The Curse ✔️

Chapter 21: Chaotic Energy

Halloween parties in H. Academy weren't just regular Halloween parties. Where other people dressed up and danced all night long, we littered the hallways with spelled pranks and indulged in an unhealthy amount of lust charm liquors.

The main party area was in the male dorms, where no one bothered to clean for the past century, so no one complained when the room turned into a fake-fog-filled mess. A deep, sensuous music thudded through the room, resonating off the walls and filling my veins with adrenaline.

Morta, Amma and I danced in the middle of the room, our hips swaying to the rhythm of the music. My heart followed the beat, beating in tandem, but skipping every once in a while as my eyes travelled across the room, finding Thar leaned against the dark wainscoting in the corner.

The lust charm climbed up my spine in waves, stronger and stronger with each passing moment. The summoning spell left me with hundreds of unanswered questions, but when I glanced at the swaying bodies on the dancefloor around me, one question rang the loudest.

Was this my job? Dealing with dead grandmothers and demonic entities, constantly trying to uncover dark, dangerous secrets, and never taking a moment to relax and enjoy all these lust-filled parties?

Perhaps Thar was right and the best thing I could do was let it all go and enjoy my youth, my naivety. Goddess knew my father would be much happier if I stayed out of his twisted schemes.

Reminded of my father, I retreated to the corner and checked my phone.

Answer the phone, Jade. Did he suspect the earthquake was me? Did he know I was only pretending to be completely incapable and useless?

I'm at the party. I answered, hoping the message would satisfy him enough to stop texting me.

In the corner of the room, half-shielded from the swaying bodies in the middle, I took a moment to breathe and calm my raging heartbeat. Then, just as I found a moment's worth of peace, a familiar voice called my name.

"Jade!" Leon moved people aside and appeared in front of me, dressed in grey tweed pants and a black shirt with rolled up sleeves. "Thought you'd be chasing demons around and instead, here you are, at a party with the rest of the commoners."

I rolled my eyes and gestured with my drink to the dance floor, "Oh, look, someone lost a girlfriend! Quick, go fetch."

Leon laughed and stood next to me, leaning against the wall, "You're being unnecessarily rude to me, considering you also keep making out with me."

Of course he'd bring that up. The memory revived within me and brought back the feeling his tongue created on mine. The lust-charm was already working its magic.

"Well, Leon, I kissed you the first time at a funeral and the other time because we were trying to escape getting caught casting spells on teachers. I wouldn't take it too seriously." My eyes escaped across the dance floor, to Thar Adara standing in the second corner, not being very good at his job.

He should have been watching the party. Instead, he was watching me.

"You could have pretended to kiss me." Leon insisted, attracting my attention again. "But you kissed me for real."

I sighed, "What do you want from me exactly, Leon?"

His icy blue eyes scanned me from head to toe, "I think I've told you many times already."

"Why don't you go back to Bella?" My lips tightened into a line.

A small chuckle, "I'm not getting back to Bella until I get with you."

Perhaps that sentence should have made me slap him and walk away, but there was something in the way a strand of his black hair fell over his sharp blue eyes. I wondered whether I would want him without the lust charm and the memory in the back of my mind answered the question for me.