Page 31 of Isabel and the Werewolf Beast

“We can’t rely on Asher to find Silas. I’m not doubting my brother, but who knows how long Silas has trapped you here. The man might be dead.”

“He’s not dead.”

“How do you recognize that?”

“A sixth sense.”

He sat on the ground, placed the stack next to him, fluffed the cushion behind his back, and picked the first book off the top. He flicked the page open. I sighed it’d been so long since I’d held a book or read a book. Wait. I touched the books he’d carried outside. I dropped to my knees, snatched a book from the pile opened it to the middle then placed it to my nose and inhaled.

Dante laughed.

I threw him a sheepish look. “It’s been so long since I touched my books.”

“I appreciate how you feel about smelling them. The kids in the village saw me doing it one day and threw stones at me.”

“I’ll suck them dry,” I said with a menacing curl of my top lip to show my teeth.

“You’d do that for me?”

I held up the book. “For the books. No one should mock books or people who read them.”

“Ah.” He dropped his gaze back to the book.

I flicked the pages of the book I held back to the start. “What are we looking for?”

“Anything on how to break a curse.”

“Obviously but what else?” I rolled my eyes.

“What else should we look for?”

“All the things that are happening in this curse might be a help too.”

“Such as attacking birds?”

“Yes. Attacking pets. Lethal plants coming to life. A building that as you keep saying is weird.”

I should mention the trapped people in the ballroom, but what if Dante wanted to ask them a question? I couldn’t have his death on my conscience not now he’d saved my life. Cared for me. Tended my wounds. Healed me and brought me back to life in more ways than one.

Was that the only reason?

So, what if I liked him, and too bad if I was attracted to him?

Neither of us would do anything about it.

Never ever.

We couldn’t.

We were enemies.

Yet as we sat beside each other reading. I never once considered him an enemy.

Chapter eighteen

Dante

Iplaced the last book on the pile and sighed. “If you want to learn about potions and herbal remedies, then I’m sure I could whip them up from your herb garden.”

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