Page 36 of Forced By the Alpha

“I’m okay now, the pain passed,” I told him.

Tenderly, I got back to my feet and allowed Franco to guide me toward the couch. As soon as I was seated, he left, reappearing a moment later with a glass of water.

“Drink this,” he ordered.

I took a large gulp of water and wiped my lips. Exhaustion had begun to set in, but I held it off. This was too important to be delayed.

“You’re starting to scare me, Sienna. What happened?” Franco prodded.

“I accessed my powers,” I explained. “I can break the curse.”

Chapter 18 - Franco

“You can?” I asked. “How do you know?”

“I felt it—my magic. I’m going to try to access it again,” Sienna explained.

I could see from her expression that whatever had occurred had pained and exhausted her. As much as I wanted the curse broken, I worried that she wouldn’t be able to accomplish it in her current state.

“I think you should rest,” I said.

“There’s no time,” she argued.

Sienna got up from her seat on the couch and walked to the kitchen, where she opened the cupboard and began pulling out various implements.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Grabbing tools to focus my powers,” she said.

She dragged two wooden chairs into the center of the room and sat them down, facing them just far enough apart that our knees wouldn’t touch.

“Sit here,” she commanded, pointing to one of the chairs as she began arranging white pillar candles in a circle around them. As I sat down, she began to light the candles. Then she went to grab the rest of her supplies from the kitchen.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Positive,” she said with a reassuring smile.

It seemed there would be no arguing with her about delaying her attempt, so I gave in to her orders. She sat in the chair opposite me, placed a bowl on the floor between us, and lit a small bundle of herbs.

“Vetiver and wormwood,” she explained. “I’m burning them to encourage the curse to uncross you. Then I’ll recite a spell while channeling the energy I felt earlier.”

“Do you need me to do anything?” I asked.

“Just stay in the circle. I don’t want to have to reach out too far with my magic,” she explained.

She was quiet for a moment as she waved the incense from her herbs around in a circle and closed her eyes. After nine turns, she placed it in the bowl and held her hands toward me, palms out.

“I bring you forth from the curse and hold you to the light,” she intoned.

Her voice broke as her face contorted into the same pained expression as earlier. She clenched her teeth against the pain and took deep breaths as her face slowly relaxed.

“How bad is it?” I asked, concerned that she was pushing herself too far.

“Bad,” she said. “I’m going to try again. I only got half the spell out.”

“We don’t have to do this now,” I reminded her as her eyes closed once more and she held her palms out to me.

“I bring you forth from the curse and hold you to the light. Let your future be bright. Be gone, dark of night,” she said. Her eyes pressed together tightly as she opened her mouth to finish the final words, but instead, she let out an ear-splitting scream and hunched forward.

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