Avoiding Alpha

Page 24

Chris reached behind him and grabbed a legal pad for each of us, then put the cup with pens and highlighters in the center of the table.
Adrian snatched up the nameless brown book. “I can’t believe they actually gave you this one.” His dark brown eyes were wide with wonder as he looked through it.
With all the scribbling, I knew the book was different, but I wasn’t sure what that meant. “What’s the deal? Why is it all handwritten?”
“It’s a Book of Shadows.”
Whoa. I’d heard of those. Only because I watched Charmed. It was a guilty pleasure.
On the show, the Book of Shadows was a family’s spell book handed down from generation to generation. “I didn’t know people had those in real life.”
He carefully closed the book and ran his hand over the cover. “Yep. Every family has different spells, different ways of doing things. At least that’s what I was always told. It gets passed on to the oldest child from each generation.”
That didn’t make sense. “Newsflash. I’m not the oldest in my family. Axel is. And I’m pretty sure Claudia and Raphael are older than me, too.”
Adrian shrugged. “I guess I’m wrong. Maybe it’s not the oldest, but the most powerful?”
I moved uncomfortably in my seat. If that were true, then Claudia had taken a huge risk by giving me the book. No wonder Raphael had been against it.
Adrian opened the book again and Shannon scooted closer to him to read.
I started with Chapter One of mine. It had great information on the basics of witchcraft, explaining how magic was a test of one’s will and faith. But none of that specifically helped Meredith. When I had a few days, I’d start at the beginning, but for now, I flipped to the back of the book.
The index had an entry for “breaking curses.” That sounded much more applicable.
I started reading it and things got interesting. For all intents and purposes, the book implied that messing with anyone else’s curses was a bad idea. Apparently it caused ‘adverse effects,’ which included illness, wasting diseases, and painful death.
That sounded like a bunch of not cool.
I scribbled down “NEVER try breaking a curse” on my notepad. Not that I needed the note to remind me, but it was good to keep in mind if I ever got desperate.
The chapter went into some gruesome details—pictures included—of people who had tried and failed to break a curse. At the end was a note.
Although it is inadvisable to break another’s curse or spell, counteracting it can be achieved. If the caster’s will and faith be stronger than those of the original caster, then the effects of the curse or spell may be lessened or even overridden.
The relief I felt was tangible. Now, all I needed to do was find a spell to counteract the curse on Meredith.
I flipped back to the index and searched for anything that sounded helpful. The way I figured, there were two real options. Breaking the curse wasn’t one of them. We either needed to put Meredith’s wolf back to sleep or we needed a spell strong enough to override the original curse, which would release her wolf. Everyone else at the table was all about finding the latter, but getting Meredith’s wolf to chill seemed like the safest option. Then this new spell wouldn’t have to be stronger than Luciana’s spell or even override it. It just had to work alongside it.
I lost all track of time. The scratch of my highlighter against the glossy finish of the crisp textbook pages and the scraping sound of pens against paper filled the room. Occasionally Adrian and Shannon whispered to each other about possible spells, but I tuned them out. I was determined to find answers.
After a while, my eyes were watering and my back was stiff. I stood and stretched, my joints popping as I leaned back. “Do you see anything in the books for a spell about either releasing or quieting a wolf?”
“Shannon and I found a couple possible spells to try,” Adrian said.
That was promising. “Chris?” I said.
He was reading the blue book, his nose nearly pressed into the spine. He held up a finger.
Okay. He needed more time. “Well, mine is about as useless as meta class.” I had to take metaphysics with the freshmen. The class tried, and, in my opinion, failed miserably to explain magic in scientific terms. “It’s got all these theories about how magic works, which is great, but no actual spells that could be helpful.” I sighed.
“What does it say about breaking spells?” Shannon asked.
I flipped through the pages to find a passage that I’d marked. “The meat of it boils down to this passage. ‘The abilities of one witch will determine the abilities of each work of magic.’ It has a bunch of junkola after that and then the next part is good. ‘The longevity of the work is determined by the strength of the will enforcing said work. The potency and sustainability of a work can be partly determined by the strength of the witch’s will. Most works of magic wear out in time, but when breaking a particular work, the abilities of the caster must be weighed against those of the breaker.’” I glanced up from the book. “So if I want to break the spell, then I have to have stronger willpower than Luciana. If I don’t, the whole thing could backfire.”