Page 165 of Cursed Evermore

The firmness of his grip anchored me, making me feel safe. So did the protective look in his eyes when I gazed up at him.

For a moment, we stared at each other, and I found myself drifting in the solace of his presence.

He shouldn't have this effect on me. I shouldn't allow it, but he was the only thing I knew in this chaos.

Wolfe looked away first, his gaze flicking to the parchment like his life depended on it.

I looked, too, watching as our blood traveled in a line across the expanse. It began to form a pattern,a map.

This was it. The moment we'd all been waiting for. The spell was working.

The map would show us where the ring went. After all these years of searching for my father, I'd see him again, and the memory curse would be broken.

And Wolfe...

He'd get his kingdom. Become the king of Galaythia.

Now that I'd seen the kingdom, I understood what he fought for.

Time held its breath with us as we stared, each second feeling heavier than the last. Our blood flowed like a river, the amberlight emitting from the parchment glowing and pulsing like a second heartbeat.

Then suddenly, it faded to nothing, and the blood lifted from the parchment, split into two veins, and rushed back to us.

Mine went back into my body and Wolfe's returned to his.

He dropped my hands and when I looked at the palm that had been cut, there wasn't even a scratch there.

Wolfe scanned over his hands, his brows furrowed deep when he saw the same thing had happened to him as well.

The howling shadows receded back to the wall of light Garrick and Arielle had created, then that was gone, too. Everything returned to its previous state, as if all our efforts had been snuffed away and we'd never cast the spell.

“What in the hells is going on?” Arielle was the first to speak.

Wolfe was still looking at his hand, stunned. Garrick looked just as perplexed, and I was... I didn't even know what I was. To say I was confused and shocked sounded too meager to describe the feelings surging through me.

Wolfe crouched and felt over the parchment, checking it.

He straightened, looked around, disappointment hiding in the press of his lips and the corners of his eyes.

“It... didn't work,” he said more to himself than in answer to Arielle's question—the question that was on all our minds.

“What happened? It looked like it was working,” Garrick said, walking over to the parchment to inspect it, too.

“I don't know. I thought it was working, then something happened.” His voice was laden with hidden rage.

“Something must have gone wrong,” I offered.

Wolfe's gaze shot to me, assessing me as if I somehow had the answers. “Did you feel anything different?”

My breath hitched. Asking me that question was as good as getting me to break down the history of all the ages with personal details of everyone who'd ever lived.

“I... have no idea. All I felt was fear.” My stomach twisted as I wondered what in the hells we would do next.

“Fuck,” Wolfe snarled, squeezing his hand into a fist.

“Wolfe, calm down. We knew this could potentially happen,” Arielle offered. “That's why we planned out the time. In case we had setbacks like this.”

“No. You don't understand. I planned that time in case the spell didn't work atall. But itwasworking. If it wasn't going to work, I expected nothing to happen. Not something in between. It was definitely working. The map was forming. It was showing us the way, then it stopped. Like something stopped it. And our blood...” His voice trailed off as he glanced at me. Then he looked back at them, his expression tight with frustration and uncertainty. “I've never seen blood return to its owner's body before. Have either of you?”