Star Cursed (Zodiac Wolves #2)(61)

After breakfast, we headed outside to spend another day meeting with pack members. The morning was misty, the days growing cooler now that fall was approaching. A few of the leaves had even started to turn already. We passed Stella sitting with a group of pups by the lake, doing her best to continue her kindergarten class without an actual school. We spoke to others who were fishing, or chopping wood, or hanging out in front of the lodge. We knocked on the doors of people's cabins, seeing if there was anything we could help with. I had never realized that so much of being an alpha was just checking on your pack and seeing how they were doing or if there was anything we could fix, whether it was an argument between neighbors, or a broken toilet, or a kid who'd lost their toy in the woods. Then again, this was Kaden's way of being an alpha, and it was vastly different from how my father had led the Cancer pack.

When night fell, I thought we would head back to the alpha's cabin and relax, but instead, Kaden led me out into the woods. The moon was a perfect crescent overhead and millions of stars twinkled down at us. I shivered a little, wishing I'd brought a jacket.

"Tonight I want to teach you how to cast wards," Kaden said, as he took me deeper into the dark forest, using his wolf senses to guide him. "As the alpha female, you should know how to do it, especially since you have Moon Witch blood too."

"I'd love to learn how," I said, hurrying to keep up with his long strides. "I don't know anything about magic."

"Don't get too excited. All I know are a few protection spells that my parents taught me, which have been passed down through the generations. It's nothing compared to what a full witch could do, but it's served us well over the years."

"I wish we had some way of finding the Moon Witches," I said with a sigh. The mate bond with Jordan was always there, buzzing inside of me like an annoying fly, although I'd gotten pretty good at ignoring it. Being far away from Jordan helped, as did being around Kaden. But it would never truly be gone until we found a witch to break the spell.

Kaden took my hand and helped me over a log. "On the way back from the solar eclipse meeting, we could stop in Coronis. I'll check and see if my Dad had anything about the Moon Witches that I might have missed before."

"Good idea," I said.

We reached some invisible barrier that only Kaden saw, and he stopped and breathed in the cool night air. "I cast the wards when we first arrived here," he explained. "They keep our location hidden from outsiders, both human and shifter, and prevent them from entering without our permission. The magic should block your mate bond too, preventing Jordan from finding you as long as you're within these borders."

I nodded. That made sense—Coronis had been warded like this too, and it was only when I'd left the pack lands that the Leos and their allies had been able to track me down. Then the Sun Witches had destroyed Kaden's wards, allowing the enemy shifters to attack Coronis. "How long do the wards last?"

"It's best if I refresh them every few weeks."

I reached a hand out and felt the magic pulsing against my palm. It felt cool and soft, a gentle brush against my skin, very different from the magic of the Sun Witches.

"Watch me do the first one, and then we'll move to the next location and you can try," Kaden said. He raised his hands and his face up to the moon as if catching its light, drawing it inside himself. Then he began chanting a few words I didn't recognize, though they sounded similar to what the Sun Witches said during their spells. He thrust his hands out and moonlight burst out of them, forming a wall in front of us that stretched wide, then faded from sight almost instantly. The magic was still there though, stronger now than it was before.

"What were you chanting?" I asked.

"It's Ancient Greek. Or so I was told." He shrugged. "I don't know what any of it means, but it works, so I don't question it."

We moved alongside the invisible barrier, walking around trees and over fallen branches, taking care not to twist our ankles in the darkness. When we reached a part where the magical barrier began to weaken again, Kaden stopped. He taught me the words he was chanting, making me repeat them over and over until I got the pronunciation correct. Then I spread my arms wide and looked up at the moon, drawing its power inside of me like I did when I needed to teleport. That part was easy enough by now. I began chanting the words hesitantly, and Kaden nodded at me, signaling I was doing it correctly. Then once I hoped enough magic had built up inside me, I tried to send it out into the existing wards, as he'd done. Nothing happened.

I tried again, pushing my palms out and willing the magic to be released, but it just stayed inside me, like I was hitting a wall. I let out a frustrated noise and tried a third time, wondering why I couldn't get this to work.

"I can't do it," I said. "I can feel the magic, but can't access it somehow."

"Hmm..." Kaden cocked his head as he considered. "Maybe you're too stressed, too tired..."

"I don't think so. I feel like I'm blocked somehow." I blew out a long breath. "I don't get it. I can teleport, and when the Sun Witches cast that spell on me, I released some kind of light that knocked them back...so why can't I do this?"

"Let's try again at the next location," Kaden suggested.

We continued on, but no matter how many times I tried, I couldn't create my own wards. Kaden worked hard to teach me, but I only felt like a bigger failure every time he could do it and I couldn't. So much for being a powerful Moon Witch. The Sun Witches had called me dangerous, but they'd be laughing now if they saw how I couldn't cast even the most basic of spells.