Page 60 of Radiant Shadows

In a flash of brilliance, the light disappeared. I took a quick inventory of the book and myself, but nothing seemed wrong. Hopefully, that was a good sign.

Except…the pages felt different. When I turned the current page, it turned into four, revealing relationship spells of all sorts... Had my blood unlocked the grimoire?

One spell in particular caught my eye, sending that question to the back of my mind. It was the one titledLove Unrequited.

I held my breath as I read through the description, then how to place the curse…and how to break it.

Holy shit!

There was no mistaking it. This was Tobias’s curse, the one that had followed his family through generations. The one that stood in the way of my best friend’s happiness. I should be smiling right now.

But there was one problem—the spell needed the magic of three witches. There was no way I could perform the counter-curse alone.

“Fuck.” Looked like I was going to have to come clean to Gram after all. There was no way around it. The only other witch I knew aside from her was Aunt Janette, and even she wouldn’t help me without Gram’s permission.

But that wasn’t the only thing. The grimoire had reacted to my blood. Not just reacted, butunlocked! What the hell did that mean?

I wrestled over the decision for only a moment. Arya needed this break, and I needed answers. I’d figure out a way through the rest of the mess later.

I folded the corner of the page and closed the book, then stood with my fingers hooked around the bottom of it and made the walk of shame out of my room. Gram was still at the kitchen table, working on the crossword section of the newspaper.

“Okay, so, I have a confession,” I hedged as I approached her.

She glanced up from her newspaper at me, and her eyes widened as they landed on the grimoire pressed against my waist.

“What is that?” she asked in a hushed voice, pushing aside her newspaper.

“It’s a grimoire,” I said, pursing my lips as heat flooded up my neck. “I accidentally got blood on it just now, and it glowed.”

I couldn’t quite look at her as I placed it on the table in front of her. Even at seventy-five, she was an intimidating figure,not by stature but by presence and knowledge of magic. I was dreading the riot this revelation was sure to incite, as so many conversations about magic had in the past.

“Where did you get this?” she asked, marveling at the various pages as she turned them.

“Um, that’s not important. Whatisimportant is that I just magically unlocked this thing with my blood.”

Gram looked hard at me for a long moment, but eventually, she turned her gaze back to the book. “Le Fey,” she said, and the pages glowed again.

What? Come on, could it really have been that easy this whole time?

“Does this mean that it’s ours?” I asked slowly, disbelievingly.

Gram sighed. “I think this is a conversation best had sitting.”

She patted the seat next to her, and I slid into it.

“Yes, this is our grimoire,” she continued. “If it wasn’t, chances are all your hair would’ve fallen out, or your joints would’ve become as gnarled as an old tree. Witches aren’t exactly known for their sharing nature. Your blood probably would’ve activated a curse if the book didn’t belong to our bloodline.”

Julian had said this book had belonged to Alice. He also said that I looked like her. Holy crap, she was one of my ancestors!

Gram looked at me, and I reluctantly met her gaze. “Where did you say you got this?”

I pulled my lips in and clamped down on them. “I didn’t. And actually, I need your and Aunt Janette’s help releasing Arya’s boyfriend from a curse that I found in this book.”

Gram frowned. “How would Arya’s boyfriend be cursed by a spell from our book?”

“I was hoping you might know something. Here.” I opened the book in Gram’s hands, flipping to the page with Tobias’s curse. “It’s this one.”

Gram stared at the page for a long moment. “Is he, by chance, a dragon?”

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