“That’s usually how it works,” Caleb said, nodding. “You don’t happen to know if anyone else in your family was cursed, do you? That’s how I got mine – I inherited it.”
“Um. I don’t know,” Luna said, blinking. “I really can’t think of anything that would have made me think someone wascursed, and I don’t remember anyone in my family just being really clumsy or having really bad luck, like the kinds of things that have been happening to me.I just have no idea why anyone would cursemeeither! Do you think this is because I gave someone a bad review, and now they’re out for revenge?”
“It’s possible,” Kira said. “I suppose if you only just found out about shifters and magic, then it’s probably not very likely you would have noticed if any place you reviewed was run by the kind of person who’d curse you over it.”
“No, not really,” Luna admitted, and Henry was relieved to hear the tiniest hint of a laugh in her voice. “Obviously if I’d known, I’d have talked them up! I mean, what’s my integrity compared with avoiding a cursing!”
Caleb laughed. “Well, hopefully we can rid you of this curse, and then you can be curse-freeandkeep your integrity.” He looked at her curiously. “Just what kind of curse are you under, anyway? What kind of things have been happening?”
Luna’s face fell a little, though she also looked kind of… embarrassed? “It’s just kind of small stuff, really – like how that chair broke this morning when I sat on it, and the person standing in front of me at the festival bought up all the food. Things like that.” She frowned. “It sounds stupid, when you say it out loud.”
“Not at all.” Caleb almost looked excited. “You’re saying you’re under a bad luck curse?”
“Caleb knows all about those,” Kira chimed in. “That’s the kind of curse he was under when we met.”
“Believe me, they’re not fun,” Caleb said seriously. “You have my sympathies. I just hope this one is easier to break than mine was. But it should be – like Kira said, mine was a generations-old family curse, but yours is just recent, right?”
“Yeah.” Luna nodded. “Just these last few weeks. Also somebody’s been sending me weird text messages whenever something happens, which is the only reason I didn’t think it was just a regular run of bad luck.” She pulled out her phone and swiped the screen, before handing it over to Caleb.
Henry had to admit that it was pretty funny, watching Caleb and Kira’s eyebrows rise higher and higher as they scrolled through the messages.
“Wow,” said Kira. “This guy’s…”
“Unhinged,” finished Caleb, shaking his head.
“It’s hard to know whether to be scared of him, or to just laugh,” Luna said. “But either way, he’s annoying!”
“Most definitely,” said Caleb. “Okay. And you, Henry – what was your curse?”
“Maybe it’s easier if I just demonstrate,” Henry said, feeling self-conscious. He got up and wandered across the hut, opening the door and stepping outside. He felt foolish standing there, but he knew it wouldn’t be long –
Right on cue, he heard rustling from the woods that surrounded the cabin. A moment later a large deer with some truly enormous antlers emerged from the trees, looking around with wide eyes as if searching for something. The moment it laid eyes on him it let out a high-pitched call of what sounded almost like joy before it came hurtling toward him. It looked like it wanted to give him a giant hug rather than hurt him, but he was pretty sure that the hug would be painful in and of itself.
Henry glanced over his shoulder to the window at the side of the cabin to see if Kira and Caleb were watching, and, on seeing their surprised faces through the glass, he hoped they’d gotten the message.
Before the deer could actually bound its way up the steps, Henry quickly jumped back inside the cabin and bolted the door, hurrying over to stand next to Luna. There were scratchings at the door for a few moments, before the deer apparently gave up and wandered off with an exasperated noise.
There was a long silence, before Caleb cleared his throat.
“Well, that one’s new,” he muttered. “The others are going to be annoyed that they missed this.”
“Oh yeah – they wanted me to pass on their apologies. They got caught up with work, what with the festival and everything,” Kira explained. “Hopefully they’ll be here soon.”
“I can’t believe we’ve got two curses at once,” Caleb murmured to himself. Henry thought that he was probably a little too excited by this… but he supposed that itwaspretty interesting, especially for someone who hadn’t had much to do for the past few months while his business was closed for the winter.
“What should we do next?” he asked, feeling a little helpless.
“Have you forgotten?” Caleb said with a smile. “What’s the one thing dragons are known for? Besides being strong, smart, and devastatingly handsome, I mean.”
“Breathing fire?” Luna tried. “Hoarding treasure? Uh, flying?”
Caleb looked a bit sheepish. “Besidesthat.”
Henry felt his spirits lifting as he put two and two together. “They’re known for having uncannily good luck.”
“Bingo.”
Luna blinked. “You have the power of good luck?” She sounded a little awed.
