Page 20 of Cursed Beasts

Once I entered the library, I knew she was still here, and I think she was still in the same spot we left her. I panicked, feeling like a complete imbecile. I walked up to where we had left her. The candles had long been extinguished, and she was lying on her side with some candles knocked over.

Why was she still here?

I quickly walked over to her when her head snapped back to me.

“Where the fuck have you been!?” she yelled, struggling against her restraints, crying out and stopping instantly.

‘What are you still doing here?” I asked, when I moved to pick her up, I reared back from the smell.

“No, you do not get to fucking do that. I’m like this because you left me here for a whole day!”

“You were supposed to free yourself.” I raised my voice, feeling confused.

“How the hell was I supposed to get myself free?” she screamed. “So help me goddess, if you forgot to leave the fucking knife, I will gut you.”

“Use your magic!” I roared back, wondering if she was truly this dumb.

“I don’t have any, asshole,” she snapped. “If I had any, I would make sure I fucking fried your ass, and you couldn’t feel it for the rest of your fucking pathetic life.”

Her confession shocked me. They wouldn’t send a Belladonna with no magic, that’s absurd. They were always the most powerful witches in the surrounding covens for hundreds of miles.

“Lucien, please just fucking untie—” her voice broke, breaking the shock I was in.

I picked her up, transforming one of my hands into a claw to break her free while she cried. Her tears made me feel guiltier than I was already feeling. Once I took off the rope, I noticed her skin was raw from trying to escape with a few lesions on her wrists.

“Let's get these wrapped up with some herbs to help with—”

My head snapped to the side from the force of her punch and from the surprise hit. She stumbled into me as I caught her. I growled in response, holding myself back before I lashed out at her. Before I could say anything, she pushed away from me, hit me again, and then she kneed me in between my legs. I went down like a tree in the forest in excruciating pain. I gripped myself as I breathed through the pain, hating that one weakness that was so easily accessible.

“Fuck you, and shove your herbs where the sun don’t fucking shine!” She attempted to get up but fell down instantly. Her legs were shaky, she looked exhausted, and I knew it was from not eating or drinking anything. And as much as I wanted to get mad at her, she had every right to be furious.

But how the hell were we supposed to know she didn’t have magic?

“We didn’t know,” I said, when I didn’t feel like my insides were going to fall out.

She said nothing as she tried to get up, only making it a few steps before she fell again. “Fuck,” she whispered, as she took a shaky breath.

I slowly got up, walking towards her as I heard her sniffle again. Why did her tears make me feel like the worst person in the world? Quickly, I picked her up, expecting her to fight against me, but when she leaned into me, it made me feel even more confused. We moved in silence the entire way to her room. The burning need to find out more about her being magicless was unbearable. Zev’s warning about her manipulating us came to mind, but how far would she go for that?

“I was serious when I said we didn’t know. Every Belladonna before you has always had power and they always break free,” I explained as we entered her room. She pushed me away, but I held on to her until we reached the bathroom, grateful when the tub was already full.

Slowly setting her on her feet, she kept her gaze from me to keep me from seeing her eyes swollen from crying. It was very prevalent, she had been crying for hours, her whole face was swollen. I tilted her chin up to look me in the eye, prepared for her to lash out at me. When I only saw a sad broken woman staring back at me, guilt reared its ugly head back in full force. I decided she needed a little help from me. Maybe she’d consider it an olive branch?

“We are only human for the witching hour and cursed beasts for the rest of the day. Keep that in mind,” I said, thinking she still looked gorgeous, before I turned to walk away.

This woman was not like the rest, and I think she was about to shake up everything we knew.

9

KATARINA

Lucien left me in front of a tub filled with steamy water. The last twenty-four hours came crashing down on me when he let me go and I tried to come to my room by myself. I expected hitting him would make me feel better, but the floodgates opened and I cried.

When he picked me up, I couldn’t help but lean into him because I was exhausted. I spent the entire day scared shitless, trying to escape, hurting myself every time I tried to pull on my restraints.

I heard the wolves a few times and one of them came close to me, making me fall to my side thinking he was coming after me, but one of the other wolves caught his attention.

They were wolves and witches. I couldn’t believe it because if I remember correctly, they were supposed to be close to extinction. There was so much information swimming in my brain that I needed to sort through. Tonight was definitely off the table. My body hurt from being in the same position all day without being able to stretch and my wrists were killing me from the rope burns I received from tugging so much.

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