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“Simone, take him,” I ordered, and she nodded, grabbing his other arm. He glanced back down at his sister once more before allowing Simone to drag him off.
I waited for them to get farther away before focusing back on Adelaide. The spell she’d cast had allowed what looked like moss and to grow up over Tala’s burnt flesh. “How is she? Can you heal her?”
“Her skin, for the most part, yes. My problem is the poison inside of her. I don’t know what it is. My grimoire isn’t letting me know, either.”
Tala winced at the strain the spell was having on her, beads of sweat now on her forehead and her shoulders slumping. She was clearly on her last legs. There was a lot I could do with magic, healing included. However, it took focus and clear purpose, and my magic was neither of those things. Halfway through healing her, I could think of something else and completely erase her thoughts or something. It was better to keep it simple.
And simple was helping Adelaide to help her. Rolling up my sleeves, I pressed my hands on her arm.
“What are you doing?”
“Think of me like your battery for now,” I replied and exhaled, feeling the magic hum under my skin as it moved through my fingertips.
“Druella, this is dangerous!” Jericho snapped at me.
“I know. I’m okay. It’s not everything, just enough to keep you going, Adelaide.” My hands got hotter.
“This is what your magic feels like?” She gaped at me.
I didn’t realize magic felt different in all of us. “Focus on Tala.”
“I’m sorry,” David whispered, taking a step back from us. “I’m really sorry. Maybe I really am cursed, guys.”
“Does this look like the right time to have a pity party?” Adelaide snapped at him.
“Adelaide. Focus,” I replied.
“Go home, Dave. I’ll see you there,” Faye said to him. He looked like he wanted to say something more, but she shook her head.
I wasn’t sure what had happened or if he had done anything wrong, but I knew, just like Faye, that everyone would blame him because it was David. He’d been moved from one circle to another, over and over again, before finally being put with the seventh. Witches liked three things—living, magic, and gossip. The Whitmore family had been the center of all three for decades. Apparently, they were all cursed, and only one in a generation could live.
I personally checked, curious to see what curse was responsible for taking so many of the Whitmores, but I didn’t find anything. There was no curse on their family. But there was more evidence to the contrary than my opinion.
Like the fact that Faye’s mother had died during childbirth despite being healthy for days, and David’s mother died a few days after his birth. Their father had been struck by lightning and died right in the middle of the street. It was only the two of them now, but everyone believed since Faye was part of the ninth circle, the last Whitmore to die would have to be David. It didn’t help that in each circle he went out with, someone always got injured. If not for Faye, I was sure David would have been ostracized or kicked out of the coven.
“My brother is just as strong as I am,” Faye whispered as she knelt and took hold of Tala’s good hand. “He’s just always distracted and worried—”
“I know, Faye,” I replied, nodding. She said this more often than she realized it, and I wasn’t the one she needed to convince. I knew there was no curse on them…well, other than the fear that came from everyone believing there was.
“That should be good enough for now.” Adelaide dropped her hands tiredly, and when I did, too, stopping the flow of magic from myself to her, she collapsed into my arms.
“Adelaide?”
“I’m okay. Just tired.”
She was not. She was burning up, and blood was now dripping from her nose.
“This is what happens when—”
“Jericho, not now, thank you!” I snapped at him, laying her on the grass.
“She will be fine,” Mrs. Reyes said as she walked up to us with my uncle beside her.
He glanced between Tala and Adelaide before his brown eyes shifted to me. “Are you simply going to let this stand, Druella?”
“What?”
“The vampires of these lands have broken the treaty between us. There needs to be a punishment for it. This cannot continue!”
