Page 40 of Cursed Beasts

I grabbed my pencils before I stood up as calmly as I could. He would not get to me because he was jealous or because he was still stuck in his old ways.

“Look, I get they put us in this position. We are here because of them,” I said, finally looking up at him. Aeon was a masterpiece, but when he was angry, he looked like an avenging angel. His anger made him more handsome. A part of me loved his wrathful side, but we needed for him to be reasonable. “How much longer are we going to keep doing this?”

“So, what are you, siding with her?” he snarled.

“I just think we need to take a different approach. We’ve done the same thing since the beginning.” I felt the pull of the magic with the urge to shift. I put my notebook with pencils and charcoal on a shelf, so she wouldn’t find them.

“This conversation isn’t over,” he snapped, taking his pants off as I did the same.

“I agree we all need to talk about a different strategy because whatever we are doing isn’t working,” I said, before the pull of the magic made me shift and as much as I wanted to fight the change, I knew there was no point. The magic that held us here had a tight grip on us and she might be our only hope at breaking the curse.

19

KATARINA

After my initial shock of the massive library, looking at books that I had only dreamed of, I decided I needed to figure out this damn spell, or at least do some research on it.

I spent last night reading more about wolves, but I couldn’t find anything about shifters who had magical powers. I was starting to regret staying up later for the last few days and my head was hurting from the lack of sleep. Reading was more important, and I had missed it. What I really missed was the research part of my job, finding clues about a spell, but at the end of every job, my father performed the ritual.

There was no way I could complete the ritual on my own. Usually, you needed an outsider to break the curse, but just thinking of it gave me anxiety. No matter how many solutions I found, I didn’t have magic to kick start the spell.

My eyes blurred with tears, realizing I was going to fail again. My father was going to be furious with me, disappointed that I didn’t do what he had asked and blamed me for something that was completely out of my control. Tears leaked down my cheeks as I looked up at the ceiling, still in bed.

I hated being a Belladonna. I hated the expectations. I hated not being enough.

The tears kept coming as I tried to calm down, but it felt like I needed to let it all out. I turned my head into the pillow, crying, letting myself feel everything for just a moment.

The only good thing about this entire situation was that I was alone. I didn’t have the scrutiny of my father, of my family, and most of all, I wasn’t getting shit from Caston, either. Getting away from him might actually be the better blessing in disguise.

Having time away from our life together, I realized just how toxic and abusive Caston was. I had to break this curse so I could get away from going back home. I couldn’t go back to that man, and I couldn’t go back to a father who didn’t give a shit about me.

I gave myself five more minutes to get my shit together. Once I felt mildly better, I rolled out of bed, going to my suitcase to pull out clothes for the day. The weather was getting warmer, so I pulled out some cut-off shorts and a tank to keep me cool while I looked through the library. This whole place was in dire need of central air conditioning.

Once I had dressed, I realized I still had another forty minutes until three am. I really needed to find a way to dodge the guys during the night so I could spend more of my time researching instead of cooped up in this room.

I sat on the bed staring at the door, debating if I should risk going out earlier today. When I did it three days ago, I was just fine, but I was worried that it was just a fluke. Fear of the unknown had me glued to my bed, not attempting another early stroll.

A knock on my door made me flinch, but Mr. Potter came through the door without even looking at me. He had been quiet ever since my outburst a few days ago.

“Mr. Potter?”

He set my food down on top of the dresser.

“Look, I know we don’t see eye to eye on things and I am sorry for my outburst,” I said. “I’m going to break the curse, but I need some direction. I don’t know what I am doing, and I have no idea where to start.”

He had his back turned towards me, staying so still that I didn’t know if he had heard me. He turned around, looking at me skeptically.

“What has changed?” His voice was wary.

“Look, I won’t deny I tried to find an easy way out of this. It looks like I have no choice but to break the spell to get out of here.” I took a breath. “As much as I don’t want to help the men, I realized that living one hour at a time has to be awful. It was a punishment that I don’t think anyone should go through unless you commit the most heinous of crimes.”

Mr. Potter still looked unconvinced, but I had nothing to lose.

“I just need you to point me in the right direction, so if you know anything, please let me know or just show me,” I asked, looking as sincere as I could.

“If I knew anything I would tell you but like I said, we were all thrown off by the spell.” He looked a little sad. “Your best chance would be asking one of them for any information that they might have.”

My stomach dropped when I thought of asking one of them for help. By the way the chase went, all I felt was animosity, some playfulness, but mostly hate.

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