“No!” he cried.
“Seek a witch, but do not return to the Sacred Grove.”
The three then faded into the trees.
Philip glanced back down at his hands. The pain was gone as were the changes.
Seek a witch, they had said.
His mother was not here, nor did he want to take this to his aunt. His sisters and cousins were not an option either as he did not want to endure their teasing before offering a solution.
There was only one person he could speak to on this matter and that was Lady Antonia.
It had been a restless sleep and as soon as Antonia entered the breakfast room, she looked for Lord Chedworth, but he was not present.
She had no explanation for why a hand might change, so following supper last evening, she had returned to the vault with Samantha, Petra, and Maia, and while she searched for a veiling spell or artifact that could help her, she also looked for a reason why Chedworth was undergoing changes. Nothing could be found, but she would continue to look. It could take weeks for them to read everything, and Antonia feared they didn’t have that much time.
She then read through her great-grandmother’s spell book. When no answer could be found within, and as a last resort, she reviewed the spell for turning a man into a werewolf, or Lycan.
It was as before, the spell needed to be recited three times under a new moon for it to take effect during the next full moon. There hadn’t been a full moon yet and she’d only read the spell once, so she should not be the cause of his changes. Besides, he had not even been there that night.
Or had he?
No, she would have known. She would have felt him.
Unless he hadn’t been close enough and if that was the case, then he should have been too far away to be affected by a spell.
If only she could read the rest of the page. There was more written, but it was too faded to make out no matter how hard she tried.
No doubt her aura was as grey and dark yellow as Chedworth’s had been yesterday because she had gotten very little sleep, and she was terribly worried.
“Is all well, Lady Antonia?”
She glanced up to note that Chedworth had taken a seat across from her. Antonia didn’t even remember filling her plate from the sideboard and taking a seat.
Usually such only happened to her when there was so much noise from emotions that she couldn’t concentrate.
Antonia blinked. “Yes…I suppose…I am sorry. I did not sleep well last night.”
And, neither did he. The grey of his aura was darker than before, as was the yellow, and the murky white more pronounced.
Had he gone through changes again last night?
Did she even want to know.
“Nor did I.” Chedworth placed his hands flat on the table. “Both of them this time.”
Antonia quickly glanced around but nobody else was sitting near them, nor heard what he said.
“I am sorry.” What else could she say. Further, it was quite inadequate given she may be the one responsible.
Oh, she hoped that she was wrong.
“Would you care to walk with me after we have broken our fast?”
“Yes,” she answered without thinking. “I mean, I would like that.”
He gave a half smile, then turned his attention to the food on his plate.
