Curse the Dark (The Harstone Legacy Book 1)

Chapter 26

You never really notice how quiet a place can be until you've had a day of chaos in it. The afternoon and evening had been spent pulling together every item and person that the coven thought could assist in the cleansing ritual. In what I was informed by a scandalized Tilda was a highly unusual event, the coven didn't limit itself to witches. After the numerous times the account of the cleansing ritual was read, it was determined that other species of paranormals could be brought in to up the power quotient. In that one afternoon I got more of an education in paranormal magic levels than I ever thought possible. The one thing that shone through was that Flora wasn't just important to the coven, she was a pillar of the Walker Bay community, and they were terrified at the thought of a future without her.

"Take care of her and remember to contact us if you see any change." Despite the urgency of the situation, Maude seemed to be reluctant to leave.

"I won't move from her side," I promised.

Maude nodded sharply and glanced over at Flora before hurrying out of the house.

I closed the door behind her and took up my place by Flora's bed, my hand grasping hers. I had never felt more useless in my entire life. For two hours I sat like that, desperately trying to see some change in her condition, but there was nothing. I bent my head over our clasped hands and closed my eyes. I was surprised when I felt a swirling dizziness and then the familiar cold bathing my skin.

"Flora," I breathed. I didn't understand this. Every other time I had come into this cell, I had been asleep. I was as positive as I could be that I hadn't even been close to sleeping this time. I looked around the room, finding Flora with her back against the wall and her head resting against her bent knees. As I stepped closer to her my attention was caught by something which hadn't been there the last time I visited. "What is that doing here?"

Built into the wall of the dungeon was an exact copy of the curse tablet, but this one had thick black tendrils wrapped around it, more dense than the ones on the blackthorn box.

Flora lifted her head and I could see that the effort cost her. "It just appeared, maybe a day ago, maybe more, maybe less. I can't tell anymore."

The same time that we found the tablet in the cave. That could not be a coincidence.

I knelt down beside Flora as she slumped to the ground, and pushed the hair back from her face. "What's going on?"

She licked her lips which had cracked so much they were bleeding. "Ever since that thing appeared, it's like my strength is being sucked out of me. The last hour it has been getting worse."

I paled as I worked out the timing. "The coven is trying to break the curse."

"Curses can't be broken, not even by the whole coven."

"They think they can," I insisted. "We found a spell in some old book that was used by a coven about a hundred years ago to successfully break a curse."

"The Raynard curse," Flora croaked.

"Yes, the coven thinks that now that we've found the curse tablet, if they use that spell as the basis, they can break this curse."

Flora shook her head. "It won't work."

"Why not?"

"It was a hoax. The Raynard curse was never broken."

"How can you say that? The baby was saved from the curse. His father was the last Raynard to die."

"Michel Raynard was not the father of his wife's child. Michel Raynard was the last Raynard to die from that curse because he was the last Raynard. That curse wasn't broken, it died out because there were no more men of the Raynard line."