Night Witch (Weatherstone College, #2)(61)

Our bond might have passed the curse back to Logan, but it was also fighting the drain.

“How are you being affected by the curse?” I asked as we snuggled under my covers, completely clothed to keep ourselves from accidentally accelerating my death through sheer horniness. “Because it feels as if our bond has kept me alive far longer than I would have otherwise.”

Logan dragged his fingers down my arm, finding slivers of bare skin, his calluses from years of guitar sending tingles through my body. Clothes were definitely the right idea.

“I haven’t had enough time to research exactly what’s happening to us,” he said, his voice as rough as his touch. “But it really doesn’t matter. We’re going to fight, and you will fucking live.” He rolled onto his side to bring us even closer. “And on the very slim chance we fail, I’ll happily follow you. Our souls are bound, Precious. That means not even death parts us.”

The thought of Logan not existing in this world broke a fundamental part of me. Cracked it right down the middle until my insides seeped from my body. “Don’t even say it,” I whispered. “We’re stronger than Rafael believes. He’s not going to win.”

Logan’s lips pressed against my forehead, lingering for a few tantalizing seconds. “That’s the spirit, Precious. We have the counter-curse, and he has no choice but to provide his blood to reverse the spell. It’s as if the Fates themselves don’t want our deaths, as if they’ve given us every weapon to fight back.”

I snuggled into him. “I’d never ask you to hurt your dad for me.”

His hands flexed against my back. “Baby, I’d rip his heart out with my bare hands and present it to you as a gift. He’s nothing to me, and you are fucking everything. There’s not a single being in existence I would choose over you, and there’s not a single one safe from my wrath if they hurt you. That’s a promise I can easily make.”

Goddess above, he was destruction wrapped in a beautiful package. A destruction I was happily signing up for. “Fuck, I love you,” I said against his chest. “So much.”

“I love you, Precious. And now it’s time to sleep. You need to rest.”

With my head filled by fifteen—very difficult to procure—ingredients, I didn’t expect to drift off, but Logan’s touch eventually lulled me into a restless sleep, and I didn’t rouse until the sun peeked through my curtains the next morning.

When I opened my eyes, I was alone in bed, and Logan’s side was cold. He’d been gone for a while, and I wondered what I’d missed. As I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed, I was relieved to feel no worse than yesterday.

I gathered up clothes to change into and headed to the bathroom. By the time I’d showered, dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, with my hair pulled back in a ponytail, my stomach was growling at me. In the kitchen Mom was already cooking up a storm for the group gathered in the living room. “Morning, honey,” she said, shooting me a smile. She looked pale and worn-out, as if she’d barely managed any sleep last night.

Wrapping my arms around her from behind, I breathed in her familiar lavender scent and let it calm the ragged edges of my magic. “Morning, Mom. Is everyone planning out how we’re dividing the items?”

“Yep. Go and join them in the living room.” She shooed me away. “I’ll get all the food out in a minute.”

Ignoring her dismissal, I moved to her side. “Let me help you. There’s a lot of mouths to feed out there.”

She shot me her famous Are you sassing me, young lady? look. The one that suggested it was not in my best interest to prod a momma bear when she was in worried and protective mode. “You need to be resting every second you’re not required to participate in this curse reversal. If it wasn’t for the fact that we have no necromancer in our team so at least one of those items will require your skills, I’d have you locked in your room.”

A genuine laugh escaped me, and I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “I love you too, Mom. But I’m fine—” Her eyes narrowed to slits, and I barely managed not to laugh again. “Okay, okay. I’ll go and rest. Call if you need help. As far as I’m aware, Trevor’s a few rungs down the curse list, so he should be fine to carry everything in.”

“I heard that,” my brother shouted, but he was smiling as I entered the living area. My heart felt weirdly full, my magic swirling at the sight of all the people I cared about in one room. Curses might be dark, scary magic, but I felt blessed all the same.

I’d always had a lot to lose, but now . . . Now I had everything.





Chapter 28




By the time breakfast was done, and everyone was sipping coffee or tea, the list had been divided by affinities. “I’ll take all the herbs,” Mom said, ticking them off. “I have a lot of them here already, and I can have the equipment to ensure they’re purified and set up for the spell.”

“I’ll go with her to find the few we don’t already possess,” Dad said, taking a large gulp of his black coffee. He appeared to have slept as little as Mom. “We’ll have them all back here by the time you all return.”

“Jensen and I will find the deep-sea urchin,” Mom added. “You need a strong water affinity to go that deep.”