~~~Jackson~~~
“Mrs. Hensley,” I said in greeting, shaking the older witch’s hand.
Four days had passed since Aunt Rose told me that Myrtle suspected that I was in fact under a curse—one that made it impossible for me to speak to Valerie. For those four days, I spent almost all of my time with Valerie, trying to break said curse by sheer force of will. I did not confirm that I was her mate and that I’d had a witch spell my mark. I would do that when I could speak to her.
Stephanie, Aunt Rose, Azure, and even Valerie had experimented with different things for me to try to say to her or situations in which I could speak to her. None of them had worked. I didn’t remind them that under the disguise of her neighbor, Nick, I had spoken to her on several occasions. I should have, but I couldn’t bring myself to reveal that deception, fearing that Valerie would stop believing that someone had cursed me. If she stopped believing, she’d go back to thinking I disliked her, and I couldn’t have that now that I was close to being able to claim her.
“Mr. Nichols,” Mrs. Hensley said in return, allowing me to guide her to my living room. Rose and Stephanie, who were standing behind her, followed us.
We met at my cabin and not the apartment to keep the entire ordeal out of prying eyes. Rose didn’t want anyone in the town knowing that Mrs. Hensley was here. Her presence would be a dead giveaway to the witch who had cast the spell that we were onto her.
“So someone has cursed you,” the witch said, taking a seat in a high back chair and looking at me with an amused expression.
“I don’t know that for a fact. You’ve convinced Rose and Stephanie that I am, and it’s true that I can’t speak to the human that has arrived in our world...”
“Except?” she asked, eyeing me suspiciously.
“Except, what?” I asked, knowing what she meant.
“Your tone says you’re lying about not being able to talk to her.”
“If I’m lying, then you are as well. If I’m able to speak to Valerie, then I haven’t been cursed.”
“Jackson, what is she talking about?” Rose asked, sounding more than a little irritated at my disrespectful/combative tone.
I glared at her, annoyed that she would automatically believe a stranger over me.
“I knew you were lying to me,” Rose said, eyeing me skeptically.
Mrs. Hensley only stared at me when I turned my glare on her.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ve been pretending to be Valerie’s neighbor, Nick, and when I’m pretending to be him, I can talk to her. That means that I can talk to her and it means that I’m not cursed. So why can’t I say a word when I’m myself?”
“Do you dress differently or wear a mask? Why can’t she see it is you?” Myrtle asked.
“I talk to her under cover of darkness. Most nights I stay in the apartment across the street from her. She only sees me at night, and I’m always on my balcony. Our nights are dark, but I try to stay in the shadow, just in case.”
“I see,” Myrtle said, thinking things over. After a bit of pacing, she said, “I still believe you’re cursed.”
“But how?” I asked, throwing my hands up in frustration.
“You said it yourself. You were pretending to be someone else. Spells are tricky and literal. I guess the person—most likely a woman—said something like, and remember I’m guessing and simplifying things, ‘Bind Jackson’s tongue when he’s speaking to Valerie.’ Therefore, the spell only works when Jackson is talking to her.”
“Seriously, that minor difference is all it takes?” I asked dubiously.
“Yes and no. If I understand what’s going on here correctly, from what you’ve just told me and from the information Rose gave me, you take on an entirely new persona when you go to her as Nick. She’s never seen Nick, so she doesn’t know that you are one in the same, giving you a loop hole in the spell. Although, such a thing is rare and it only happens when something interferes with a mating. The fates always find a way. Is the woman your mate, Jackson?”
The room went silent as everyone stared at me.
I didn’t answer her question. I looked down at my blank palm and thought about what she said. It all seemed far-fetched, even in my world, but stranger things have happened.
Finally, I nodded.
“Can you break the curse?” I asked Myrtle, ignoring the women around me.
“I can try. I’m old and whoever’s doing this is powerful, so I make no guarantees.”
“I won’t hold you to anything as long as you try.”
“All right. I need a second witch,” she turned and said to Rose.
Thirty minutes later Tamera was standing in my living room removing the glamour that hid my mating mark. Myrtle said that my denying Valerie gave the spell more power than it would otherwise have because it worked with the spell.
Once the glamour was gone, Myrtle and Tamera were able to see the spell more clearly, so Myrtle sent Tamera and Stephanie off with a locator spell in search of the witch who had cursed me. If she couldn’t break the spell, she was going to force the witch who had cast it to break it.
Myrtle was just settling into chanting a counter spell when Stephanie’s voice shouted through the mirror above my sofa. “Jackson, Rose, come quickly. The bookstore is on fire.”
In an instant, I was in wolf form and running full-speed toward town.