Cole
I stand in the doorway of the bedroom. Dust hangs in the air, dancing around the absolutely mangled four poster bed and the overturned dresser. Splintered wood coats the floor. It’s a mess. A huge, dusty mess.
I first woke up what must’ve been hours ago–face down on the floor, alone. I’d stumbled out of the bedroom thinking something had happened–an attack, perhaps. Maybe Richard had made good on his threats to lash me with his powers again, this time, for good.
But three very concerned figures were holding court well into the night. Misty healed my back. The second I made my first appearance after her ministrations, she’d been giddy with delight and pride over ‘breaking my curse,’ and telling me she’d already forgiven me for almost killing her and Declan in the process.
I have no recollection of anything past the conversation I had with her… yesterday. Last night? Yeah, it’s morning again. The sun is still rising along the horizon. I’ve been out again for hours… asleep. I can’t remember the last time I slept.
I blink several times, turning to face the hallway, where Georgia’s voice is lifted in displeasure while she accuses Misty of cheating in their card game for a third time. Misty already admitted she’s a cheat. She can count cards. Georgia keeps agreeing to play with her like she stands a chance.
Part of me thinks I might be dead. I’ve felt this way since I woke up on the floor, my wrists tied to one corner of the bed, with Misty slumped–asleep–in one corner of the room. This easy feeling in my body, in my mind, doesn’t feel real. I wonder if I’ll blink and the world will go back to being dull, gray, and painful, but I step back into the foyer and the color remains.
I’m not getting my hopes up that the curse is gone but… her powers did something.
Richard can’t find out yet. This will undo everything he’s been working for for years.
Hopefully.
Georgia’s too afraid to meet my eyes, but Misty looks up at me, giving me a tight smile as I walk past them.
I need to get them out–today. Preferably within the next few hours. That means I need to meet with Richard.
I grind my teeth as I walk into my office. I close the door, sit down, and let my head fall to the desk with a thud.
I almost killed her last night, just hours after she healed my wounds the first time. I almost ripped her to shreds against my will. Still, she remained by my side all night, watching her own powers take apart the curse until it faded to almost nothing.
I should be happy. I should be plotting to use the princess to take down the order.
In reality, I have to get her far, far away from here–from Richard–before he finds out what she’s done.
Declan enters the room without knocking. “It’s set up,” he begins, closing the door against the voices drifting in from the foyer. “The order is meeting in an hour.”
“Thank you.” I eye his neck. My handprint is totally visible on his skin in a deep, black bruise. “Why didn’t you let her heal you?”
“She didn’t offer,” he frowns, flopping onto the chair in front of my desk. “Should I ask…?”
“She’ll say no.” I want to smile, but I’ve forgotten how.
“It might be best for me to keep looking like this. You can spin some story about how I made a move on your girl, how you have to take me back to Oasia to execute me publicly, or something, for touching your breeder.”
I roll my lower lip between my teeth, considering. “That’s actually not a bad idea.”
“Georgia thinks I’m smart,” he says with a shy sort of grin. He actually blushes–deeply. “She said she likes intelligent guys.” He shrugs as he twirls a lock of his hair around his finger.
“Well,” I breathe. “Hopefully she finds one.”
“Was that a joke?” he snorts. “It really did work, then. You’re healed. See, I told you she could do it–”
“She just made herself invaluable to the order. We need to leave.” I start packing up my desk, organizing my notes. I ignore Declan, who’s waiting for me to say something else, to give him an order, a plan. Right now, my mind is clogged by the “what ifs” of Misty’s situation. I shouldn’t have let her heal me. I regret it immensely. I should have kept her in the dark until I found a way to get her back to her family.
Now, I have a feeling she’s going to fight me the entire time to stay.
From the moment I saw her for the first time in Serpentia, I knew that staying in her life could never be part of the plan, regardless of what the Goddess thinks is best.
“Go get Luke; bring him here.” I rise with every intention of packing the rest of my things in my absolutely wrecked bedroom. “Make sure our faction of the order knows what’s about to happen.”
I walk past him, nudging the door open with my foot. I don’t look at Misty when I pass by her perch on the couch. I can feel her gaze boring holes in the back of my head, however.
I step into my room again with a sigh, closing the door.
“So, what’s next?”
“Goddess—” I nearly jump out of my skin. Misty blinks up at me, looking totally innocent as she bats her eyelashes, smiling. “I’m going to put a bell around your neck so I know where you are at all times. You scared the hell out of me.”
“You’d be light on your feet too if you didn’t stalk around all the time. I can hear you coming from a mile away.”
I’m not sure what to say to her, especially after everything that’s happened. “Are you okay?”
“Me? Yeah, I’m fine.” She crosses her arms under her chest. We stare at each other for several seconds before she adds, “How are you?”
“I feel a little odd.”
“I mean, yeah. That’s totally understandable after having a curse pulled out of your body.”
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
“Why not?” She impatiently taps her foot, frowning.
“Think about it,” I edge, looking into her eyes. Gods, she’s beautiful. Like a little doll. Clear, bright skin and those eyes that… I wish I would have looked into the other night when we’d… slept together, if we can even call it that. “Mystica, Princess of Crescent Falls, the curse breaker. Now Richard won’t want to give you up.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Are you teasing me? I just saved your life. A thank you would be nice, but no.” She twirls like she’s going to leave, which would be a blessing, but flutters to the window instead.
I exhale deeply, fighting the urge to just tell her the truth, but I can’t. It wouldn’t do either of us any good.
“We’re going to Oasia. Tonight.”
“How do we get there?”
“The order has some vehicles. It’s how you got here, actually. You were drugged and put in a car.”
She looks at me over her shoulder, still glaring. “Cars can’t drive on sand like this.”
“They can, and they will. If they don’t, we walk. If you could shift, that would be helpful.”
“Well, I can’t.”
“Not for another few weeks, right?”
She arches a brow, turning ever so slightly to face me. “How do you know my birthday?”
Fuck.“Your school records.”
She mulls this over for a moment, deciding to accept that answer, when the truth is far more complicated. “I don’t even know what day it is.”
“Once we’re in Oasia, you’ll have access to a calendar– and a clock. I promise.”
“You know what I’d kill for?” she says, sliding down the wall into a seated position on the floor.
“What?” I murmur, unpacking the meager belongings I’ve been keeping in the dresser.
“My phone.” She blows out her breath.
“Ah,” I smile, and it feels… foreign. “You’re one of those.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Always glued to your phone, texting… posting selfies….”
“I’m very popular, Cole,” she huffs, hugging her knees. “I have a lot of friends who are probably wondering what the hell happened to me, seeing as I’m kidnapped–”
“Abducted.”
“Oh, my Goddess, you’re really annoying. Maybe I should have kept you cursed. You would have turned into a rogue and run off into the sunset or whatever.”
“A rogue?” I turn to her, narrowing my eyes. “Why do you think that?”
“Because that same power in your eyes was what was controlling the rogues in the Deadlands,” she replies matter-of-factly.
“You're close, but that’s not really what the curse was doing.”
“What was it doing then?”
“Killing me, making me reliant on Richard. Making it possible for him to control me, at least, he tried. I fought it, every day.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Can I say no?” I mumble under my breath, but she barrels forward.
“Did you kill your dad because you wanted to–or because you had to?”
My hands freeze while reaching for my medical kit. The memory of those last moments with my dad blur my senses. I refuse to see it, to let the moment I drove a knife through his heart while he curled his hand around mine and pressed down… I can’t. I can’t think about it.
“I didn’t want to,” I tell her, and it’s the truth.
“I didn’t think you did.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Yeah?”
Are you ever going to forgive me? I close my eyes, my back to her. A few seconds later, I ask, “When we reach Oasia, will you help Luke with some research I have him working on?”
“Yeah, of course.” She sounds slightly disappointed that that was my question and not something personal. “Uh, my turn now. Do you have a mate back home?”
Fuck my life. “Uhm, no.”
“A wife?”
“Misty–”
“A girlfriend?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Oh, that’s a relief. I was worried I’d be walking into some drama when we got to your house–-castle, whatever it is.”
I turn to her and notice her cheeks are blood red. I wonder if she struggles to stop her internal thoughts from falling from her lips on a regular basis. “I don’t have anyone back home as it stands.”
She holds my gaze, nodding, her blush creeping down her neck.
“What’s going to happen when we get to Oasia?” I can hear the nerves in her voice.
“Not everyone is on my side,” I admit. “Not everyone knows what my father went through, and they see me as the tyrant Richard wants Eastonia to believe I am. So, we are… walking into hell.”
“Fun,” she says weakly, trying to smile. I know the feeling.
“I have a plan. I have allies. You’ll be safely returned to your family.”
“But I can help, can’t I? My powers–they broke your curse–”
“I’m not involving you further.”
“Then, what? You just… let the order start a war with the rest of Eastonia? Crescent Falls is involved now, too, aren’t they? Because I was taken?”
“My objective is to get as many people out of Tarsian as I can before Richard enacts his plans. He knows better than to fully trust me. He has friends and allies within my court that I need to investigate. We’re going to Oasia, and you’re going to be… kept away from court until I can get you out.”
“I don’t like this plan. I can help–”
“I don’t want you to help.”
“But–”
“You’ve done enough,” I whisper.
“I cured you! I broke the curse.”
I don’t have the heart to tell her it isn't that simple. That the curse is still there, lurking under my skin. That's something that even she, with her powers, can’t eradicate.
It’s still there–waiting for a spark. A spark Richard has, and will eventually use, to finally bring me to my knees.
She needs to be very far away when that happens.
I can’t allow her to be this close for much longer… for a multitude of reasons.
“In Oasia, you will continue to be my breeder.”
Misty glares at me. “What?”
“In name only, which is part of the reason I have to keep you hidden away. Like I said, Richard has friends in my court. Spies, especially. You are not safe there. You’re not safe at all until I find a way to get you across the border.”
She purses her lips, giving me that cat-like glare that makes me feel things I can’t put into words. Maybe in another life we’d have a chance. Maybe the Goddess will give me that–another shot–maybe centuries or millennia from now when Misty and I wake through the same timeline again… I’ll find her. I’ll do this the right way.
“Why is your voice in my head?” she asks with heartbreaking softness. I can’t give her an answer. When I say nothing, she asks with that same choked tone, “Was it you who kissed me at the party?”
Memories of that night spirit back into existence. My hands tighten to fists. “Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Because I needed to,” I admit, holding her gaze.
She just nods, her eyes dropping to her knees.
Declan rushes into the room, breathlessly bracing himself on the doorframe. “Richard’s summoning us. This is happening now. If we’re leaving, we need to be prepared.”
I pull on my cloak and follow him out of the room.