothes on my back weren’t my own.

But there was something. I just had to go get it. “Leave it to me, little witch.”

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