337 How to Break the Enchantnt
"What do you an what elent of nature renad her?" Grae asked the girl with piercing green eyes.
"How did... how did you know?" Lucas' eyebrows threaded together at the strange question from Selah that was also weirdly accurate.
"So I'm right. It's happening sohow," Selah whispered. Lucas' response was confirmation enough. "If Zoe was renad by an elent of nature, she is not just alyko, she is fae. And fae are what Zagan has been searching for. But... Zoe wasn't fae before. She couldn't have been. She would have never been able to be manipulated by Zagan in the first place if she were. That ans she has changed sohow, and my guess is that all of this has sothing to do with your mate," Selah told Grae.
"I don't understand how any of this is possible," Lucas mumbled.
"What was Zoe renad?" Selah asked again.
"Neoma. She said it was the river that was repeating it when she jumped in," he replied.
"Neoma. New Moon," Grae said, recognizing the Greek na. "I want to speak with her, too." He stood, and Sam followed suit.
"Are we agreed that she is not the sa person as she was before?" Lucas asked before they all went charging toward her room.\
"I hear you, Lucas," Selah said. "But I will judge that for myself."
"Selah, before we get too distracted..." Grae said. "How can we get rid of this mory enchantnt?"
"Oh yeah," she nodded, searching her mory. "There are two ways that I know of. You can have an alyko make you a talisman that prevents and breaks other enchantnts. Or, since you have a mate, you could... violate the mate bond." "What?" Sam scoffed.
"Why would that work?" Grae frowned.
"The mory enchantnt isn't deeply penetrative. It doesn't change who you are. It is directed to work on your conscious... on what you are able to consciously recall. When you have a mate who you have completed the mating process with-the marking and everything-that alters who you are on the deepest possible level. The enchantnt might be able to make you consciously forget them, but that mate is still woven within the fabric of your being," she explained. "If you violate the mate bond by being intimate with soone else, it causes that deepest part of you to revolt against the betrayal, and that will snap you out of it."
"That's out of the question," he growled, causing Selah to smile.
"It usually is," she chuckled knowingly.
"How do you even know that works? How do you know any of this?" Lucas asked skeptically.
"My mother has told a lot of stories," she replied. "The mory one is a popular enchantnt, especially with the work she has done for Zagan. And the one who performs the enchantnt can typically tell when it breaks."
"Really?" Sam asked, surprised. "Why would that be the case?"
"Maintaining an enchantnt takes energy. When one breaks, it's like a relief for the alyko who perford it. At least, that is how my mom describes it," she explained.
"What about sothing like the enchantnt on the Grimm? On suicide forest? That one has been going for hundreds of years," Grae asked.
"I don't know. I will have to ask her," she replied. "But that is a good question."
"Grae, you have a talisman. Greta had you wear it earlier for Samhain. It was the dallion your dad always used to wear. Do you rember it?" Sam asked.
"I know what you're talking about, but I obviously don't rember wearing it," he answered. "I didn't realize it was a talisman."
"Apparently Maggie made it for your dad," Sam told him. "It must have fallen off at so point. Maybe when you shifted."
"You shifted when we were on the path toward the pups' haunted forest," Lucas recalled.
"Did you see it fall off of him?" Sam asked.
Lucas shook his head. "I was shifting, too. I didn't notice." "I will go search for it," Sam offered. "It can't be far. If we can find it, then we can get your mory back. Easy fix."
"Thanks, brother. We will go talk with Zoe," Grae said. "Neoma," Lucas corrected him.
Grae tried not to growl at being corrected by the male. "Neoma," he repeated, giving Lucas a quick glare. "Co find us afterward, Sam."
When they were closing in on the door to Neoma's room, Lucas jogged forward and knocked, calling to let her know who it was so she wouldn't be alard. She opened the door for them and stepped back to let Grae and Selah walk in. Lucas ca in last and glanced at her questioningly to confirm she was okay. She gave him a small smile. Her hair was dry, and she had changed into what looked like comfortable, dry clothes.
"Selah, hi," Neoma said timidly. She wasn't expecting the forr mber of her team to be here as well.
"Zoe," Selah acknowledged the girl in front of her. "I hear we are supposed to call you Neoma now."
Neoma glanced at Lucas and then at her feet. "Selah why didn't you tell ? Why didn't you tell your brother was alyko?"
Selah clenched her fists at her sides. She didn't like hearing this girl ntion her brother, much less that he was alyko. They had tried to keep that information a secret for so long, she wasn't sure she could ever get used to hearing it spoken as if it were common knowledge.
"The Zosi I knew would have wanted to experint on him," she answered. "Why would I tell her that?"
Neoma nodded, accepting the truth of the accusation. "You're right. I wish I could take back my involvent with the map, the files... with all of it," she grimaced. "I don't know what to say except that I am so... so sorry." She looked between Selah and Grae. "I want to help get everyone back. I want to make up for what I did."
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