Page 59 of Charmed

I ground my teeth. “I have not forgotten my purpose.” By her dubious expression I feared she would press the matter further and hastily changed the subject. “Which relic didyouchoose?”

She laughed as she turned towards the wall with a lifted hand. “Why would I share such a thing withyou?I have no reason to take you into my confidence.”

With a low murmur and a wave, a glowing circle appeared on the wall. While it looked similar to my portals, I noticed a faint streak of darkness ringing it. Demetria pulled her cloak more tightly around her shoulders and stepped inside, vanishing from sight.

With a groan I returned to the book, puzzling over possible ways to approach the curse. Anxiety began to whirl my thoughts, but before panic could take hold, an image of Maeve suddenly graced my mind. How many times had she encouraged me not to overcomplicate things? An idea sparked. After ensuring I’d copied all the relevant information, I carefully closed the tome.

I cast my own portal, calculating carefully so I would emerge in the clearing where I’d last seen Maeve. I felt her absence more sharply than I wanted to admit, yet even without her physical presence, I benefited from the memory of our previous time together.

I carefully set the Relic of Clarity on a stone in front of me, noting that the protective charm was already wearing off. I could feel a malicious pull, a tantalizing urge to take it into my hands and use it for my own selfish purposes.

The book had indicated that the curse preyed on desire for knowledge, entrapping the user and bending their will to that of the power that created the curse. The cursed person would be doomed to a life of service to its cruel purposes, unable to resist its commands and becoming more tightly bound each time they used the relic to see what they weren’t meant to.

If sight led to enslavement, I knew of only one way to safely approach the curse. I withdrew a scarf from my trunk and murmured an enchantment. It lifted out of my hands and bound itself tightly around my head, ensuring that not the slightest trace of light could reach my eyes, with an additional spell that would prevent its removal for the next hour, no matter what enchantment I tried.

With trembling hands I reached for the relic, feeling a jolt as I touched it. The magic’s seductive siren’s call sang in my ears, cajoling me tolook…look…look. Almost against my will I raised a hand to my scarf, but despite my tugging, the enchantment held. With considerable effort I wrenched my hand down, firmly gripping the relic. Tears sprang to my eyes at the sharpness of the desire. I breathed heavily as I ran my fingers over the surface, searching for weakness.

My touch was met with nothing more than the glassy smoothness of the mirror-like surface. I frantically turned it over in my hands, fearing that my powers were no match for the curse. Whispers curled through my mind, urging me to gaze into the relic, to see what I most wished clarity on.

With one look, I could see what was actually going on in my heart…or in Maeve’s. The questions filling my heart grew, yearning to be answered. Was more than a mere love potion at work? And if my feelings had not been manipulated by magic, what did it mean for our future? Again my hand crept to the scarf, but my enchantment held true.

With an effort, I turned my thoughts away from my dilemma and simply focused on Maeve and what winning this competition would mean for her. I could detangle my emotions another day, but for now, Maeve was depending on me to exert my knowledge of magic to break this curse.

I drew in a wavering breath and chanted a spell of compulsion, directing it towards the object I held. I felt the relic tremble, resisting my pull, but to my surprise I could feel my spell take effect. The curse’s strength apparently lay in its ability to ensnare victims, and it had little power to resist a counterspell. With one final tug, the curse separated from the relic, accompanied by a rush of wind and smell of acrid smoke.

I sat still, holding the now silent relic. Was the curse truly broken? I mentally reviewed my notes. The curse had been tied to the relic, so separating the two should have shattered it. I ran my fingers over the smooth surface as I waited for my scarf’s enchantment to run its course. After the hour passed, I felt it loosen and reached up to pull the cloth away.

The relic lay harmlessly in my lap, the curse broken…although its power remained. I looked at it hesitantly, wondering if I dared use it. After a moment I set it down firmly. Perhaps later I could experiment; for now I had a mission to complete. No, two missions—to enchant this object with a new charm…and to find my apprentice.

As if thinking of her once again acted as the inspiration I needed, I smiled and took up the relic. The hours passed as I labored, but at last the relic held a temporary new enchantment: the simple but useful ability to reflect anything one needed to find. It wasn’t powerful enough—especially with my currently depleted magic—to cast a spell with long-distance effects, but if a person misplaced something close at hand, the relic would reflect an image of it lying wherever it had been left.

If only I could demonstrate it for Maeve now. I hoped time would stop every errant thought of my apprentice and how much I missed her conversations…yet whatever charm she’d cast to hold me captive refused to relinquish its unyielding grip. If I wanted any peace, I needed to see her.

Could I afford the time it’d take to find her and appeal to her stubbornness enough to check on her and her brother and possibly convince her to return? Magic would need to be my ally if I hoped to accomplish such a feat…and right now my inexplicable distraction had only proven time and time again that magic and I weren’t currently on the best of terms.

CHAPTER18

Iwalked up and down the rows, listening to Xander and Taryn’s explanations about each piece’s history as well as the magic surrounding each of them as best as I could midst my continual distraction. There were dozens, a testament to Analasia’s long-standing tradition that, similar to Meridia, the kingdom had upheld for the future ruler to prove themselves through acquiring one of the ancient relics.

Xander held his daughter in his arm farthest from them to keep her out of reach while he walked hand-in-hand with his wife. “At one time or another, each relic had a curse placed upon it that needed to be broken before they could be acquired,” he explained.

I frowned. “The competition requires me to be the one to break the curse…which means I won’t be able to use any of these.”

“The curses return after the one who broke it died,” Taryn explained. “So you should be able to use any of the relics save for those either I or my father acquired.”

Of course. I’d at least studied relics enough to know such basics. Once again I’d allowed my perpetual distraction and hastiness to get the better of me.

“Do you have any information regarding the specifics of any of the curses?” It would save me the trouble of figuring each out for myself to determine which would be the easiest to overcome.

By their exchanged look of bemusement, they’d likely already shared this information during the tour I’d paid little attention to. Their knowing the extent of my distraction would only encourage their ridiculous assumptions about my feelings towards my bewitching apprentice.

They at least had the grace not to tease me as they led me to a large tome on display at the back of the stone chamber. Taryn rested a reverent hand on it. “This contains a history of the relics Analasia has obtained over the years. Most are stored within this chamber, but others have been relocated throughout time…”

“I don’t have time to track down lost relics,” I snapped impatiently.

Xander’s brows lifted in surprise. “The Alden I know would have found the challenge brought by such a quest part of the adventure.”

I frowned. He wasn’t wrong to assume I likely would have tried to prove myself in that way…if not for the puzzle occupying my subconscious ever since Maeve’s departure, calculating the extra time I’d need to track her down and convince her to come back. This additional task tempted me to take the easier way of acquiring a relic I hadn’t located myself to save me time and trouble I could instead dedicate to the rest of the task.

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