Lynette had a secret, something Darian didn’t know. This is what broke their trust. Finding out this secret is how we break the curse.
Chapter 7 - Shane
Coming out of the stale, dense air in the council chamber feels like a weight being lifted off my shoulders. I have to hold myself back from running down the hallway and flinging open the big, heavy door. I’m so eager to get out.
The manor has always had bad vibes, but this is truly getting serious if even I can feel it.
As we reach the gravel drive, Sadie comes out behind us and turns to look up at the second-floor windows. Trina follows her gaze, standing close beside her.
“What can you see?” Hyacinth asks in a small, timid voice. When I look over at her, I see that she has her back to the manor as if she’s afraid to look at it.
“The better question is, what do you see?” Sadie asks.
Hyacinth looks at the ground, and I hear her swallow hard. When she raises her eyes to the manor, they shimmer a little, as if she’s about to cry.
Or some dark and powerful magic is rising in her. I don’t know if I should be hoping for that or dreading it.
Hyacinth looks up at the windows for some time, her expression thoughtful and almost puzzled. “I don’t see much,” she says. “It might be my imagination.”
“What is?” Trina asks eagerly. “Anything at all could be your powers beginning to manifest. Tell us.”
Hyacinth shrugs. “Light and shadow. Maybe a face at that top window. I don’t know. It’s giving bad vibes, though.”
“Yeah,” Sadie sighs. “But the vibes here have gotten so bad, a rock would feel it. I’m encouraged that you might be feeling something, but I’m also not feeling any magic in you.”
“Me neither,” Trina says.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I step away from the girls, flicking through my messages to catch the updates from the infirmary. I pass on the news that the elders haven’t left the manor in months, and I know a new wave of fear has begun to spread through the pack.
“Sadie,” I say, breaking into the girls’ conversation. “We need to do something. Surely you can help the people in my pack, or the elders themselves. You can’t just let everyone die!”
Sadie shakes her head, her eyes big and sad. “I’ve tried, Shane. Trina and I have spent days visiting sick pack members, and all our magic is useless. Trina passed out overextending herself, and she still couldn’t heal anyone.”
“I didn’t realize that,” I say quietly.
Trina comes over to give me a quick hug. “I’m so sorry, Shane,” she says. “We are trying. Sadie and I are going back in to work with the elders now and see if we can get them out.”
“I don’t think we’ll be able to,” Sadie says. “But I need to see how far they can go from the manor—what the boundary is. Lynette was so powerful, and it’s difficult to understand how the curse will unfold.”
“Where are the others?” I ask, looking back at the manor.
“Rhys and Owen are discussing who takes over the council if they all die,” Sadie answers grimly.
The shock that runs through me then cuts right to the bone. I’d never considered the elders dying, even as other pack members began to sicken by the dozens.
“We should go back in,” I say, looking back towards the manor and knowing it’s the last thing I want to do.
“You can if you want,” Trina says. “But if the elders die, most likely they’ll be the last to go. This is really a formality. A procedure to comfort them more than anything.”
Even though the sun overhead is warm, I suddenly feel frozen to my core. With each triumph over the curse, I really let myself believe that it was already beaten, and it was only a matter of time until all of us were healed.
I didn’t know the entire thing could be undone on the final step. This is terrifying.
Hyacinth is still looking up at the manor, her arms wrapped around herself. The chill inside me turns sharp as I realize I might have made the situation much worse with my hasty actions.
Not just worse. Catastrophic. I might have doomed us all.
“Okay, we’re going back in,” Sadie says. “I assume you’ll be heading to your infirmary?”
