Page 42 of Blade

I’d spent most of my time growing up avoiding the local coven because they’d all been very marriage-focused women at the time, so I only had the barest knowledge about what they were doing.

As Serena looked like she was going to step toward the house, Henley smiled politely and stopped her. “We’re ready for you to break down what kind of magic was actually used on him and how you’re going to fix it.”

She blinked but nodded after a moment. “Yes. That’s a good idea.”

As my mate would’ve said…duh.

Taking a breath, she did a good job of focusing on us both and not just Henley. “My grandmother was the one who cursed you. From what she remembered later and what the handful of witnesses who were around saw, she tried to punish you for rejecting her advances and at the same time tried to force a mating bond on you.”

We’d never even dated when I had to pretend to like women.

What the hell had she been thinking?

“The two very conflicting spells along with her own mental health issue at the time backfired in an unexpected way.” Serena seemed genuinely sorry for the situation and was being honest as far as I could tell based on her scent. “It seems like part of the result was due to the combination of the spells and her wildly out-of-control mental state, but we also think some of this might have been his own internal magic trying to protect him.”

This was protecting me?

“How?” My mate asked very good questions.

Frowning, Serena didn’t seem to like the question. “Once she was able to receive the mental health help she’d needed, well, based on what she could get back then, she admitted she didn’t know if she wanted to hurt him, mate him, or just kill him.”

Great.

“We really had no idea that when humans were introduced into a bloodline, at some point their physical and mental issues could affect us as well.” Shrugging, she still seemed surprised over that. “It’s taken a long time to understand that and even longer to find medications that work because of our differences.”

Henley nodded slowly. “So because intent is a large part of magic, when hers was so conflicted it threw a wrench into her plans.”

I’d seen mystery movies as a kid that sounded more reasonable than the nonsense I was living through.

“We never expected Mr. Singletary to find his mate, so I’m hoping this makes unraveling the original spell easier.” Nothing in her scent changed, making me think she was still being honest about that. “I’ve spent my entire life going over this plan and my mother before her. This is a dark part of my family’s legacy and we’re going to fix it.”

“You can’t be held accountable for what your grandmother did.” Frowning, he studied her closer. “Your mother probably wasn’t even born when this happened.”

Serena smiled softly. “She wasn’t, but I’m the only one left, so it’s up to me.”

Looking around at her coven, she smelled of sorrow but I could almost see the bonds between them. “The whole coven at the time realized it was their fault as well because they should’ve known something was wrong.”

Turning back to me, she lowered herself until we were eye to eye. “From that night, we vowed to fix what she’d done. I know this won’t be enough after you’ve lost so much, but your family’sproperty and money went into a trust. We’ve done our best to protect your home and keep it ready for you when you returned.”

Finally letting myself look up at the house I thought I’d never see again, I barely held back a whine as Henley petted my head.

“I know he’s going to have questions, but thank you for looking after his home.” My mate sounded completely relaxed, but I could feel his stress finally easing down to a more reasonable level.

“It was our responsibility.” Rising, she took a deep breath and looked around at the group. “I’m not sure I ever expected us to get to this point. It almost doesn’t feel real.”

My mate was too sweet for his own good because I could feel his anger receding too. “We’ll figure it all out one step at a time. Right now we’re just focused on getting him back to his original form. Everything else will wait.”

Everything else would wait.

I leaned into his side and did my best to keep my body and my mate at the front of my mind. If intent mattered at all in this situation, I wanted to make sure the magic knew getting back to my mate was what I wanted the most.

I wasn’t sure if that would work, but I wasn’t going to do anything to send conflicting signals out to the universe.

Being with my mate in my original form was the only thing that mattered at the moment.

“Hey.” Henley turned and lowered himself to the ground as I straightened, and smiled when we were face to face. “Is there anything you need to communicate before we start? Should I get the tablet?”

That he’d asked meant he didn’t think we were in danger and I had to agree with him for the moment. Life could be turned on a dime, I’d learned that firsthand, but for the moment nothing felt wrong.