Page 106 of Tortured Beasts

I’m so sorry. You need to find everything you can to break the spell because after the year is up you die. Grandmother had set up so much before it was your turn to go and I’m hoping it's enough to keep you alive.

Grandmother and her sister Ava, did a lot of research while Ava was there, finding things out that we never would have found if it had just been one of them doing the research. Vivienne is not to be blamed for this entire spell. She was manipulated, they told her that Thane was dead because he was the father of her child. She thought it had been Zev, Aeon and Lucien who told her secret, but Ava didn’t think it was.

I hope whatever I’m saying makes sense, that you have read Ava’s journal and Vivienne’s grimoires too. If you haven’t, you need to look for them and you need to put your blood on one of the pages so you can read them, but I guess if you're reading this then you do know. The spell he used covered all his bases, so I think you won’t be able to read this until you figure out everything. He doesn’t know about certain things, but some of what I have in here, he might not know. I just hope you read this letter before the year is up.

I love you Katarina and I hope you find a way to survive this stupid curse. Ava told grandmother you’d be the spell breaker but as much as I want to believe it, I don’t see how it's possible.

Don’t take any of their shit. Ava says watch out for Zev, he's an asshole, Aeon is the only one that has any brains, and Lucien might just fall head over heels for you. I know you might be mad at me but please try and reach out. I love you Katarina and I’ll pray to the goddess that she guides you to break the spell. I just want one more hug from you.

Love you,

Serena

P.S You better call me. I’ll wait every day at sunrise for your call, so we can talk about the spell, and everything else.

Holy shit. I sat there for a minute digesting everything in this damn letter. As much as I wanted to go to the guys, I was afraid that this wouldn’t do anything to convince them that Serena was going to be our biggest ally.

They needed to know about Vivienne, Zev needed to know and then maybe his hate… Who am I kidding? I think unless Vivienne herself showed him what really happened, he wasn’t going to believe any information I presented him with.

I looked at my watch. It was barely two-thirty, I had at least four hours until sunrise and they might be the slowest four hours of my life. Getting up, I headed to the bathroom. As much as I wanted to relax in the tub, I had nervous energy running through me as I tried to think of a way to get the necklace back from the guys.

After getting out, I put a mask on my face and hair. This allowed me to roam the room while I paced back and forth trying to figure out who might have the necklace and how I might get it back.

A soft knock on the door broke my plan to just go seduce them. My heart skipped a beat wondering who drew the short stick to talk to me and how pleasant this conversation was going to be.

“Come in,” I said, realizing too late that I had green goo on my face.

Aeon's big frame came through the door looking at me before I had a chance to turn away. His eyebrows raised before a small smile reached his lips.

“I… uh… I’m going to take this off.” I turned to run into the bathroom, to rinse off the mask. I was a little disappointed it was just him, but I guess it might have been better than having all three of them here. Arguing with all of them was exhausting. Once I had all of it rinsed off, I dried my face.

“What was that on your face?” Aeon leaned against the frame with his arms crossed against his chest. Even though the castle was cooler than Alaska they still walked around in little to no clothing unless it was really cold.

“It was a mask,” I said, wondering how the hell I could explain that I put shit on my face to make it look younger. “It's supposed to keep my face hydrated, you know, fight the wrinkles before they show up.”

He walked up to me until we were chest to chest, and I had to look up at him.

“I think you’ll make the wrinkles look good,” he said, rubbing his nose against mine.

“Yeah, says the man who is probably going to look like a silver fox when he gets older,” I smirked.

A look of confusion passed his face making me smile even bigger.

“A silver fox is a man who has gone gray but looks oh so delicious. Which I’m sure will be you and the guys.” I blushed, thinking I was such an idiot for saying this.

“Is this one of your kinks?” he asked, making me laugh.

“I should have never told you guys about kinks.” I rolled my eyes.

“Would you call it a silver fox kink?” He looked extremely amused.

“I think it would be a daddy kink,” I replied, walking to the room to put some skincare on.

“I would be ok if you wanted to call me daddy.” Aeon followed me, sitting on the bed.

“As much as I would love to continue our kink talk,” I said, hating that we were just skirting the issue. “Why are you here?”

His relaxed expression grew tense.

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