Page 52

“As I wish to be with you,” I murmured and kissed him back.Tomorrow we would worry about breaking the curse on my Drake.Tonight, I just wanted to be with my belovedl’lorna.

I had no idea what the future held and for now I didn’t care, as long as I could hold Avery.

31

AVERY

“Well, I think I’ve found a way to break the curse,” I announced to my Coven mates, the next Friday night.

“You did?”Megan looked up at me hopefully and Emma and Kaitlyn leaned forward too.Everyone else had gone to bed but the four of us, including Saint, who was extremely tired.

All that week I had been working on something in the woodworking shop, which was mostly frequented by Drakes, who absolutely hated my guts.Saint had been with me every day to protect me and, as a consequence, he had been in a constant battle with his own Drake, trying to keep it from coming out to murder anyone who threatened me.

It was a risk I wouldn’t have taken, but I honestly couldn’t help it—being in the woodworking shop had been a necessity in order to make what I needed to help break his curse.

“Actually, I found it right away, but I’ve been working on the implement the spell calls for,” I told them.“This.”

The piece I held out to show them was a crude thing—a wooden object a little larger than a golf ball.It had to be handled with care because it consisted of a lot of jagged spikes and splinters of wood that poked out from the round, central core in every direction.

“Uh, what’sthat?”Kaitlyn asked, frowning.

“A Curse Breaker,” I said simply.

“Really?This is what you’ve been working on all week?”Emma eyed the jagged wooden object carefully.“I don’t mean to upset you, Avery, but it’s not, er, very pretty.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” I told her.“It’s not meant to be anobjet d’art,Miss Fairy Princess, it’s meant to break curses.”

“And how, exactly, does it break them?”Kaitlyn asked.

I took a deep breath—now we got to the sticky part.

“Well, I said,” trying to sound unconcerned.“It’s not that difficult, really.You squeeze the Curse Breaker until you draw blood and chant the spell that compels the one who placed the curse in the first place to remove it.”

“You squeeze it until you draw blood?Your own blood, you mean?”Emma demanded.

“Exactly,” I said coolly.“It’s a kind of sacrifice—that’s how it works.”

“Pardon me, Avery, but isn’t thatBlood Magic?You know, as in the kind of magic that has been outlawed by the Council of Other Elders?”Kaitlyn asked.

“She’s right!”Megan exclaimed.“You’d better not be doing any Blood Magic on school grounds, Avery.I’m pretty sure Headmistress Nightworthy had spells put up to alert her if anyone does it.”

“She had to put those up because ofyou, Princess Latimer,” I told her.“And besides, who said I would be doing Blood Magic on school grounds?In order to break the curse, you have to take the Curse Breaker to the person who laid the curse in the first place.Then you?—”

“Wait a minute—wait a minute!”Megan objected, before I could even finish.“You have to take it back to the person who laid the curse?But wasn’t the person who cursed Saint a witch who lives in theSky Lands?”

“Well,yes…” I admitted.

“And how do you think you’re going to get to the Sky Lands?”Emma demanded.“Is there some kind of transport spell you can use?”

“The only way to get to the Sky Lands is on the back of a Drake,” Kaitlyn said, answering the question for me.

“Oh, well then maybe you can turn into your Drake and take him,” Megan said brightly, looking at her.“Or maybe Ari’s Drake can do it.”

Kaitlyn shook her head.

“That’s going to be impossible, as I’m sure Avery already knows.”She spoke quietly and when she looked at me, her eyes were filled with fear—fear for me, I suddenly realized.

“Yes, I know,” I said airily, still trying to appear unconcerned.