When it came to a curse like this, there wasn’t time for arguments about personal beliefs.
We reached the end of the hallway and came to the door. I touched the brass handle, feeling the cold metal under my fingers and knowing the heat of the feverish skin I would soon be feeling.
Zach’s hand wrapped around mine. His body leaned in to my back, his face centimeters from my ear. “I know what you’re thinking, Ivy,” he said softly. “And I want to save these people as much as you do.”
“Then you know what we have to do.”
Silence behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder. Zach still stared at the door handle.
“Zach…”
He refused to meet my eyes, and that refusal—it was all I needed to see.
My heart, and the hope I’d had that he’d put his own beliefs aside for the greater good, shattered. Shaking my head, I shook off his hand, opened the door, and slipped into the room. Ignoring the stench, I crossed to the bed and leaned over to inspect the girl’s face. She looked younger than eight.
This was why I hated curses. I hated the way they caused pain and suffering until the very end, until the victims were practically begging for death. I’d seen curses, inspected them, and broke them with my Kiss, but I’d treated every one like a simple problem to be solved. An obstacle to overcome. It was better to view them calmly, logically, like I’d been taught. But that was just an excuse. An excuse for my own traumatized past.
I felt the girl’s head with the back of my hand. As I’d imagined, she was burning up. After moving down the covers, I pulled up her tunic, revealing her cursed chest. Huge purple blotches, varying in shades, covered her torso. Darker, rougher spots showed where the decay had completely taken hold of her skin. I wanted to cover my mouth and nose, but I forced myself to confirm that it was indeed the Curse of Venera. I had seen this curse once before. It had been far south of the Crown City in a tiny village, where a witch had placed the curse because the villagers had killed her pet griffin—of course, the griffin had eaten a child, but that hardly mattered to the witch. We managed to save only a few survivors, and the princess who had performed the counter-curse Kiss, since I hadn’t yet learned that complicated of a spell for such a powerful curse, had used so much of her magic that she was bedridden for a week.
Surely I wouldn’t be that greatly affected. For one, the princess had been only a half Royal. Being not only a pure Royal, but also a direct descendant of Myriana, it shouldn’t take that much of my strength. Hopefully.
“I’ve never seen a curse like this,” Zach said from above, staring at the girl with empty, tired eyes, and his jaw clenched, as if he were bracing himself.
I rolled the poor girl’s covers back up and said nothing.
Silence stretched in the room. I knew there was a battle raging inside him, and it was one I was likely going to win, but I took no pleasure from it. Even though it had been my goal to have him finally give in, I wasn’t happy that this was the way to convince him. He had been so earnest that night in front of the fire. He believed in True Love with all his heart.
Have you ever loved someone so desperately?
Zach knelt by the girl’s bed and rested his hands by her legs, his fingers aimlessly picking at the blanket that lay over her. “You’re certain it’ll work?”
There had been a few occasions, though rare, that a counter-curse Kiss had not succeeded. The village had been left to rot and ruin, and there was absolutely nothing to be done. But those curses had been too late to catch and were doomed from the start. There was hope in this village. And with me…well, I was certain Myriana’s magic would work.
I nodded. “I have no doubt.”
Zach glanced at me then back at the girl.
“I take it you haven’t encountered too many curses in Saevall?”
He shook his head. “No. I was always fighting monsters.”
Gently, I laid my hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “You can’t put your sword through a disease.”
He looked at my hand, his gaze tracing the stag’s antlers across my skin. I couldn’t imagine I’d ever want to console him for finally agreeing to Kiss me, but the expression on his face was one of both pain and regret, and it wasn’t something I ever wanted to see on Zach or anyone.
But I needed him. This little girl needed him.
I had to make sure he was going to give in.
“My first Kiss broke a drought curse on a village,” I said softly.
Zach looked up at me, his brows drawn together.
“I was just nine years old, but I still remember the starving villagers. They’d walked around like skeletons. A child—a toddler—had collapsed at my feet because she hadn’t eaten in almost two days.” I closed my eyes, almost seeing the same little girl in front of me. “I’d cried that day. I was terrified, not because of the villagers, not because their behavior scared me, but because I feared I wouldn’t be able to save them.”
I could feel Zach’s gaze on me, but I kept my eyes closed. The memories, however old, remained fresh, replaying in my head like a magic mirror had trapped them.
“My mother had slapped me when I started to cry. She told me these people didn’t have time for my weakness. I stopped crying, and I Kissed the thirteen-year-old prince whose name I can’t even remember now.”
In retrospect, maybe I should’ve known it had all been a test. My mother could’ve performed the Kiss easily, but the Council had wanted true proof that I was my father’s child, since my mother had been known to sleep with many men. They could’ve performed an heir test, but my mother had insisted on testing my power, angry that the council of Freida didn’t trust her.
When my Kiss worked, my mother had murmured, “That’s my girl.”
It was that day I realized how desperately I wanted to please this strong yet cruel woman who told me these people didn’t have time for weakness or failure.
Finally, I opened my eyes, transported away from the dying village of my memories to yet another one.
Zach’s jaw was clenched, but I could see the sadness in his eyes—the face of someone yielding.
“It’s not about us, Zach,” I whispered. “Not our morals. Not our beliefs. It’s about them. It’s always been about protecting them.”
So much of my time at the Legion was about battle. Victory. Success. Pleasing my mother. But I knew there was more to this war than just proving my mother wrong. Or possessing the most powerful partner and Kiss. It was about stopping the Forces from destroying innocent lives—from leaving them hollow, dried-up husks or walking corpses.
Zach nodded stiffly. His voice was hoarse as he said, “All right. Tell me what to do.”
Both relief and sadness raged within me. I hadn’t wanted it to be like this. He should’ve understood another way. Believed in me and trusted me, not been coerced by a sickness such as this. I leaned over and grasped Zach’s hands. “I’m sorry, but it’s the only way.”
“Ahem.” Millennia cleared her throat from the doorway, and Zach and I both turned to her. “That’s not true,” she said. “There is another way.”
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Out of Time
“Excuse me?” I said, standing.
“I said there’s another way.” Millennia crossed her arms.
“And I’m sure I misheard you. There’s no other way to break this type of curse.”
“You know that’s not true. You just don’t want your precious prince to find out.”
I felt Zach’s eyes boring into the back of my head.
“What’s she talking about, Ivy?”
I bit my lip.
“Ivy.”
I made a sound between a groan and a growl in my throat. “It is, and it isn’t,” I muttered. “True, I mean.” Then I took a deep breath and turned to face him. He stared at me as if I had just betrayed him. The look cut through me, but I pushed forward. “Technically, there is another way to break the curse, but we wouldn’t be able to break it even if we tried. It’s practically impossible. We have less than three hours before this girl loses her life, and I don’t want to waste time running around looking for an amulet.”