Page 70 of 3 Shifters to Break a Curse

Several hours later, Luke joined us. He brought a glass of water with him and sat it on the nightstand next to the bed.

“I wasn’t sure if I should bring food since we don’t know how long she’s going to be out. So, I figured at the very least, a glass of water in case she’s thirsty.”

I nodded. “I’m sure she would like that.”

He nodded and clapped my shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze before he stepped farther into the room, taking up a part of the wall on the opposite side of the bed. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Toni.

For the longest time, none of us moved. Not a single one of us felt the need to break the silence. That was until Luke decided otherwise.

He sniffed a couple of times, drawing my attention to him. He frowned as he breathed in the air. “You both stink.”

I snorted. “That word has a brand-new definition for me.”

“Seriously,” Luke continued. “You guys should at least clean up a little.”

“Nice try,” I said. “Ezra beat you to the cleaning up suggestion. I’m not leaving her side until she wakes up.”

Luke shrugged. “Guess I’ll be the best smelling one out of the three of us.”

I hadn’t noticed or paid attention to his appearance, but I did then. He was dressed in fresh clothes. He didn’t have stains from battle covering his skin, and he smelled like his soap. I glared at him.

“Good for you,” I said.

“This is not a competition,” Ezra said. “I’ll clean up in a little bit. When I’m ready to.”

I smirked. Riding my coattails, Ezra was bound and determined to stick this one out right along with me. Good for him.

“Suit yourselves,” Luke said.

Silence fell upon the room again. I resettled my attention on Toni. She was improving a little. More color filled her features. The dark purple that covered her eyelids wasn’t so pronounced. Her lips had a bit more life to them as well. Guess Ezra was telling the truth after all.

I sucked in a breath. “She’s starting to improve.”

“Thanks to whoever is looking out for us,” Ezra said.

“She’s amazing. So, of course, she’s improving. She did just pull off a difficult spell after all,” Luke said. “She was able to break the curse. That alone is awe inspiring.”

“Now she’s free,” Ezra said. “From Jared, at least.”

“Yes, but she’s going to leave soon,” I muttered, and my heart sank a little.

“I was trying not to think about that,” Luke said. “Thanks for bringing it up.”

I shrugged. “Keeping it real.”

“Yeah, but did you really have to bring that up?” Ezra asked.

“Better than fooling ourselves into believing she would stay with us,” I said.

“Guys,” Luke said. “She might come back to us. Where there is a will, there is a way, and we all care for her, so let’s just wait for her to wake up.”

“Second,” I said.

Ezra sighed.

For several more hours, we waited for Toni to wake up. With very little small talk. Eventually, Luke laid himself out on the floor and fell asleep. Soon after, his snores softly filtered into the air. Ezra had grown impatient and paced the room for a bit before sitting against the foot of the bed, head angled back against the mattress, and he stared at the ceiling. Not long after, he started snoring as though he was a lumberjack sawing logs in the middle of the forest.

I thumped him on the nose. Though I wanted to see Toni wake up, I didn’t want it to be because of his loud ass snoring.

---