Academy for Courting Curses - Tara West Page 0,60
still in knots after their adventure.
“You need to eat, Serah,” Ladon said when she picked at her food.
“I know.” She wondered when her anxiety would pass. She just couldn’t shake the feeling that her grandfather was still alive, plotting his revenge.
Alexi leaned toward her. “You’re worried about Goldenwand.”
She nodded but couldn’t say more, a knot of apprehension tightening in her chest. She didn’t want to tell her mates, but she’d been obsessively vexing over him since they’d escaped Gae’s island.
Grandmother Adora gave Alexi a pointed look. “You said you saw his corpse.”
“His foot,” Alexi corrected.
She adjusted Lily in her arms. “What about the rest of his body?”
He grimaced. “Buried in the rubble.”
Adora shared concerned looks with her mates.
Grandfather Jagua stroked his bushy, white beard. “Did you see any one-legged bats?”
Serah shared confused looks with her mates.
“One-legged bats?” Teju swayed on his feet, clearly tipsy from all that demon whiskey. “Why would you ask that?”
“Because Nathaniel turned into a bat every night,” their grandmother said matter-of-factly.
Serah stared at Adora in disbelief. “He did?” Though some part of her said Adora was full of demon dung, that explained why her grandfather had refused to dine with her in the evenings and why he’d retired to his chamber early every night.
“So he was a shifter, and he loathed shifters?” Ladon asked.
“He wasn’t a shifter,” she answered. “He was a morphus.”
Draque took a big swallow of his demon brew. “A morphus?”
“He was cursed by Acheron.” She nodded to her mate, who looked away.
“Why did you do that?” She asked, worried she sounded too judgmental. But damn, that could explain why her grandfather had been such a prick. Then again, he had no excuse for his behavior. If he’d had a grudge against her mates’ grandparents, he should’ve taken it up with them, not the whole world.
“Because he wouldn’t leave us alone,” Acheron answered. “My intention was to reverse the curse after he apologized to your grandmother for stalking her, but he refused.”
“I did see a one-legged bat,” Alexi said as if recalling a dream.
Her blood ran cold. “When?”
“Every so often. It would stare down at me from a perch in my cell.”
Eeek! Thelix squealed.
A shiver coursed up Serah’s spine. Instinctively, she looked at the cavern ceiling but she couldn’t see past the darkness. Swallowing back a lump of fear, she clutched her throat. “Then my grandfather could still be alive.”
“Not likely anything survived that volcano,” Teju said.
“What if he flew out before it exploded?”
“What if he did?” Draque laughed, pointing at the staff beside her. “His army is destroyed, and you control the amethyst scepter.”
“He will be arrested if he shows himself in the witch’s realm, and he’ll be burned to a crisp if he pops up here,” Teju said.
But there was one thing they’d forgotten. “What if he finds the wand with the catastrophic curse?”
“He won’t find it.” Draque snorted. “It’s buried under the volcano.”
How could he think this was funny? “For the world’s sake, I hope you’re right.”
Draque knelt beside her. “Perhaps we should take a few days to recharge on Siren Island.”
Yes, please! Thelix begged.
She looked away when he gave her a suggestive look. She was in no mood for sex on the beach or sex anywhere for that matter. Not when the threat of her grandfather’s vengeance loomed. “I can’t. Tomorrow I need to go to Fae Kingdom and claim my throne.”
You’re no fun, Thelix grumbled.
Draque grimaced, and her heart sunk. That was another one of her worries. Like it or not, she was the Fae queen now. She had no choice but to fulfill her duties. But would her mates want to live with her and a bunch of hoity-toity Fae? And if they refused, then what? She couldn’t ignore the scepter’s calling, could she?
* * *
Draque was still tipsy from drinking too much, a decision he knew he’d regret come morning, especially since he and his brothers were too drunk to make love to Serah.
Ladon and Teju passed out the minute they hit the bed. Serah lay between them, cursing and sighing. Draque wanted to crawl over them and seat himself between her smooth thighs, but he was afraid he’d throw up on her. He profusely apologized to Thelix, who cussed him out like a blue-balled sailor.
He stayed in bed long enough for the room to stop spinning, then tired of listening to Ladon and Teju’s loud snores drowning out Serah’s even, soft breathing, he left the room and wandered to the central gathering place in their apartment,