I can't do this

My fingers tap against my thighs as I pace the room back and forth. The fire in the fireplace glows heavenly around the room. Shining brightly on the rich gold bed and golden chairs. This room looks like it was designed by someone from the Victorian era.

My servant, Lia, whom I don’t like calling my servant snuck a letter down to the prisons to give to Alexander. It was a risky mission, Lia told me so. I needed Alexander to know that I was ok, and don’t try to do anything rash. I don’t want to see him dead, his body being on display for everyone to see.

Lia was frightened at first to do my dirty business, but once I talked her into it, she completed. She stuffed the note inside of the meatloaf, I saw her do it. Once she left the room, I started pacing around the room, anxious to hear of the news. Did she get in trouble? Is she dead? Are they on their way here to punish me?

Behind me I hear my bedroom door open. Wow, MY bedroom door am I getting too comfortable here? In walks Lia, from her demeaner she’s pretty afraid. Quickly, she shuts the door and walks over to me.

“Did you- did you get the message in the prison?” I find my hands holding onto hers, looking all over her face for a hint of triumph.

“I did.” My heart jumps in my chest.

“Did you see him read it.” That’s when her face starts to falter, oh god.

“I- I gave him the tray, and stressed the word meatloaf so he’ll get the hint. Before I left out, I saw him give me a smile. I don’t know if it instigated that he read the message or not.” My hands let go of hers.

“Why didn’t you wait! Wait until you knew he read the message!” I see her body start to cower at me raising my voice. I didn’t mean to yell at her, but I need to know for sure that he read the message.

“I couldn’t, the King and Stella were coming in the prison. If I was standing around, they would have seen something was the matter.” My mind drifts away from the message to Yount and Sasha. What were they doing now they're in prison? Probably to get information out of Alexander, or to hurt him. He did kill some of their pack members, and the heir to the Insofar Kingdom.

“Did you hear what they said to Alexander?”

“When I was down the hall, I heard yelling and groaning.” That is not good. And I can’t channel Alexander, guess it was a one-time thing. So much is swarming in my mind that I can’t focus. I wish he would have just stayed away and let me do this, but no he has to go and be the hero.

I find my body becoming weak, with seeing this Lia helped me sit down on the chest in front of the bed.

“Are you alright? Do you need some water?” Her eyes fill with worry. I’m surprised she wants to help me; I did just yell at her no more than 2 minutes ago. I don’t deserve kindness from her, kindness from no one at all.

“I’m fine. . .thank you. I just want to be alone.” She gives me a warm and walks towards the door. Before she’s out the door, I call her back.

“Lia?” She looks back at me.

“Thank you.”

“You're welcome.”

The Next Day. . .

“Listen carefully, the spell is, “pepeo u pepeo prah u prah uskrsni moje sestre ovim žrtvama koje moraš”. Piper says to me.

Currently we are in the big ballroom rehearsing the spell. Piper is helping me say the words correctly. The spell to resurrect them is an ancient Bosnian spell made by them, for them. The only person in the world that can activate the spell is me, the magic for this spell is special, which I have. The words are all weird looking, and the spelling of the words make no sense.

I try my best to recite the words just as she said them, but they came out all butchered. “Pepo u pepo pah u pah uresnsky mobe sestri ove zrathrum koje mores.” I look over to Piper, her hands droop down to the ground. I huff out in anger.

“Maybe you got the wrong person, I can’t pronounce any of this. Can’t I just say it in English?”

“No, you cannot say it in English, and you need to get this and get it fast. Now, let’s go again.”

“I can’t Piper, it’s too difficult.” I walk away from the podium and sit on the stairs. We’ve been at this for 2 hours now, and to no avail. In a couple of days, we’ll be doing to spell, and I’m afraid I’m going to fail.

"Never took you for a failure." She smirks at me.

"I'm not a failure, just realistic."

Next to me I see Piper sitting down next to me. I see something on her face that I've never seen before, sincerity.

“Look Quinn, you need to do this and do It right. The King has been waiting years to find a Zastitnik, desperately. A couple year ago he actually found one, but it didn’t go to plan. Now he has you.” She leans closer to me; I can smell the strawberry scent in her ginger hair. “He’s like Sasha, they won’t hesitate to kill you. He WILL kill Alexander; he WILL kill your grandfather and that red-head friend of yours. Do this, and you’ll be scot free.”

Is it just me or is this a different Piper? A Piper who is trying to warn me of the dangers of messing this up, the dangers that the people I love could face. From the couple of weeks that I've known her she’s been cold and reserved. It’s always her doing her duty.

There’s a change in her, a softer side to her. When in the car a couple days ago, I wondered why she was the way she was. That there was no hope for her, but I guess there is.

“It’s just with Alexander being in god knows what condition, it’s hard for me to focus.”

“He’s fine.” I look her over, how does she know that? “I’ve heard through the vines that he was alive and is mustering through. He was said that he was a little beat up.” Beat up?

“Who hurt him?” My blood starts to boil. The thought of someone hurting him made me want to hurt someone else.

“Stella and the King. He got on their bad side.” Sounds like Alexander, at least he isn’t trying to be the hero.

“Oh Alexander.” Is all I said about the matter.

“Now that you know he’s alright. Are you ready to get back to it?” I give her a nod.

“Ok, let’s start from the top.” Reading the spell in my head I can’t even get past the first word. It’s spelled out in the book p-e-p-e-o. I don’t know if it’s pronounced ‘pepo’ or ‘pepeu’. “How do you say the first word.

“It’s like pepe but add an o on the end.”

“Ok, pepeo u pepeo prah u prah.” She smiles at me, letting me know I got it right. “Yay, what does all this mean anyways?"

She shrugs her shoulders, "No idea."

"Don't you speak Bosnian? How do you not know what it means?"

"This is old Bosnian, it hasn't been used in over 300 years. The language has developed over the centuries. It's something about ashes and dust, and I think sacrifice but that's it."

"Sacrifice?"

"Look, I'm not so sure it's not my first language. Don't worry about what the words mean, just make sure you know about to say it.

We continue on for another hour. I get the first part of the spell correct, but the word ‘žrtvama’ is what I’m having a hard time saying. But Piper said we could come back before nightfall to continue on.

As we walk down the hall back to my room, I spark up a conversation with her. When she was nice to be in the room, it made me feel that I could ask her questions without her feeling like she was going to hit me.

“Umm in the room back there you said their used to be another Zastitnik and something went wrong. What happened?”

We turn a corner, her hands come sit inside of her jacket pocket. “A couple of years ago, there were whispers of a Zastitnik living in Australia. The King took it as what it was. . .whispers and rumors. Until someone brought the girl to him, and showed she indeed was a Zastitnik. He was elated, they got the girl ready for the ritual, and then the spell failed.”

“What happened?”

“In order for the spell to work the Zastitnik needs to be pure.” Pure?

“Pure like they don’t do bad things and have a clear conscience?” She looks at me like I'm a child, the look of how innocent you must be.

“No. Pure like you have to be a virgin to do the spell, and also pure of heart.”

“A virgin? Nobody asked if I was one, how did you guys know?”

“We can tell, your jittery and Alexander seems like the type of guy that would wait until you guys wedding night.” She isn’t wrong, a couple days ago we had a conversation about that, about when the first time for us would be.

He wanted to wait until we were married, mostly because when we did It, he would have to mark me. Letting everyone know that I was his mate and he said our bond would be stronger. Also, since he’s marking me, I need to me mentally ready for it. Once I’m marked, they’re is no turning back, the mark cannot be undone. He wants to make sure that I definitely want to be with him forever, which I do.

“So, I’m the perfect candidate then.”

“You are.”