by R. A. Gates
He bit her. Indirectly, but his
teeth still punctured her skin. And his
saliva, with all its germs and magic,
could’ve contaminated her blood.
Crap. Karma strikes again.
A moment later, rationale took
over and she realized that she couldn’t
become a werewolf because she was
already a witch. The two different
magics couldn’t live inside the same
person . Duh. One always dominated the
other and because she was born a witch,
she’d stay a witch. At least she’d be
spared the anguish of fleas.
Danny sat on the floor, leaning
against the wall across from the
bathroom when she came out. “Your
cousin Thing called.”
“You mean Thane?”
“Yeah, that's what I said. He
needs to talk to you 'bout something
important. He wants you to come over to
his house right away.” He scrambled to
his feet.
She held in a groan. Thane was a
fellow Senior at school and a nice
enough guy, though a bit high strung. He
discovered a lost letter in his late uncle's
trunk that her mother had written when
she was pregnant with her. Her father,
Thane’s uncle, died before telling
anyone he was a new dad, so nobody in
Thane’s— and now her—family knew
she even existed until three days ago.
The last couple of days had been
hell for her with Thane following her
around asking a million questions to 'get
to know her better'. They’d had casual
conversations in the past, usually
homework related, but now he wouldn’t
shut up. She couldn't take it anymore.
“I'm sure whatever he wants to
talk about can wait until Monday.” She
pushed past her door and headed to her
desk to pull out her Trigonometry
homework.
“But,” Danny said as he barged
in. “He told me he'd give me ten bucks if
I get you to go over there.”
She stopped. “He did?” How
badly did he want to know about her
childhood pets, or where she went on
vacation?
“Yeah, so go.”
Sitting in her chair, she looked
him over from head to toe. For once, he
might be useful to her. “Is Garren going
to be there?”
“Who?”
“Never mind.” She twisted the
wide leather bracelet that never left her
right wrist as she thought. “Tell you
what. I'll go if you donate Thane's bribe
money to the New Rug Fund.”
“What?” His voice screeched out
a high note. His eyes grew so wide that
the whites were visible all around his
irises.
“You're the one who ruined the
rug in the first place, remember?
Besides, do you want to go back to the
orphanage that kept you locked in a cage
like a dog?”
He froze in his step, terror
reflected in his eyes. “I don’t wanna go
back there.”
Mr. McGregor may be son of a
bitch, but at least he treated Danny like a
human being. No cages for werewolves
in his house.
“If we don’t come up with
$5,000 soon, we’re both outta here.”
His shoulders sagged as he
dropped his gaze to the floor. “Fine.”
She grabbed her hoodie and
skateboard. “You should've asked for
twenty.”
“Hey, Ivy?”
She stopped with her hand on the
doorknob and waited.
“If you have a cousin, does that
mean you're going to move out and live
with him now?”
Her heart cracked at the tremor
in his voice. “I'm not going anywhere.”
He smiled.
“All right, out. I have to go earn
our first ten dollars. Only $4,990 to go.”
She set her shoulders to brace herself for
a boring evening of interrogation and
dragged herself out of the house to visit
her new family.
Chapter 2
“You want me to do what?” Ivy
asked. The first place Wizard Martial
Arts trophy she had been admiring
slipped through her fingers and fell to
the floor. The clank echoed throughout
Thane and Garren's bedroom as it hit the
hardwood.
“Kiss— Prince— Sebastian,”
Thane said as he leaned back in his
chair, the wood creaking in protest.
Green eyes peered through wisps of
blond hair, accentuating the soft contours
of his choir boy face. He was every
mother’s dream for her little girl;
respectable, handsome and totally non-
threatening. But that wholesome, All-
American-Kid persona he had going on
was an act. Something sick and twisted
lurked beneath the surface.
She thought he wanted to discuss
family trees, not disgust the hell out of
her. The very idea was... was... just
gross. On top of that, he had the nerve to
roll his eyes at her. Her! She wasn't the
one who had lost her mind.
Garren,
Thane's
stepbrother,
listened to the conversation from his
bed. He sauntered over to her, picked up
the dented trophy and placed it back on
the shelf. He was the polar opposite of
her cousin in every way. Arresting blue
eyes, with the power to make otherwise
intelligent teenage girls abandon all
common sense, peeked out from behind
locks of black hair. Add his sharp facial
features and muscular build, he was who
the daughters drooled over.
One hand still on the ledge above
her shoulder, he leaned in and flashed a
cocky smile. “You should do it, Ivy. It
might be the only chance you get to kiss
a guy.”
She bit the inside of her cheek to
keep herself from responding to his
childish jibe. She didn't like him being
so close, afraid he'd see the bruises she
tried to hide under her curly hair. After a
brief stare-down, he turned and flopped
down on his unmade bed. His cheap
cologne lingered in the air, tickling her
nose.
She backed up into the wall and
crossed her arms over her chest,
obscuring the band logo displayed
across her baggy, black t-shirt. She eyed
each boy warily. “Is this a joke?
Because if it is—”
“No, no.” Thane threw his hands
up in surrender, shaking his head.
Her narrowed eyes regarded
Garren, the boy who'd been the bane of
her existence since she arrived in the
small Alaska town. This could be one of
his practical jokes.
But Thane wasn't the type to
tease people. On the contrary, being
&nbs
p; smart and a bit socially awkward, he
was picked on quite a bit. He wouldn't
go along with his stepbrother, would he?
She turned to her cousin. “But
Prince Sebastian's been dead for two
hundred
years.
That's
disgusting,
immoral, and I'm pretty sure illegal.”
Was she the only one who thought this
was wrong?
“Technically, he was cursed, not
killed,” Thane clarified.
“I fail to see the difference.” She
turned around to crack the window open.
The smell of sweaty socks and low tide
made her woozy. “Are you guys storing
bait in here?” She shuddered at the
thought of what could be lurking under
the piles of filthy clothes crammed in the
corners. She stuffed her hands in her
pockets
to
keep
from
getting
contaminated.
Garren glared at her. “No. My
hockey uniform still reeks of spoiled
halibut. I still owe you for that.”
She smiled. That was one of her
better pranks. He deserved it after
announcing to the entire cafeteria that
she was in need of a more effective
soap. “You started it.”
Garren moved to get up, but
Thane beat him to it and stood between
the two. “That's enough. Can we focus?”
After clearing her head with
fresh air, she ignored Garren as best she
could and turned back to Thane. “Fine.
Why do you want me to kiss a dead—
excuse me— sleeping prince?” Not that
it mattered since she wouldn't do it
anyway. She was just curious.
“Because I believe it will break
the spell,” he said, settling back down in
his seat.
“And you want to break the spell
because...?” What’s in it for him?
Thane's eyes grew wide before
he grabbed a folded up Salmagundi
Gazette and shoved it in her hands.
“Because the wards around the town are
failing. I thought you, of all people,
would be concerned about that.”
She didn't appreciate his tone
and snapped the paper open to see what
he was talking about. Skimming the
front-page article, she caught key words
like 'secrecy wards', 'failing', 'solution',
and 'reward'.
Reward?
That
caught
her
interest. “I still don't see what one has to
do with the other.”
Thane took the paper back and
slowly rolled it up, never taking his
perplexed gaze off her. After an
uncomfortable moment of his staring, a
look of understanding spread across his
lightly-freckled face. “I forgot you've
only been here a year and don't know all
the history. Legend says that Prince
Sebastian set the original wards on
Salmagundi to protect his lover from her
scorned husband.”
“And you think, if he was back,
he could reset the wards, and we'd get
the money for saving the town.” That
made some sense.
“You could even snag a date to
Senior Prom next month,” Garren said.
“I'm sure Prince Sebastian would be so
happy to be alive again, he'd lower his
standards for you.”
That was it. She grabbed the
closest book on the desk and flung it at
him. He was so busy laughing at his own
stupid joke that he didn't see it coming in
time to shield himself. It nailed him right
in the chest.
Rubbing his sternum with one
hand, he turned the book over and
smiled. “Romeo and Juliet? Are you
flirting with me?”
Blood and heat rushed to her
cheeks as her mouth fell open. Of all the
books splayed on the desk, she had to
pick up that one. “What? Absolutely
not!”
“Are you sure? Because this is a
pretty romantic book—”
She snorted. “Romantic? What's
romantic about a girl killing herself over
a guy?”
He leaned forward, his elbows
resting on his knees as he held the book
in both hands. “She was in love,” he
challenged.
“She was an idiot,” she said as
she waved away his lame response,
ending that conversation.
He reclined back against his
pillows and opened the book. “Whatever
you say, Ivy.”
She
leaned
against
the
windowsill and brought her attention
back to the reason she tolerated Garren
in the first place. “So why do you think
we'll be able to break the spell? I'm sure
others have tried before.” She was
almost afraid to hear the answer.
Thane
had
a
passion
for
experimenting and testing his theories.
He had no problem disregarding the
rules when they interfered with his test.
Not only had he been arrested a few
times, but banned from the pool for life.
“You know how I've been
researching my family line of Potion
Masters?”
Garren groaned. “Oh gawd, don't
get him started.”
She nodded and motioned for
him to continue. He'd mentioned it a few
million times already, but anything that
annoyed Garren, she encouraged.
Thane sat up straighter in his
chair and grabbed an old, cracked
leather book off his desk and cradled it
in his hands. “About five years ago, I
found a bunch of these old diaries that
belonged to our great-grandmother
Leviena, about twelve times removed.”
He opened the book and thumbed
through the yellowed pages until he
found what he was looking for. He
handed her the book.
“Wow, it's in great shape for
being so old.” She handled it carefully,
not wanting it to disintegrate in her
hands.
“Don't
worry.
There's
a
preservation spell on it,” he said. “In
here she mentions having a secret love
affair with Prince Sebastian right before
he was cursed.” He sat there, staring at
her, as if she was supposed to already
know the rest of the story.
She glanced at the faded words
and shrugged. “Okay, so we have an
adulterer in the family. I don't see what
that has to do with me kissing her
boyfriend.”
“You're going to have to explain
everything or we'll be here all night
waiting for her to get it,” Garren said as
he pushed his black hair out of his eyes.
The b
ook she threw at him lay next to
him on the bed, forgotten.
She glared. “Why are you here
again?
Don't
you
have
some
cheerleaders to chase after?”
“Nope. Taking the day off to rest
my lips; chapped.” Garren said with a
smile.
She rolled her eyes and sighed.
“What else do you have to tell me?” she
asked Thane.
“Right. Well, since learning all
this, I've been reading everything I could
to learn more about Prince Sebastian.
Did you know he was a brilliant Potions
Master? He discovered how to keep fire
thistle from exploding when adding it to
—”
“We don't care!” Garren said,
running his hands through his hair. “Just
get to the part about breaking the damn
curse.”
“Everyone should care about all
the contributions he's made, not only to
the art of potion making, but spell
creation, charms—”
“You're obsessed with the man.”
Garren said. “It isn't natural.”
Thane rolled his eyes as he
ignored his stepbrother and spoke to her.
“I'm not obsessed, just fascinated.”
Garren stood, walked to the
overflowing bookshelf and pointed to
each spine on the second shelf. “Prince
Sebastian, Prince Sebastian, Prince
Sebastian,” he said after touching each
one. “It's like you're in love. Maybe you
should kiss him.”
Her head snapped back and forth
between the stepbrothers, like watching
a tennis match. She was glad they
weren't talking about her kissing a dead
guy anymore.
Thane swatted Garren's hand
away from the books and grabbed one.
He set it down on the desk, cover side
up. Love Potions and Curses. “As I was
saying,” he glared at Garren, who'd sat
back down on the bed. “I looked up
different spells and curses to find out
which one was used. I've narrowed it
down to two and the way to end the
enchantment is the same for both— True
Love's Kiss.” He leaned forward in his
chair, elbows resting on his knees.
“That means he needs to be
kissed by his true love,” Garren told her
after a moment of silence.
“Well, duh,” she said. “That still
doesn't explain why you want me to kiss
him. I've never met him, so I couldn't be
his true love.”
“Yes, but I believe Leviena was
and she died before she could break the
spell,” Thane explained.
She glanced back down at the
diary in her hands, filled with her
ancestor’s deepest, darkest secrets. That
has
