“Vittoria is alive?”
The hope that crossed her features brought a tightness to my chest. I nodded. “Yes. Her death was the beginning of breaking the spell-lock. She’d figured out what happened from hearing the secrets a spell book whispered to her. She orchestrated her own ‘murder’ to free herself and plot our revenge.” I didn’t want to overwhelm my friend, so I quickly moved on. “There is a dagger called the Blade of Ruination. It’s the only weapon with the ability to break curses.”
“Emilia, no.” Claudia sucked in a sharp breath. “Hexed items come with a steep price.”
“I know.” I watched her carefully. “Please. I need you to activate it for me. And tell me what I need to do to use it to break the curse. Time’s running out. I have less than a day.”
My friend shook her head. “I… can’t. I would do anything for you, you know that, but please don’t ask me to do this.”
“Do you not remember how?”
She gave me a sad smile. “It’s something my aunt has instilled in me since I first came to live with her. I just don’t think you realize what the price will be. For you.”
I exhaled. “I’m willing to pay anything. Just tell me what I need to do.”
Indecision warred with what I sensed was her desire to help me.
“The blade expects an equal trade,” she finally said. “If you wish to break a curse, it will want to use your power to do so. All of it.” Claudia bent and pulled up a travertine floor tile, removing a cloth-wrapped dagger. “The one who’s cursed needs to use it. Willingly.”
Dread rolled through me. “How do you mean?”
“The cursed one needs to feed the blade your magic until it collects each drop.”
I stared at the dagger in her hand. It looked like a regular dagger; the steel shined in the candlelight, and the hilt was made of a dulled onyx leather. For something so powerful, it was rather unremarkable. It didn’t appear to be capable of anything as diabolical as killing a prince of Hell or breaking a curse. Which was why—aside from being hidden under my friend’s floor—it likely went unfound for decades.
“The price is magic for magic,” I reiterated. Claudia nodded. “When you said, ‘feed the blade,’ you meant I must be stabbed?”
“Yes.”
“And only the one who’s cursed can deliver the blow?”
“Yes. Breaking a curse is a complex process.” Claudia heaved a great breath. “My blood activates it, but then the rest depends on following the rules precisely. The one who is to sacrifice must do so willingly. Then the one administering the blow must also be willing to do so.”
Wrath would need to willingly deliver the attack, and I doubted my husband would be easily persuaded to do so. Then there was the one thing I wasn’t focusing on just yet. The part where I needed to give up all my power. Forever. I’d only just gotten it back, and I felt whole for the first time in what felt like an eternity. Now the gods were mocking me, forcing me to relinquish it again. Of my own free will. Without hesitation or regret.
It was one more way the First Witch would take from me, and I hated it.
“There’s one more catch,” Claudia said. I was incapable of being surprised at this point. This hexed object was a hideous tool created by a vengeful witch, of course there was one more unpleasant string attached. Sursea didn’t operate in an easy or giving manner. I mentally prepared myself. “Once I activate it with my blood, you have only one hour to complete the rest of the power exchange. The blade only allows one opportunity for any one curse to be broken.”
“How would it know?”
“After I feed it my blood, you will do the same. Then your hour begins.”
Which meant I had one hour to return to the Seven Circles, decide if I was truly willing to give up my power, convince my husband to stab me, and break the curse before this opportunity was forever lost to us. Unless… blood and bones. No. I refused to bring Claudia back with me.
“I could go with you,” she said, reading my mind and the worry that had probably been written on my face. “Wherever you’ve been. I could go to make sure you have a full hour.”
Claudia’s earnest expression held no deception. No ulterior motives. She was simply a good friend. A decent person. Someone who was willing to help a loved one in need.
And I would never put her in a place where she might expose her true identity to herself or those who’d been seeking her. I might have conspired against her before, but that was one mistake I’d never repeat again. If giving up my power could help undo even the slightest bit of pain I’d caused by working with the First Witch, there really was no choice left to make at all.
I would right these wrongs and pay the price.
I removed the memory stone from my bodice and laid it on the table before me. Claudia’s attention moved to it, her face paling.
“This memory stone contains the reason why I’ll never ask you to come with me. It belongs to you. It’s something you chose to purge, to forget for eternity. I’m leaving it here, if ever you want answers.” I wished I could offer her more, but it would have to do. I tugged a little leather pouch from my belt and placed the stone safely inside so Claudia could decide what she wished to do without touching it. “Someone I trust very dearly told me that once you know the truth, you can never go back to the time before. Choose wisely. There is no urgency for you, no judgment.”
“Do you regret it?” Claudia asked, her voice quiet, a touch sad. “Discovering the truth?”
I thought about the heartache. The deception. The many betrayals. “Life would be simpler if I didn’t know. Familiar, even. But no, I wouldn’t go back, given the choice. That’s a decision only you can make, though. If you’re happy now, content, that’s all that matters.”
With her attention locked onto the memory stone, she whispered, “Sometimes I dream. Of a life I think I might have lived. A man I might have loved. But it always ends in a nightmare. With him ripping out my heart. Other times it’s me who tears it from my own chest. Or sometimes even his.” When she finally glanced up, her expression was one of gratitude, if not relief. “Thank you for the stone, for the choice. Are you ready to activate the blade?”
I wasn’t, but I had to be. I nodded. “Thank you, Claudia. For always being the truest friend I’ve ever had.”
Her grin was full of mischief. “I’m sure we’ll have plenty of trouble to get into in the future. Now give me your palm, goddess. The most important hour of your existence is about to begin.”
TWENTY-FIVE
Wrath stared at the legendary dagger. He’d been impressed I’d retrieved the Blade of Ruination right up until I told him what we needed to do to break the curse. Now he looked as if I’d brought a viper into his private library and placed it on his lap. He drove the dagger into the top of the desk, the force of it causing the weapon to vibrate. “No.”