His beloved witch

Chapter 26: Curses, spells or potions

-Andre-

“Blanche was not breathing!” I screamed. “Blanche!” I shook her, but she did not react.

Desperation flooded my body and the beast inside of me howled in pain at the top of my lungs, unable to think. I wanted to trash everything around me, but her inert body was in my arms.

"My Blanche," I mused, as tears streamed down my face. My precious mate. My love... I did this... I was a cocky bastard, and I have lost her!

“Let me help!” Charles yelled at me, closer than I thought, as he tried to touch her. I pulled Blanche's body against me, in a protective stance.

Why is he not crying? Is he not her father? And Francisco? Everyone in the room was crying with me, feeling an immense loss, but them. What is wrong with them? They have known her for longer, but they are not crying!

“Give her to me!” Francisco tried to take her from me.

“No!” I snarled at him thru my pain and then at Charles, who tried to do the same. I was feeling my pain turning into rage. Soon, the Lycan will take over and it will be the end of me. The end of everything, and I would not care.

"Andre! Please!" Adela…

Blanche is mine… Mine. I held her limp body, shaking.

A shattering pain broke through me. It was unbearable, but I did not let go of my mate, although I fell to my knees.

“You are wasting precious time!” Who said that?

“Please, Andre… They can save her!” Save her? Goddess, please!

"No! Do not touch him! Let me try!" I heard Adela say… Save her? Yes… f**k, what am I doing?

“Save her!” I begged, before the pain in my chest crushed me. My heart was being pulled out of my chest. I almost dropped Blanche on the floor. But Adela helped me. She placed my Blanche on the floor, carefully, for Charles and Francisco to work on her.

I turned to look at my Lycans. More than one of them had a hand in their chest or tears in their eyes, feeling the agony I was feeling.

“Leave!” I yelled when Charles ripped her blouse apart. Her beautiful skin was in view.

The hands of the warlock pressed on her chest in a sequence, and it was like an electrical shock bolted her body. Every three compressions, her body glowed.

The agony receded. My fogged mind functioned again.

“She is still here!” Charles shout out. “Find the curse! Francisco, now!”

Francisco moved from his shock to check her arms first. Then he took her hand and removed a bandage from her palm. I did not see nor smell a wound on her… How could I miss it?

Blanche was breathing at a slow pace.

“Who the f**k did this to our Blanche?” Francisco questioned, looking at her hand. It was a black wound, like a hole with red borders. "She asked me for a healing cream. I did not know it was this bad..." He pulled out a small green tube from his pants pocket. Then, he applied the content on the wound heavily.

“Can we move her to her room?” Adela asked, cleaning the tears from her eyes.

"I think so. Blanche is not stable enough to take her to our kingdom." Charles was sweating, and his hair tousled. "That cream will not be enough. The infection has grown… How could she be so stupid?”

I growled at him and pulled him by the neck.

“Help her! Help her here!”

“Andre… Your Highness. Please, do not make it worse. They know what they are doing.”

"There is a lab next to her room. Bring everything there, work from there. We can hire more witches… But she will not be out of my sight."

“Look at the floor! There are traces of a potion to dominate.” Francisco pointed to the floor, where Sabrina threw a potion at me.

“She threw something yellow at me, but it did nothing to me," I explained as something might be useful. I took Blanche in my arms.

Francisco and Charles looked at each other.

“Alright, move her to her room. We will follow. I will work on a healing potion for her.” Charles said before following me.

My father was at the foot of the stairs and lowered his head after looking at my unconscious mate.

My tears dried on my face. He must want to scold me for showing this weakness for a female. I have never cried so openly like this before, not even when my mother died. But for an unknown reason, I was not ashamed of it. He has never cried at all… but he has never left this much pain either.

“You were right. I am sorry.” He apologized. I did not want to know what my father was talking about.

Blanche's lips were slightly pink, and I prayed to our Goddess to see her bright eyes and beautiful smile again.

Adela opened the door for me to walk in with Blanche while behind us there were Charles and Francisco. I was barely aware of the orders they gave about ingredients before going to Blanche’s lab.

I was only focused on my mate. Adela passed me a white nightgown and I undressed her to change her. No one else was going to touch her.

Blanche almost died because I was ambitious. I knew this was my fault.

Charles returned with a needle in his hands. I do not know how much time passed before I saw him standing there.

He was a mess. His eyes injected, his disheveled hair, his shirt unbuttoned at the end and outside of his pants.

The shot worked. Almost immediately my witch looked better; her breathing was even. It was like she was sleeping.

“The danger has passed," Charles said, more to himself than to me. And passed a hand over his tired face.

“What happened? I do not understand.” I asked him.

“The wound on her hand is a curse for stealing.” He must have noticed my face because he rushed to explain. “I have just found out that Blanche discovered Kassandra’s secret lab. This is Kassandra’s work.” Charles looks tired. “That evil wench!”

“Probably, Blanche was managing the infection caused by the curse. But it was left unattended more time than it should.” He explained. “I found in her lab the ingredient to prepare a healing potion, but some were missing.”

“I brought in a healing cream, but it requires personalization to attend a wound like that.” Francisco came to help her... I knew nothing. “The spell of protection backfired to Blanche.” He also looked tired. “Sabrina tried to dominate your will, and that is a forbidden spell. Blanche’s body was weak because of the infection to fight off the dark magic.”

The yellow s**t did nothing to me. It affected my witch.

“It was like a series of uneventful incidents that led her to this situation. Our kind is hard to kill, Your Highness." Charles got back to his prick mode.

Francisco glared at Charles.

“However, it would be better to take Blanche to a healer in our Kingdom.” This time, I glared at Francisco. “Or you can bring that healer here.” That sounds better.

“Charles, Sabrina should be judged accordingly or will die in my hands. Any different… and it will mean war. She attacked me with forbidden magic and almost killed my mate.”

“There will be consequences, that is for sure, Your Highness.” Charles seems embarrassed.

Charles and Francisco left for the lab.

“Your Highness, please, go change," Adela begged me. I was too tired to care about how I looked or smelled. “You must eat something.” I moved my head. I did not want to. “She needs you strong… Andre. Our Queen needs her King to be strong for her.”

I stayed with Blanche, staring at her when I heard the confrontation between Charles and Francisco. I did not have time to make soundproof the adjacent room.

"How many times has Miriam told you? That lunatic tried to harm her! And you never believed her!" Francisco was yelling at Charles. “You were supposed to protect them. Who leaves a young one pregnant?”

“Miriam lied to me! Kassandra bewitched me! I was supposed to marry Sabrina from the start. It was convenient for both families, easy… but I met Miriam, and my world turned upside down. I left everything for her. I did not care about her lower status or her lack of wealth, nothing! Despite my better judgment, I…"

“You loved her, asshole! That was love!”

“Kassandra and Miriam set a trap to get me with that. I was obsessed with her. It was not love, as you call it.”

“Why warlocks like you cannot understand the concept of love? Love can be passionate, too. I was not a spell. You loved her.”

“What do you know?”

“Kassandra told me. Out of guilt after Miriam’s death…”

“What? I…”

"She hates you. Kassandra hates you to the core. She aimed to bewitch the Head of Council at that party. He is an old widow with real power and wealth. Not you! Kassandra knew nothing of you by then. And her formula was not good enough. No one messes with magic and love, but she dared. You drank it, and instead of going after Kassandra as she intended the spell, a powerful male to pursue her… You looked at Miriam! Her daughter!”

“I did not know… She…”

“You tossed her daughter like an old shoe! What did you expect from her?”

“Kassandra blackmailed me!”

“You were engaged to that b***h of Sabrina! How would she allow you to be happy? Although if she would have known that b***h was the key to your pain, she would have let you do it. She was wrong about it.”

"I did not know Kassandra would keep the money. I was… I could not look at Blanche or Miriam after Kassandra blackmailed me."

“They were your dirty secret, right? Oh, Goddess! I hate you! You had everything!" Francisco yelled, exasperated. “I met Miriam when she was working for Witchy Witch to support her child. She did not have a career but applied to all the training available. Miriam was so special… How could you abandon her like that? And Blanche? You did not even give her your name.”

“I did not know for sure; she was mine.”

“You just had to look at her… Asshole!”

“Enough of the past!”

“It hurts, right? Good!” He mocked Charles. “I am glad! Your Sabrina confronted Miriam at the factory, shaming her, calling her names. She tried to harm her and this raven, as you call me, with his thick skin protected her for the first time of many. Where were you, Mr. Important b***h?"

"I was not in a relationship with her or anyone. I was focused on my studies; I was… busy."

"So busy that you did not acknowledge Blanche with name. Blanche should be Reyes… but again, what did you do?"

“She had to earn my last name. It was… to challenge her. I was trying to sharper her into a better witch than Kassandra.”

Francisco laughed.

“You are so full of s**t. You do not deserve your d**k. Coward!”

“I do not allow you to…!”

“f**k you! You do not allow me s**t!” There was a long pause. “You made our Blanche compete with Solange. And yet… I would forgive that, you know. But ambition took the best of you, again. The Rousseau family was too tempting to let it go, right? Even though your daughter was only sixteen and Damian was already an adult.”

What are they talking about? Who is Damian? What did he do to my Blanche?

Blanche whimpered during her sleep. I took her hand in mine and kissed it. It is a good sign that she smiled briefly at the contact. My bond with her throbbed alive again, and my lungs filled with her scent.

                “I did not know he was a dark warlock, or I would have never…”

“And again, you failed her… you failed them both. Miriam asked for your help to save your daughter, and you did not listen to fucker."

“Stop it.”

“It is your fault.”

“Please.” Charles was at the edge of tears from the sound of his voice.

“At least make sure this time Sabrina gets punished as it corresponds. You should ruin her for what she did now, and what she did in the past. No more excuses, Charles. This should never happen again.”

“I will be done...”

“So be it. Blanche must live with a curse. You should too, bitch.”

My hearing allowed me to learn something more about the past of my witch. I can make a lot of assumptions based on that, but my mind is not processing that conversation. I want to hear it from Blanche. I want to understand and know about her, from her.

I only look at my witch, thinking that no one will harm her again. I will not allow it. No games, no excuses. No doubts. Blanche is mine.

The warlocks kept talking, but they lowered their voices.

Adela knocked on the door with a small smile on her lips. She passed and allowed in a maid with a tray of food.

“Your Highness, please, you must eat.”

Again, with the food! I was not hungry.

"I want to review the security measures in the palace. No! In the whole Kingdom. We should have detected and prevented this s**t from happening at the border.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The maid left, and my father walked in.

“I guess she is doing better.” He said, approaching me. I felt his hand on my shoulder.

“Yes.” I smiled, looking at her sleeping figure.

“Please, son. Eat. I know you are strong, but you can help her more thru your bond.”

He is right. She is not a Lycan, but our bond will help her. Although our mating is not completed, I can sense our link getting stronger. I can feel her.

My father stared at me while eating. Adela bowed and left us alone.

“I apologized before, but I want to apologize again.”

“About what?”

“You were right. Blanche is your fated mate, and now everyone in the Kingdom knows it for sure.”

“What are you talking about?” I have no more patience for anyone.

“We felt the pain.”

“What?”

"We all felt it. The moment she stopped breathing, the pain you felt… We felt it, too. In our collective link. It broke us."

"I am sorry, I… " I was out of myself. "I almost succumb to my Lycan."

“No. Do not be.” He took a seat on a chair and pulled it closer to me.

“I can understand how werewolves feel about their fated mates. The lost is immeasurable…” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Son, I loved your mother. She was my world… Even if you do not believe me, but I did. However, the emotion we all felt was beyond that. Only a fated mate can have such effect on a Lycan.”

“I do not need any proof of who she is for me, father.”

"I apologize for ever doubting you. And for thinking so superficially about your mating. This is a blessing indeed, son. But it is also a big problem." He paused, allowing his words to sink into my tired mind.

“If someone kills her, you are good as dead, and our Kingdom will fall. That is a reality we must address."

Shit! I did not consider that. I need to change my strategy and make amendments to my plan.

“Do not worry, Andre. I will help you… I have my ways, too.”

I was about to ask some clarity about "his ways" when Blanche moved. She was waking up, bringing back with her my hopes of a happy ending for us despite the curses, spells, or potions.