Moon Cursed (Sky Brooks Series Book 5)

by McKenzie Hunter

  “You’ve had a rough day.”

  What gave it away? “Yeah,” I said into the glass.

  “Sebastian is very confident in your and Josh’s ability to fix this.”

  I could feel his penetrating gaze on me—looking for affirmation. Needing it. I needed it, too. I nodded and turned to face him. “Yeah, it’s not going to be easy. Things like this never are, but we seem to manage.” And that was the truth; most of the time I thought it was more luck than skill, and at some point, luck had to run out.

  He smiled. “Based on what I saw today, you are truly an asset to this pack.” He raised his glass to me and took another sip while closing the distance between us. The fingers of his free hand brushed lightly against my hand. “The witch and the magical wolf seem to be a very good team. And very good for this pack.”

  Taking a couple of steps toward the window, he looked out, appreciating the same beauty that we all did when we looked at the moonlit landscape—the freedom to be able to easily roam in peace. It was a comfortable sanctuary.

  “I often found myself envious of the power and prestige afforded to this pack. After all, technically it has two Alphas, and that lends to its strength as a unit.” He turned and looked at me, his eyes leisurely scanning me from head to toe. “In the short time I’ve been here, I’ve noticed that the pack is cloaked in secrecy, but I trust Sebastian, so I’m sure there is a good reason.”

  Again, I found myself under the gaze of a watchful Alpha.

  A whisper of a smile lifted his lips. “The secrets would bother me, too. But you can find comfort that they keep them from us as well. There’s always something more to the Midwest Pack, but it’s just another day, another secret. I get it, I’m not part of this pack. It doesn’t bother me, but you seem to be having a hard time with it.”

  I shrugged it off. It didn’t surprise me that he could sense it, that he knew it. My thoughts went to the primitive were-animals I had seen earlier and how they must have used their skills to hunt and terrorize. I took another long draw from my glass. Placing his hand over my hand that was holding the glass, he showed a gentle understanding that I really needed. Something was off and I wanted to be able to fix it, to understand it, but I couldn’t.

  “It’s okay to feel this way. I only saw what you went through, and it bothered me to see it happening to you. I hated being a helpless observer. But no one could do anything about it. I’m sorry.” The little space that remained between us, he’d closed in a single step and I was aware of his hand over mine, his kind silver eyes, the gentle knowing smile, and his breezy breath against my lips. I stayed still as he moved closer, wishing the alarm to move would ring, or at least ring a little louder so that I wouldn’t ignore it.

  He leaned in to kiss me. Shocked into a response, I moved back. “No. I’m with Ethan.”

  He smirked. “Are you? I’ve seen you together. He’s the director and author of the little drama that you consider a relationship. It’s awfully one-sided and appears to be only what he wants it to be. I presume your relationship is of his own creation. It happened when he wanted it to, not when you did, and he only gives enough for you to perform for him.”

  I brushed off his words, but his observations stayed with me.

  “I think you deserve better than Ethan.” Although he maintained the distance I had placed between us, his overwhelming presence made it seem like he was just inches from me. Too close. I averted my eyes from his.

  “That’s how he is, I knew from the beginning. We make it work.” My tone was cool, a warning to drop the subject.

  “No, you make it work. You will eventually grow tired of it.” I was sure he wanted me to do it rather quickly.

  I finished what was left in the glass, set it on the nightstand and started to leave. “You might be right, but I still want him. And if I no longer do, I’m not going to betray him. I’ll just end it.”

  The smile was still there, and so was the taunting, devilish sparkle in his eyes. “You know where I am, and if you ever want to come and see how things are done in the East, feel free to come visit me. While I’m here, my door is always open, if you want to talk.”

  Talk? Is that what they’re calling it these days?

  He raised his glass to me and then finished it off. I was down the stairs in seconds, rushing through the house, looking for someone to take me home. There were several lights still on: one in the library—I suspected Josh was still in there—Sebastian’s office, and the clinic. I hoped Kelly was in there. She’d settled back into her role as the pack’s nurse rather quickly. She was still the same, except that she seemed to enjoy changing to her animal half a lot. It was a little quirk of hers. I started walking aimlessly, and for some reason I ended up at Sebastian’s door instead of in the clinic.

  “Will you take me home?” I said to his back. He was in his chair, staring at his odd collection of books. My interest always went to the books of poetry that he had. I smiled, envisioning the ferocious beasts from earlier sitting down and enjoying beautiful words.

  He turned. “Of course.” Grabbing his keys off his desk, he followed behind me.

  I knew Sebastian would give me the silence I needed. I wouldn’t have to relive the moment in the library again. For most of the drive, we sat in a comfortable quiet, or as comfortable as it could be between us.

  “I guess knowing where we evolved from is a lot different than experiencing it.” His tone was bleak and remorseful.

  “It wasn’t that bad.”

  “Yes, it was. I was there.”

  He regarded me for a long time, concerned. “Why are you doing this?” he inquired.

  “What?” I asked. “I don’t have a choice,” I added before he could answer.

  He pulled the car over. His hands rubbed over his face in frustration. It hadn’t been a trying couple of days for just me. If Josh and I couldn’t remove the curse, I still lived—Sebastian didn’t.

  “You could have left. You could leave now and vow never to put yourself through such things. Josh does it because he and Ethan will do anything for each other. But you—I’m trying to understand the why with you.”

  “Because you need me to, and I can’t stand idly by and watch people I care about die because I can’t tolerate a little discomfort,” I offered. “I wish you all would have told me. Maybe I could have done things differently.”

  “Like what? Hole yourself up in your house, afraid that anything you did could be the catalyst for a curse that no one believed was real? I know you believe it’s an act of cruelty to withhold information from you, but I don’t see it that way. Some things are best hidden, not out of mistrust of you but out of self-preservation. We don’t keep things from you because we don’t trust you. What would it have helped, telling you, if the information was incorrect? If we would have told you, it would have changed things for you. Just like if we—”

  He stopped. I was positive he knew Ethan had informed me about the situation with Josh. He was so bound by his vow of secrecy he seemed unable to repeat the secret to someone who already knew. “You would have worried. In the back of your mind, you would live your life thinking about it—that’s who you are. You would have sacrificed and resisted using magic, and you never would have been able to kill Ethos.” Technically, I hadn’t killed Ethos, Ethan had. I was positive Sebastian was aware of that now. “Now, Mouras are safe because of it. No more sentence of death. That’s because of you.

  “I’m glad you consider this an obligation and you can’t walk away.” Sebastian hesitated before leaning forward and gently putting his hand on top of my head. I knew it was his way of showing affection, but I felt like he was petting me. “It’s what makes you uniquely Skylar.”

  “I think if anyone else in the pack had the ability to do it, they would.”

  He nodded. “I have no doubts about that. But everyone in the pack is the pack.” He pulled back into the street, keeping his eyes straight ahead. “It feels like you are in the pack.”

  I und
erstood what he was saying. I had a hard time internalizing everything about it. For years, I’d resisted my animal half because it had made feel like a freak, an outsider, too different. Despite that fact, I knew I was on so many levels. The pack was an extension of the disconnect, that difference. Whether or not you knew why, when in the presence of a were-animal, you felt the difference. The more entangled you became with the pack, the more of yourself you gave until you were the pack. I wasn’t sure if I was there, or if I would ever be.

  Sleeping was nightmare-riddled, so at nearly three o’clock in the morning I’d given up. Staring at some images that flashed in front of me on the television, I didn’t care that I didn’t find them remotely interesting. Someone knocked lightly at the door. I didn’t bother looking out the peephole. I could feel him on the other side. Ethan stood just outside my door in a pair of loose-fitting jeans. It looked like he’d just grabbed clothes and put them on without giving much thought to it, which wasn’t like him.

  “I couldn’t sleep, either,” he said quietly.

  No other words were exchanged. Hands linked, we went to the bedroom and got into bed. Resting against his chest, I snuggled in closer and found sleep immediately.

  CHAPTER 17

  The next day I expected to find Josh in the library with a new spell to try. It was doubtful he’d slept at all, given that he had the daunting task of trying to find another spell. We’d exhausted everything else; I refused to think of the alternative. It wasn’t an alternative for either of us—or was it? I shoved the idea aside. There sat the Aufero on the table, illuminated a vibrant orange, pulsing with magic—strong magic. The allure of it was too tempting.

  I moved to the corner away from it and pulled a couple more books off the shelf I’d been through too many times. There wasn’t anything new in them. I scooted them closer to the middle of the table and took out the Clostra. Since Joan’s return, we now had two of them, but they weren’t any good without the third one. And since my cousin and I were the only ones who could read them, they weren’t any good to anyone else, either.

  “Good morning, Sky,” Cole greeted as he walked into the library and took a seat next to me.

  “Hi,” I said coolly. I didn’t want to be rude, but I didn’t want a repeat of yesterday’s conversation. Pulling one of the books from the center of the table, he started to peruse it. With a limpid smile, he asked, “You can read this?”

  “Not all. I’m better than I was, but I still have to use Google Translate a lot or ask Josh or Ethan for help.”

  “Ethan speaks Latin?”

  I nodded.

  “Very fortuitous for the pack. But his mother was a witch, it’s to be expected.” He moistened his lips, still looking over the pages. “I shouldn’t have said what I did, yesterday.”

  “It’s okay. I understand how things between us might look to others. It can be complicated at times.”

  “You misunderstand. I’m sorry it was said at an inopportune time, but I meant it.”

  I didn’t want to talk about my relationship with Ethan, nor did I care to hear any more insight regarding it. “The book next to it is in English.”

  He picked it up, turning over a few of the pages. “You can do spells like these?”

  Barely nodding into my answer, I narrowed my eyes on him. “Are you trying to poach me?”

  His eyes flew up and his brows rose. “Poach?” He grinned.

  “Yes, poach. I’m not leaving this pack. It would be advantageous for you to have a witch in your pack, but I’m not interested in leaving this one.”

  “If I was even considering such a thing, Sebastian would have to agree to the transfer, and I’m sure he wouldn’t.”

  He went back to the Latin book; I figured the mystique of the foreign words was more interesting to him. Taking out his phone, he swiped over a couple of things and then began typing, I guessed translating.

  “I do believe your modesty may be your most appealing attribute. There are far more interesting things about you than your magic. It’s unfortunate that Ethan . . . the others”—he seemed to add that as an afterthought—“haven’t done a better job making you see that.”

  I let the quiet moment settle between us, reading over the Clostra, I leaned over, letting my hair fall over my face. I was startled when he moved closer, brushing it away and tucking it behind my ear. “Better. I may need your assistance with this one.”

  He moved the book over and slid his chair even closer.

  “There isn’t anything in that book that will help.”

  “Perhaps you’re right, but Josh isn’t here yet, so you can’t work. Will you at least entertain my curiosity?” he asked softly.

  I started to read it, explaining what the spell did. I could feel his attention and fascination. I finished and moved the book back closer to him.

  “We hire out,” he admitted. “This is my first time being so close to the process.” He pointed to another. I didn’t feel like giving a magic lesson to someone who would never be able to use it, but I didn’t want to tell him to just go away.

  “I really need to finish going through this,” I said.

  He looked over at the Clostra, and the words disappeared from the page, as they did for anyone but me and my cousin. “This place is a world of wonder.” He looked around the room, at the various books. He stood to go over to one shelf, taking some books off to look at and then reshelving them. “I haven’t heard Latin spoken often, but to my untrained ears, you speak it quite beautifully, for a novice.”

  “And you can learn Latin, too. Why don’t you take the book and go study somewhere?” Ethan said sharply from the doorway.

  When Cole gave him a dismissive glance, Ethan responded with a sharp look. Once again I found myself between them, the boundaries being tested. It was worse than in the gym when I’d been sparring with Cole.

  Ethan’s eyes narrowed, steel gray flooding them. He moved to enter the room, but before he could, Josh slipped in and quickly moved in front of his brother with two coffees in hand, putting a barrier between him and Cole. He handed one to me and the other to his brother.

  “It probably needs to be warmed up a little,” he said to Ethan, an easy look on his face as he tried to get him to focus on the cup instead of the target that he’d zoned in on. His gaze was unwavering; Josh was unable to redirect him.

  Coffee in hand, I slipped past Josh and placed my hand on Ethan’s stomach, feeling the grooves of his abs that were tauter than usual because his whole body was rigid. “We should warm it up.”

  I nudged him back. He didn’t budge. I made another effort. I lifted to my toes and gave him a light kiss on his lips. When he looked down at me, I lifted the cup. “I’m about to become caffeine-less Sky. No one likes her. Right, Josh?”

  “Why do you think I brought it? I can barely stand her, and since we have work that needs to be done, please get her some warm coffee,” Josh joked as I nudged Ethan again. With hesitation, he backed out of the room.

  I looked back over my shoulder to give Josh a thankful look and got a glimpse of Cole, who was still looking at me, rubbing his fingers absently over his lips.

  The luxury of time was no longer ours. Josh and I worked for several hours on another spell, one that we’d rejected because it was stronger and darker than the one before, but we were in a desperate situation. Once again, we were in the library, Joan in one corner, the West Coast Alpha in the other, Cole on one side of Sebastian and Ethan on the opposite side.

  Ethan’s arms were folded over his chest. He stepped back until he rested against the only bare wall in the room, dividing his attention between his blank looks at me and glares at Cole. The palpable tension between them was making me uncomfortable and making it even more difficult to concentrate on the spell. Josh was usually perceptive, but he was too involved with the magic or the spell to pay attention to anything else. After my third failed attempt to say the spell all at once, something had to be done. The incantation had to be done that way, a
single invocation of a plea for assistance without a break or pause, a magical song that had to have the notes and beats right, or it wouldn’t work. And that was always the problem with stronger spells—they required far more precision than strength.

  Sebastian’s gaze bounced between Ethan and Cole. “I need the room,” he said, looking at everyone around him.

  There was just a brief moment of refusal from both of them, but in the end, Sebastian the Elite Alpha gave a look—a scary look as amber rolled over his eyes. Without shifting, the wolf just peeked through, vicious and feral. Cole was the first to leave. Defiance marked Ethan’s glare and response. It was rare that he did that, and on those infrequent occasions it had always been because of Josh and his desire to protect him and prevent him from doing dangerous things. Rarely was the fuse of discord lit, but for a brief moment, it was, and it didn’t revolve around Josh.

  “I won’t ask again,” Sebastian said. With a scowl, Ethan pushed from the wall and walked out of the room.

  As the last words fell from my lips once again, I was treated to another dark world, similar to the one before, but with the stronger spell, I felt things more intensely. I clutched the edge of the table, absorbing the feeling of despair, the violence, the bile that crept up my throat over the devastation that the creatures left in their wake. The same thing, as if it was just a loop, but this time, when I saw the bronze man, I didn’t run.

  I stood, keeping a distance from him, waiting for him to speak. He didn’t say anything. Massive claws formed around his hand, and he slashed them across my stomach; I jumped back, but not in time. Pain seared through me. Pulling magic from the Aufero, I found its darkest source, and it took everything I had to control it, teetering on the line before I found myself submerged in it.

  I heard people gasping around me, but I cast the spell. Words that I’d only heard spoken by Ethos, the purveyor of dark magic, and Maya flowed from me as naturally as my own. Blood streamed from my stomach, warmth fell over it, and the words continued. I still don’t know what drove me to continue, but I did, knowing that the words were not my own and the spell I was casting was something foreign to me. I was compelled to do it. The desire to perform it at that moment felt stronger than the need to breathe, to exist.