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“I guess so.” I’d only discovered the surge in energy when I’d started writing about a yearago.
Ash was fiddling with the buttons on hispants.
“What are you doing?” I pushed myself against the wall, lifting another pillow and embracing it against my chest, my breath locked in mychest.
He glanced up at me, mischief in his eyes. “Well, if I bring you to orgasm a few more times, you might cleanse the entire house ofevil.”
I had no words because I wasn’t some performing monkey. “Are you shittingme?”
He chuckled and came over, ruffling my hair. “Had you goingthere.”
“Hell, right now I wouldn’t be surprised by anything.” So much had happened these past few days that I could finally see that my guard and money problems back in Terra were nothing in comparison to what I’d encountered in WhitePeak.
Ash joined me on the bed, both of us sitting there, our backs against the wall, our legs touching. In another time and place, this would have been the perfect moment. Yet no matter what we talked about, at the back of my mind, I kept remembering crazed shifters were out there on theloose.
So our options had come down to one: sit and wait for their transformations tofade.
“Hope you’re brothers don’t run outside and killinnocents?”
“Doubt it. Every time Talin got caught outside during a transformation, he bolted back home as if he were possessed. I’m praying they were smart enough to have shut themselves in the cage as they felt the changes coming on.” He fell quiet for a while, staring out the window into the wilderness. “When I changed from the curse, I had this overwhelming urge to remain inside. I can’t explain it, but it didn’t even cross my mind to gooutdoors.”
“Might be part of the curse,” I suggested, well aware that complicated incantations came with rules and restrictions on the person being hexed. “Maybe Rek didn’t want to involvecitizens?”
Ash sighed and stared at the barren bookshelf. “I feel terrible that we dragged you into our problems, Bee. Honestly, we believed you’d come in, do a spell, and bedone.”
“I thought the same. But my dad says things always happen for a reason. And I want to believe good will come out of all ofthis.”
Silence fell between us. With no sounds outside, either, I prayed the brothers were in their cage, not charging toward us. That tightening sensation of my chest never left me, robbing me of my senses and rationalthinking.
“Where do you see yourself in ten years? Married with three to four kids?” Ash asked, nudging me to stop me from biting mynails.
“Three to four kids? That’s crazy talk. Before I settle down, I plan to visit every realm in Haven. I’ve seen three so far. Darkwoods, Terra, and now White Peak. I want to try out all the different cuisines, visit Tritonia and ride a pirate ship—but keep clear of the voodoo witches. They’re nasty pieces of work. Anyway, I also want to meet a mermaid there forreal.”
He scoffed. “You know mermaids are myths,right?”
“What?” I twisted in his direction and shook my head. “You need to get out more. My friend Ariella saw them firsthand, and she doesn’tlie.”
Ash stroked his thick stubble. “Now you’ve got me curious. And they wear nothing on top?” Hesmirked.
I nudged him back. “Is that all men dream about?Breasts?”
“Yours are divine. Soft and they filled my hands perfectly.” He held his palms out, his fingers twitching as if he were grasping my breasts at this very moment. The corner of his mouth curled upward. I couldn’t help but admire his words. Then again, I’d admittedly never heard a man say he wished I had smallerboobs.
“You’re aware of the effect you have on men, right? You’re super sexy and confident—or is that anact?”
I suppressed the chuckle pressing against my throat and studied his flirtatious grin. “This is the real me, just trying to survive in a wild world. But in the company of you and your brothers, I feel caught off guard half the time. Can’t really explain it. Probably because I’m not sure if I should curtsey or kiss your hands. You don’t behave likeroyals.”
Ash looped an arm around my shoulders and tugged me against his side, his skin warm and soft against me. “The four of us agreed to no royal bullshit in our home. We all act normal and treat others the same. None of this bending the knee to us crap. No fancytalk.”
I leaned into his side. “That’snice.”
Neither of us spoke, and I drowned in my own thoughts. Another couple of days and it would be a full moon. The curse would then claim all four princes. A deep ache settled in my chest, and my eyes prickled. For their plight, their futures, their familyline.
By morning, I hoped the brothers were back to normal because then we had to put a plan into action. Yet my thoughts revolved around the strength of the curse and how it backfired. I wasn’t a fool to ignore that death magic was used. But from I understood, such hexes required the use of a personal object or artifact. Maybe a figurine, or hair clip. The curse’s power was kept in that object. Destroy it and it should destroy thehex.
The herb books didn’t offer a solutions, and maybe the answer lay in me heading to his cousin’s court with the princes and trying to find this object. If I meet Rek, I might be able to cast a persuasion spell where he’d have to tell us where the object was if we asked him. That was if his cousin didn’t kill me first… for being a human. Would he be able to detect I was awitch?
