Interlude Before the Storm

"So they just left?" Victor asked his eyes wide.

"It would seem so." Xander said dropping a dusty tome on top of the oaken desk.

Victor left the book he had been looking through to look at the gilded manuscript. "What is this?" Victor asked curiously.

"Every ancient curse and it's counter-curse is written in this tome." Xander explained opening the book to the middle.

"Why would a witch record the counter-curse to a curse?" Victor questioned.

Xander scoffed. "They wouldn't. The book is magical it automatically records curses as they are performed." he pointed out.

Xandertook a step back, Victor putting down the book as Aline ran her hands through the pages. The book seemed to shudder for a moment as Victor straightened. He frowned as the book seemed to turn slightly towards him before the pages started to flip.

"What? What is it doing?" he asked.

Xander and Aline exchanged a glance. "As a person reborn to break the curse your spirit calls the curse and counter curse to appear." Aline said as they all looked at where the book finally stopped.

The Curse of Claws

'On the eve of a blood moon, after a wolf and witch and virgin have been drained of blood, this blood used to call forth the dark decipel of Lucifer a single drop of his blood so sayeth curse the blood heir of the Danes to an eternity of the spirit of the Danes itself.

Only the now whoeth cast this curse, her blood within alone has the power to break the curse. Her and the heir's true love, a hunter, a teacher can unlock the curse enough until the next blood moon where the heir shall return to her beastly form."

"Turn back to her beastly form?" Victor said looking up at Aline and Xander. "When is the next blood moon?"

Aline bit her lip. "A month from now on Samhain."

Victor's eyebrows quirked. "Halloween?" he said looking between the siblings. "We have until Halloween to break the curse?" he demanded.

"Let's hope wherever Nora and Freya went they are able to achieve what they need to do to break it," Xander said.

"What else does the book say?" Aline said turning the page.

'On the eve of a full moon, with the blood of the caster and the hunter mark this Queen that never was on her bareback, let her face the full moon as a human. The light of the moon and the gathering of like creatures to bare witness the only undoing of this dark curse.

A WARNING HOWEVER SHOULD SHE TAKE ANOTHER PATH, A WOLF BOUND TO THE FULL MOON SHE WILL BECOME. THIS CURSE MUST BE UNDONE IN THE SAME PLACE WHERE THIS CURSE HAD BEEN FIRST FORMED.

Victor looked at Xander and Aline. "What does that mean?" he asked.

"That the spell can only be undone in the place where this curse was demanded of the witch." Victor turned around, surprised to see his older sister walking in her eyes as dark as ever as she glared at the two witches before she glanced at the book, finally facing her brother who frowned at her sudden appearance.

"Charlotte?" he said quietly.

"The curse can only be undone in the throneroom of the Dane usurper." she said. "The King that first demanded the spell from the first witch." she said turning to look at Xander who scowled.

"That place is long gone." he muttered.

"And yet the ruins remain." Charlotte said.

"She's right. The land was devastated by Fire. Nothing grows there." Aline said.

"Nothing will, until the Queen returns," Charlotte said.

"How do you know so much?" Victor asked.

"Our family has been the keepers of the original line of Wilhelm the almost King. This is not the first time an attempt to undo the curse has been made." Charlotte said crossing her arms.

"This is however the first time we've had the hunter." she said pointedly looking at her brother who stared at her for a moment before his face flushed. She flicked a look at the witches. "My brother here is the first son born in over eight generations of Wilhelms."

"You knew about this?" Victor demanded.

"Mother had her suspicions," Charlotte said.

"I've never hunted anything in my life." Victor pointed out.

"But you have always been drawn to nature." Charlotte said dryly. "Exactly where Lady Freya was."

"What were the odds the two of you would've met otherwise?" Charlotte said.

Victor frowned. His sister as usual had a point. If it hadn't been for his love of hiking he never would've come across Freya. Although he had always wondered what exactly had made Freya climb all the way down the mountain. Or better yet why had she chosen this mountain over others. Had she known that the ancestral manor of Wilhelm lain somewhere nearby? Had she known her salvation was close at hand?

Victor looked up at his sister who had always known about the curse and the part he had to play in it, at Xander who had fought alongside Freya and Wilhelm himself.

Victor glaced up at where the portrait of Wilhelm stood. Charlotte had always poked fun at how alike they had always looked. He'd never believed her, until Freya had looked at his eyes as a wolf and transformed in front of his eyes to a beautiful girl and had whispered Wilhelm's name.

The single fact still remained did Victor have what it took to live up to the name of a great loyal Knight like Wilhelm. Or would history be doomed to repeat.