Page 1 of Cursed Beasts

1

KATARINA

Iwas a glorified fucking secretary who worked for free because the man in charge was my father. Walking into town, I was annoyed with the world because I had to leave my library to run errands for my father. No one else in my family could be bothered to do anything for our family business.

The only reason our family business of custom spells kept flourishing was because I kept us on track; I was a good planner, and my research was bar none. I could also set up a spell like no one’s business, but to execute it? I was fucked.

I was a dud or whatever you want to call it. There was no power to my name. Much to my family’s dismay, it didn’t look like I would either because at twenty-eight nothing had changed at all. I had never felt that flicker of power or the rush/need to spend pent up energy that everyone in our coven had to master.

Taking a deep breath, I shook off the longing I always felt when I thought about magic, and my lack of it.

I hummed Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon” because one, I liked the song, and two it was ironic that I always sang it when I lived surrounded by witches. Ok, so reason number three was Stevie Nicks was fucking amazing.

Our town square was just up ahead. The closer I walked, the more I greeted our coven members. We weren’t an extremely big coven, but what we lacked in size, we made up for in quality. Everyone here was powerful in their own way.

It might be all in my head, but I always felt the slight shift in people’s demeanors when I was around. It was almost as if they tolerated me because of who my family was. Being magic-less wasn’t extremely uncommon, but to be from the coven leader's family and not have magic was unheard of.

The Belladonna’s had always been the strongest family, and that’s why we led. It always felt like it was my fault that I didn’t have magic, which was unfair since they made me like this. But in a world where men lead, it seemed like women were the easy person to blame for everything.

I headed into our crystal shop, saying hello to Ms. Mabel, before I looked around to see if anything was new. When nothing caught my eye, I picked up the order I placed for a few future jobs and picked up the ones my father had requested.

“You were always my favorite sister,” Mabel said, before I pushed open the door to leave the shop.

“Uh, thanks?” I said, unsure where that statement had come from.

“You’re always the nicest, but that might be because… Well, you know,” she said, like she hadn’t insulted me.

This Bitch.

“Ok, bye Mabel,” I said, getting out of the shop before I lashed out at her.

I shook off her comment before going to the apothecary for my sister. She had given me a list of shit she needed, which looked to be everything I used. They were also doubles of almost everything, making me wonder what she needed all this for.

The bell chimed when I entered the store.

“Katarina!” Karl said behind the register.

“Hey, Karl,” I said, walking closer to him. “Serena sent me with a whole list of stuff.”

“Perfect!” He smiled when he grabbed my list, looking it over. “I also have some stuff you need to try.”

“Oh, you know I love anything that makes me look younger,” I said, looking at the table of lotions, grabbing one that I thought would smell good.

“Of course, anything to keep you ladies looking fresh.” He laughed from behind the store.

The bell from the door chimed as a couple walked in. We said hello before they looked around the shop, going to the wall of self-serve bath salts.

“I think I got everything.” Karl came back with a big box.

“Uh Karl, I can’t walk back to the house with that.”

“I’m going to have Charlie take it to the house for ya,” he chuckled. “I also put all the new stuff in here.”

“Even better,” I smiled. “How much do I owe you?”

“Oh, uh, it’s been taken care of,” he said, awkwardly.

“Oh, well, Serena gave me money. Did she call you already?”

---