Panther Curse: Shifters Bewitched #3 Read online

  His expression was so tender that I couldn’t bear to look at them. So I turned my attention to Cori and Reed, who sat on the other side of the table.

  Curvy Cori with her wide eyes and bouncy curls had been a good buddy of mine. Of course, I used to give her a hard time now and then, and she took it good-naturedly. Her hang-ups about being a late bloomer when it came to her magic left her with low self-esteem, and I could never resist the desire to toughen her up a little.

  At least that’s what I told myself. If I thought about it too long, it started to look a lot run of the mill bullying. So I never thought about it too long.

  Besides, she had sacrificed her memory to save Reed’s life before he even claimed her. And the new Cori was different - happier and more self-confident, and the wielder of incredibly powerful magic.

  I was glad for her, I really was. But I was still figuring out my role in her life.

  It might have been easier to figure it out if Reed wasn’t always with her, soaking up all her attention and looking at her like he just wanted to chase her back to bed.

  It made me wonder what my own life might look like right now if I had been claimed at my first ceremony.

  Obviously, I wouldn’t be at the school anymore. Only Bella could have busted down that barrier by somehow resisting her mate and forcing them to change the rules. I never would have been able to resist mine.

  But looking around the crowded cafeteria, and still feeling completely alone, I wasn’t sure it would be so bad not to be here.

  Would I trade my place at the academy for someone to look at me the way Reed was looking at Cori right now, as she hand fed him a bite of her toast like he was some kind of a pet instead of a mighty bear shifter?

  My hand sought the bangle around my wrist on its own. I found myself fidgeting with the darned thing more and more lately.

  But it was a nice reminder of Declan. He might not be a mate-bonded shifter, but at least he wasn’t asking me to drop out of school.

  Of course, he had no idea what I was actually in school for…

  “You okay, Kendall?” Cori asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I told her, forcing a grin. “I didn’t get much sleep.”

  “Bad dreams?” Cori asked.

  “Kinda,” I replied, feeling the heat in my cheeks. “I should get to class.”

  I jumped out of my seat, dumping my barely-touched breakfast in the trash can before stalking out to the corridor.

  Way to play it cool, Kendall.

  If I didn’t have Cori to make fun of, then I guess I was stuck making fun of myself.

  When I reached the threshold, I heard Esme’s cackle and a waterfall of Dozie’s high-pitched laugher.

  Don’t turn around, I told myself.

  But I didn’t have to turn around to know they were laughing at my expense.

  I told myself I didn’t even want to be friends with them anymore.

  But then why did that laughter hurt so much?

  3

  Jared

  I have the girl clutched to my chest and I’m running with her, running even as she moans and begs for me to take her.

  My own body is rigid with lust, but I’m pushing through it. I can’t let them catch me this time. I can’t let them tear us apart again.

  But then there’s the rush of water, and she’s fading from my arms as I scream out her name, the wind devouring the sounds of my anguish.

  I woke up with my fists clenched, muscles aching.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to return to her, but the floor was hard beneath me and the draft through the sweating stone walls was so cold. There would be no returning to that sweet dream. There never was.

  Though I worked out daily in my cell, keeping my muscles taut and my mind clear, I could feel myself starting to lose it.

  Lately, the dreams were the only thing keeping me going.

  No matter how much I strengthened my human muscles, my panther side was growing weaker. Dreams of my mate came to me less and less often. The bond was fading. And my will to live was fading with it.

  As if on cue, footsteps rang out on the stone floor.

  I gazed up at the barred window. The dawn was still pale. Surely, they wouldn’t try to drain me again now.

  “Up,” my captor said in a bored way. “Hands.”

  I stood, offering my shackled arms.

  Even after all this time, they still kept me in chains. It felt good to know they still feared me.

  “Come,” he said.

  I shuffled along beside him, the irons on my ankles dragging.

  His body language told me clearly that he wasn’t sure if I would cooperate or attack him.

  Good. I liked keeping the bastards on their toes.

  But the truth of the matter was, no matter how hard I fought, the iron collar around my neck gave them control.

  And that meant they could drain my essence away from me. Bit by bit. Again and again and again.

  Every time I thought they had taken my magic completely, they found a way to take more.

  One day they’ll push it too far.

  One day I’ll shuffle out of this cell for the last time.

  Maybe today will be that day.

  4

  Kendall

  Plants class was a good opportunity to hang out with Bella, at least. She arrived at the last moment, but I had saved her a spot.

  “Thanks,” she murmured.

  I nodded, glad she was there, even if she wasn’t being too warm and fuzzy.

  Anya was my roommate, and we’d gotten to know each other okay as time passed. She was nonjudgmental and took me at face value.

  Cori had been the buddy whose room I hung out in the most. And even now that she couldn’t remember those hangouts, we seemed to have an unspoken rapport.

  Nina and Lark were best friends with each other, I couldn’t be hurt to find myself outside the radius of their inner circle. Everyone else was too.

  I wasn’t exactly anyone’s favorite, but when it came to this group of friends, only Bella seemed to hold me at arm’s length on purpose.

  Her experience in her first few days at school definitely could have given her some trust issues. But I’d done all I could to prove myself lately and was still coming up short.

  Maybe if you stopped hanging out with the legacies…

  My inner critic was probably right. And I had mostly stopped spending time with my former best friends.

  But being on the outermost edge of my new group made it hard to cut ties completely. What would happen if my new friends decided to ditch me?

  I had never had any issues being popular - not even back home in regular school. I was Kendall Fletcher - tall, blonde, athletic, funny and most of all, confident. Worrying about where I stood socially was new to me, and it had me off balance.

  Well, maybe by the end of our semester together in Professor Waita’s class, Bella and I would have managed to get to know each other a little. She was crazy good with plants. They skipped her right out of the intro class and into the upper levels. That should put her in a good mood when she was here, I figured.

  “Today we work on growth shaping,” Professor Waita said as she pushed a cart around, dropping little pots of aloe in front of us.

  She placed one on my desk and winked.

  Professor Waita had a calm, sweet demeanor, and she always managed to put me at ease. Even the loamy scent of the soil and the fresh greenery in her classroom made my shoulders drop a little.

  I smiled back at her, feeling just a tiny bit seen.

  “You’re going to use your magic to encourage these plants to grow in the shape of your choosing,” the professor continued. “Keep in mind that working with the natural shape of the plant will be easier than trying to form a right angle. This class has a variety of skill levels, so I want to see you challenge yourselves accordingly.”

  Beside me, Bella set her chin in determination. I couldn’t wait to see what she did.

  “After
you have chosen a shape for your plant, you’ll want to commune with it for a moment,” the professor told us. “Remember, you’re not forcing the plant into a shape. You’re encouraging it to take form on its own. Any questions?”

  She looked around, but there were no raised hands.

  “Very well, class,” she said with a smile. “Begin.”

  There was an immediate flurry of quiet activity as students got down to business.

  I examined my plant, wondering what to do with it. Maybe it was the rough night’s sleep, or the weird morning, but my creativity just wasn’t firing on all cylinders.

  In the front row Esme and Dozie were already hard at work, the thick aloe fronds bending gracefully under their control.

  Taking a deep breath, I faced my own plant once more. Its leaves had already begun to take a slight curve at my bidding. I was decent in plants class.

  I envisioned bouncy corkscrew leaves, like the shape of the ribbon on a present after my mom slid her good scissors against the grain.

  Yes, that was probably my level. Difficult, but not completely against the plant’s natural shape.

  I lifted the little pot in my hands and tried to commune with the plant. I took in the tender light green color and the tiny points on the sides of the leaves.

  You’re like me, I thought. You look a little prickly from the outside, but inside, you’re a nurturer who only wants to help.

  I closed my eyes, reaching out to it, and swore I felt a gentle throb of life come back to me, warm as a ray of sunlight through the window.

  Keeping my eyes squeezed shut, I showed it an image of the curls I envisioned. I traced the image slowly in my mind, allowing it to see those curves and swirls.

  But when I opened my eyes again, the plant was the same as before. Only a faint trembling of those jade leaves told me it was listening.

  Bella already had one of her leaves shaped into a staircase, one right angle after another descending toward the soil.

  Esme’s top two leaves had each curved toward the center stalk to form a heart shape.

  I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly through my nose. I could do this. There was no point panicking.

  I closed my eyes again and reached out to the plant.

  This time, it responded more quickly, warming to my touch.

  Like this, I told it.

  In my mind, I thought about the juice running through each stalk - so similar to the water I controlled easily with my magic.

  I twirled a finger around each leaf, twisting it into place.

  Like that.

  Instantly the warmth that the little aloe had transmitted to me was gone, as if we had never communed.

  I opened my eyes, feeling defeated.

  Then I gasped with delight.

  Each and every leaf formed a ringlet, as if the plant had turned into a tiny green Shirley Temple.

  “Wow,” Bella said, stopping in the middle of her own work. “Nice.”

  “I might have had an advantage,” I told her, my cheeks growing hot at her praise. “The inside of the leaves is mostly water, which I totally get. So that makes it easier for me to control.”

  “Hey, Kendall,” Esme said in a bell-clear voice. “If you can control the water in plants, can you control the fluids in people?”

  I gaped at her in horror for a moment.

  “Don’t be gross, Esme,” I finally snapped.

  She snickered and turned back to her heart-shaped plant.

  I glanced up at Professor Waita, hoping for sympathy.

  She turned away from me deliberately, but not quite quickly enough for me to miss the disturbed expression on her face.

  5

  Kendall

  After Plants class, the rest of the day seemed to drag on.

  Between Esme’s insinuation about my magic, and the traces of the dream still hanging around me, I was feeling more and more anxious to get off campus and talk to Declan.

  I really needed a break from everything witchy.

  So, instead of waiting for twilight and sneaking down to the stables as usual, I headed right out after my last class.

  “Kendall,” A familiar voice called out before I’d made it halfway across the lawn.

  I turned to see my friend, and her beefy guardian shadow, heading my way from the castle.

  “Hey, Cori,” I replied as casually as I could. “Hey, Reed. How’s it going?”

  I seriously hoped they would politely pretend not to notice what I was up to. It was none of their business, and it wasn’t like I was hurting anyone.

  “Listen,” Cori said, stepping closer. “I know you’ve got a boyfriend in town. But with everything going on with the Order, and the Raven King, do you really think it’s a good idea to go sneaking off on your own?”

  That was easy for her to say. She had a gigantic shifter warming her bed every night. The nerve of some people.

  Reed fixed me with his golden eyes, as if he had heard my thoughts.

  “I know,” I gulped. “I’m always careful. And I’ll be back before nightfall.”

  Cori nodded, but she didn’t look convinced.

  Well, screw her, and screw all of them.

  I turned on my heel and marched down to the stables. Hopefully, Groundskeeper Silas would be busy doing some meaningful task, instead of haunting the stables today.

  In the old days, horse drawn carriages were constantly going up and down the mountain to carry in provisions.

  Nowadays, the team of horses that pulled the school carriage languished in their paddock most of the time. I liked visiting them. Their company was peaceful and accepting.

  I stepped into the darkness of the stables, drinking in the scent. It was an oddly comforting yet slightly musty mixture of sweet hay and horse. It was calming, even if the steep slate roof with its weathervane did sometimes remind me of something out of an old-fashioned horror movie.

  A snuffling sound greeted me.

  “Hey guys,” I whispered. “I brought you something.”

  I slipped the apples I’d swiped at lunchtime out of my pocket, then walked down the row of stalls, handing out treats.

  The horses ate them out of my hands, nudging my chest with their dark muzzles and whickering into my hair when they were finished.

  “I’ll bet I look great now,” I told them, chuckling.

  Though I wanted nothing more than to be able to saddle up one of the beauties, my actual, much less conspicuous transportation was hidden in the back of the fifth stall, which was otherwise empty.

  I approached it with some trepidation. One of these days Silas was going to discover my secret and it would be taken out with the garbage for sure.

  But rounding the corner, I saw that for today at least, my luck was holding out. The ancient bicycle I’d rescued out of one of Primrose’s basement storage spaces was still lying motionless in the shadows, ready to transport me into another world - one without magic and all the complications that came with it.

  I lifted the bike up, gave it a once over for spiders, and then wheeled it out past the horses.

  There was a shortcut through the woods that would lead me far enough down the mountain that I couldn’t be spotted from the castle. From there, I could take the main road to town.

  I slipped on a pair of soft leather gloves and headed for the trees. They’d been a present from my mom when I got accepted to Primrose Academy. She told me it got pretty cold up on the mountain. She wasn’t wrong.

  As I walked through the woods, pushing the bike, I couldn’t help but think of the guardians. I might easily bump into one on my trip. They always seemed to be patrolling the trees these days.

  Now that I was alone in the silent woods, thoughts of the dream pressed in on me again.

  What if he came to me now?

  I closed my eyes, trying to call out to him.

  But of course, nothing happened. I was an idiot. Would I never learn?

  When I’d originally arrived at Primrose Academy and experie
nced the choosing ceremony for the first time, I’d been certain I was being claimed.

  The feeling, the connection, was too strong not to be real.

  But no one came for me, and each moon brought a fresh shock of rejection. It was like I would never get used to that feeling of being passed over.

  It made me feel hollow and empty, like I’d lost something important that I hadn’t even known I needed until it was gone. But in time, my sorrow eventually turned to resentment.

  I had taken to calling the chosen witches breeders, and told everyone they were chosen because they were only good for living in a shifter’s den, and pushing out pups. The other legacies loved it, and joined right in.

  Of course at that point, no one had been chosen in years, so it was mostly harmless.

  But then, when Bella was chosen, that hateful word had been thrown in her face pretty much immediately.

  I should have been ashamed, but I hadn’t even sympathized with her, my jealousy was so painful.

  Now that I knew Luke, the jealousy was gone. He was great, for Bella. But he wasn’t my guardian.

  I wanted the man from my dream. The one who ached for me.

  “Why did the dream change?” I asked out loud. “Why did he finally show himself to me?”

  But there was no one in the woods to hear. And I had a feeling no one in the world could answer anyway.

  Because there was no answer. And there was no guardian.

  I was destined to be alone, living with one foot in each world, belonging to none.

  6

  Kendall

  An hour later, I leaned my bike against a parking meter in town and pushed open the door to the café, releasing a breeze thick with coffee, fresh pastries, and old books.

  The place was incredibly cozy. It reminded me of visiting the college professors’ houses back home. My dad was the soccer coach at a prestigious university, so while we weren’t invited to the official faculty parties on campus, we were often included by the professors when they entertained at home.