A Curse So Dark and Lonely

by Brigid Kemmerer

  Then he does it again.

  It hurts worse than anything. I see stars. I see whole galaxies. My world is nothing but pain.

  The monster screams again. His wings beat the air.

  “Stay back!” the man cries. “There are many more places I can shoot without killing her.”

  Rhen must swoop close. Snap snap snap.

  They’re shooting at him. They’re shooting at me.

  This arrow goes through my upper arm.

  I can’t tell if I’m screaming or crying or both.

  It’s both. I’m going to pass out. I’m going to die.

  The ground is pounding around me. More men are coming. I can’t see anything.

  “Don’t stop!” I yell at Rhen. I’m crying. I’m babbling. I don’t even know if he can hear me, but this can’t all be for nothing. “Don’t stop. Save your people. Let them kill me. Let them kill me, Rhen.”

  He screeches again, building into a fierce roar that shakes the ground.

  Arrows fire. Snap. Snap. Snap. I wait for piercing pain.

  It never comes. Sudden sunlight finds my eyes. The men around me are falling, arrows in their chests, arrows in their heads. Soldiers are fighting, swords swinging. I catch a flash of gold and red.

  My army has arrived.

  One of Karis Luran’s soldiers makes it to me. He must know he’s a dead man, because he draws back an arrow. It’s pointed right at my face.

  A bowstring snaps, and an arrow appears in his arm. His own shot fires wildly.

  Sunlight flashes on silver. A sword swings.

  The soldier’s head disconnects from his neck. Blood flies. His body collapses.

  I blink, and Grey is there with Zo. They’re kneeling over me. My eyes fall closed. The scent of blood is thick in the air. Arrows are firing all around us. Steel clashes somewhere far off.

  The creature shrieks and men yell.

  “My lady.” Grey’s hand. My face. “Look at me. Harper!”

  I blink and my eyes are open. “You never … call me Harper.”

  He lets out a breath. He’s still so pale. Then he looks up, past me. “She will survive. I will keep her safe.”

  I think he’s talking to Zo, but a blast of warm breath brushes my hair, and I realize it’s Rhen. I go to lift a hand to touch his muzzle, but my arm is pinned to the ground.

  I cry out instead. “Grey,” I say. I sound like a child calling out for her mother.

  “We need to cut them free.”

  I choke on a sob. “Okay. Okay.”

  He doesn’t wait. He draws a dagger and snaps through the shafts below my arm. Then Zo pulls all three arrows in rapid succession. Before she’s even done, I’m rolling onto my side to throw up into the blood-soaked grass. Once my body stops heaving, I shudder and open my eyes.

  I’m staring into the lifeless eyes of the man who nearly killed me.

  I scream and suddenly I’m lifted away. For a breath of time I think it’s Rhen, and I don’t know how I’m going to survive another trip through the air. But arms fasten under my knees and behind my back, and my head lolls onto a shoulder. My face is pressed into a neck.

  “Easy, my lady.” Grey’s voice, low and gentle and somehow louder than all the fighting.

  He shouldn’t be carrying me. He’s going to rip out his stitches.

  I open my mouth to tell him so.

  And instead I pass out.

  I return to consciousness slowly.

  For a long, slow, delirious moment, I think I’m in a hospital. There’s a man barking orders about clean bandages. A feeling of harried movement around me.

  My eyes open, and I’m in the infirmary. I recognize the ceiling, the shape of the darkened window above my bed. I’m in the same corner Grey once occupied. This morning? I don’t even know. My entire left arm aches.

  I groan and roll over.

  The infirmary is packed. Every bed—sixteen of them—is occupied. Bloodstained sheets are everywhere. Men and women groan weakly.

  Noah sits on a stool beside one of them. He’s bracing a soldier’s bloodied forearm to a board, wrapping it with lengths of muslin.

  “I asked for clean bandages!” he says sharply.

  A young woman near the door looks wide-eyed and almost panicked. Her name is Abigail, and she’s been in charge of mending minor wounds since Rhen opened the doors to the castle. She’s round and slow and motherly, but she’s clearly not used to an ER doctor yelling orders at her. “Yes, Doctor.” She says doctor like it’s a foreign word. “Yes. I have sent for them.”

  “Noah.” My voice croaks out of my throat.

  He glances at me. His eyes flick over my form in less than a second. “Good. You’re up.” He rips off a length of muslin. “We need the bed. Abigail!”

  The woman by the door jumps. “Yes—”

  “Find Jake. Tell him Harper is up.” He drags an elbow over his forehead.

  “Ah … Jake?” she says.

  Noah rolls his eyes and wraps another length of muslin. “Prince Jacob.” She rushes off, and he looks at me. “You’ll need a sling. Freya made one for one of the guys. I’ll have her make you one, too.”

  My brain can’t catch up this fast. Jake must be okay. My eyes flit across the bodies on the beds, seeking Grey. Seeking Rhen, just in case. I find neither. “Noah—”

  “Jake said you two had to ‘do something real quick’ and then we’d be going home. Hilarious. Then he shows up with three dozen people with critical injuries. How do you not have a doctor here? You have an army. ABIGAIL!”

  She flies through the door. “Yes, my—yes—”

  “Have them bring in whoever is next. Make sure they’re flushing those arrow wounds with boiled salt water. Not just plain water. Do you understand me? Do you …”

  His voice trails off in my head. I fight to push myself upright. I have to pull my left arm against my body to keep it from aching.

  “Harp.” Jake is in front of me, his voice rough and exhausted. His eyes are shadowed and wounded, and his clothes are worn and dirtied in spots, but there are no bandages I can see.

  “Jake.” My voice breaks. “You’re okay.” I hesitate. “What happened to Rhen?”

  Jake’s face goes still, but he puts out a hand. “Come on. Noah is going to lose his mind if we don’t clear this bed.”

  “Wait!” I scan the infirmary. “Where’s Zo? Is she—”

  “The girl with the braids? She’s fine. She’s bossier than you are. That Grey guy had to order her to go to sleep an hour ago.”

  Grey. I need to talk to Grey. I need to find out what happened to Rhen. With my brother’s help, I get to my feet, and we make it into the hallway. I feel light-headed and grip tight to his arm. Men and women line the hallway, some I know, and some I don’t. Some are injured, though many are not. The air is thick with lantern oil, sweat, and blood. They bow as we pass.

  “Wow,” I whisper to Jake. “You’ve really taken this prince thing to a new level.”

  “No,” he says. “You have.”

  I look up at him in surprise. “What?”

  “It’s for you, Harper.” His dark eyes flick down to meet mine. “All anyone can talk about is how you single-handedly fought the soldiers from Syhl Shallow. How you tamed the vicious beast and turned it against the enemy. How you saved their country.”

  “But—but I didn’t—it was—”

  “Shh.” He puts a finger against my lips. “Not here.”

  “But it worked?” My heart lifts. “The army turned back?”

  “They did.” He grimaces. “It was brutal, Harp—and you know the things I’ve seen.”

  His eyes meet mine. I do know the things he’s seen.

  Thanks to the battle on that field, I’ve seen them, too.

  “They ran,” he says. “Anyone who could fight rode on to block the pass. We brought the wounded back here. Noah has been treating everyone as fast as his ‘nurses’ can get them cleaned up.”

  “Wow.” I have no idea whether that
will hold, if the soldiers will be able to keep Karis Luran’s army from invading. But for the time being, we’ve been granted a reprieve.

  I think we’re heading back to my rooms, but Jake leads me through the castle until we find the doors from the Great Hall that lead to the rear courtyard and the stables.

  “How long was I out?” I say.

  “Most of the day.”

  “You’ve really found your way around.”

  “Crash course, I guess.” He pauses. “It helps that everyone thinks my sister saved the world.”

  I’m not sure what to say to that, and he’s pushing through the doorway anyway. It’s twilight, and the autumn air is cold, tasting of burning wood and decaying leaves. Lit torches burn along the back of the castle, throwing long shadows across the courtyard.

  Long shadows that stripe the monstrous creature standing near the trees, scales glinting in the firelight.

  Emberfall is safe, but he hasn’t changed.

  Grey is out here, too. Fresh armor. Clean weapons. He stands at the base of the steps and turns when Jake pushes the door open. His expression is somber.

  “My lady,” he says. “You are awake.”

  “I am.” I cradle my injured arm against my body. The bandages make everything feel tight and stiff. “Noah kicked me out.”

  “Your ‘doctor’ is fierce in his own way.”

  Jake snorts and leans against the door, closing the quiet of the courtyard in around us. “Don’t let him hear you say that.”

  I swallow. “Are you—are you going home? Were you waiting for me to wake up?”

  “Not yet.” Jake kicks at the grit of the stone steps. “Noah won’t leave until everyone is stable.”

  “That’s amazing.”

  Jake shrugs, though it looks resigned. “He’s not happy about it.” A pause. “His parents are going to worry. His sister. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen if the cops came to the apartment. His cell phone was on the table.”

  I push my brain through the ramifications of that, and my thoughts go in a dozen different directions. Not many of them work out well for Noah. If anything happened with Lawrence’s men and Noah is implicated in that … that could hurt his career. His family.

  “I’m sorry, Jake,” I whisper.

  He shrugs again. “I’m going back down to help him.” He glances at Grey, then at Rhen, whose large black eyes watch us from across the courtyard. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. Of course.”

  He gives me a gentle hug, but before he pulls away, he looks down and says, “You really were amazing, Harp.”

  My mouth opens, but he shakes his head. “It wasn’t all him. He wouldn’t have done it without you. You deserve the respect.” Then he smiles, a shadow of the old Jake, before life clobbered us all. “Mom would be really proud of you, Princess Harper.” He kisses me on the forehead, then heads back through the doors into the castle.

  I ease down the steps, gripping tightly to the banister while clutching my injured arm to my body.

  Grey moves to stand in front of me. “You should likely not be walking down steps.” He unbuckles his dagger belt, then slides the weapon free. “You should likely not be walking at all.” With the remaining length of leather, he wraps it double around my forearm, then loops it behind my neck to fasten the buckle.

  With the makeshift sling, I can relax my arm for the first time since waking. It’s a relief I didn’t know I needed. “Thanks, Grey.”

  A nod.

  “You didn’t pull your stitches loose?” I ask.

  “Ah. Yes. The doctor says if I do it again, he will do me the honor of removing my arm.”

  “So he probably wouldn’t be happy you’re standing out here armed.”

  “Likely not.”

  I’m very aware of my breathing. Of his. Of the cursed creature in the back corner of this courtyard.

  “Are you protecting the castle from Rhen?” I ask quietly. “Or the other way around?”

  His eyes are dark and inscrutable in the twilit darkness. “Both, my lady.”

  “I hoped …” I sigh and look at my hands. I can’t look at Rhen now.

  “I believe he did as well.”

  A low growl comes from across the clearing. The darkness seems to part. I see nothing, but Grey draws his sword.

  Then, beside me, a female voice says, “Tsk, tsk, tsk.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  MONSTER

  Destroy.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  HARPER

  Rhen charges across the clearing when Lilith appears. His screech echoes against the walls of the castle.

  Lilith steps beside me. “No, no, Prince Rhen,” she says quietly. “I would hate to harm this lovely creature.”

  He skids to a stop in front of us, snaking his glittering neck in a threatening way. He snaps his fangs right in front of her face.

  “Kill her,” I say to Rhen. “I don’t care if she kills me. Just do it.”

  He growls, that low, menacing sound that makes my insides curl—but he doesn’t attack.

  “He cares if I kill you,” Lilith says delightedly. “Quite a bit, I would say.”

  “I said I loved him,” I snapped at her. “I kissed him. I risked my life for him. What else do you want to break the curse?”

  “You risked your life for Emberfall. Not for him.” She sighs. “If you loved him, the curse would be broken. It is not something I must do. It is something you must do—or not do, as the case may be. True love is not about romance. True love requires sacrifice. A willingness to place another’s life above your own.”

  “Then Grey should have broken the curse,” I say. “He’s been doing that over and over again.”

  “Grey was oath-bound to do so. Is that not true, Commander?”

  At my side, Grey is very still, and very quiet.

  “Do you know,” she says, “I have been to see Karis Luran? She needed to know what you were doing to her soldiers.” Lilith pouts. “She is very upset indeed. I was able to comfort her and learn a great many things about the late King of Emberfall.”

  Rhen growls again.

  “Ah, yes,” says Lilith. She strokes a fingertip down Rhen’s face, and he flinches away. It’s terrifying to see a creature like him flinch.

  “A great many things,” she says softly. “It turns out I sought the wrong prince all along. But you will be far more useful to me like this.”

  “Leave him alone.” My heart roars in my chest. “What do you want?”

  “Our dear prince knows what I want. He can submit, or I will destroy you. I do not even need a leash.” She reaches out a hand to touch my cheek.

  Fire explodes through my face. I’m on my knees, my good hand pressed to my cheek. I’m crying and I don’t even know what happened.

  I’m not bleeding. She didn’t break the skin.

  Rhen growls—but he falls back. An acquiescence.

  “No,” I say. “Please. Rhen. Don’t.” There has to be another way. I may have helped defeat the soldiers from Syhl Shallow, but he rallied his people. He formed this army. He is the ruler here, not me.

  Lilith takes a step toward Rhen, and he shies away from her like a beaten dog. “Think of what we could do.”

  “Enough!” says Grey. His sword is drawn, but he hasn’t taken action.

  Lilith smiles and turns back toward him. “You cannot kill me, Commander. You know this.” She takes a step toward him, and he takes a step back, his sword up in front of him.

  Her smile widens. “I can use her against you, too, you know.”

  My mind spins. “No. Grey. No. Kill me. Just do it. Don’t let her do this.”

  His breathing quickens, but he says nothing. He glances from me to Rhen and back to Lilith.

  “Do it!” I yell at him. “You said I am welcome to any weapon you carry. Pull a knife and do it!”

  He doesn’t.

  Lilith turns toward me. For the first time, the amusement drains out of her face. “What is
it about you that inspires such loyalty?” She puts out a hand and I stumble back. “Truly, Harper, I find it mystifying.” Her voice darkens, twisting into something that makes my chest tighten. “And frankly, quite irritating, you broken, worthless, little—”

  “Take me instead,” says Grey.

  She stops and looks at him.

  “I am no longer oath-bound. I am sworn to no one.”

  “No,” I say, realizing what he’s saying. “No. Grey. No—”

  He speaks as though I am not there. “The prince is a powerful creature, but you would have to rely on his devotion to Harper, which would surely wane over time. He will one day turn on you.”

  “And you would not?”

  “Once given, my word is good.” He pauses. “As is yours, is it not?”

  The creature growls again.

  Grey does not look at him. “I am just a man, but I can go where a beast cannot. I can follow orders. I can do your bidding.”

  “I find your offer intriguing, Commander. I do not believe you know what you are offering.”

  He takes a breath. “I believe I do.”

  He kneels.

  He lays his sword across both hands.

  Offers it up to her.

  “No!” I say. “No! Grey! You can’t!” I move to rush forward to stop him, but Lilith catches my braid in one tight fist and jerks me back.

  Rhen growls again.

  Grey says nothing.

  Lilith laughs. “The great Commander Grey, on his knees at my feet. They know I can still kill you, girl. I have not yet accepted his offer.”

  The sword still sits on his hands, solid and unwavering. “Do you accept?” he says.

  “I do.” She picks up his weapon. Releases my hair. I stagger back.

  Rhen roars, rearing up to slam his feet into the ground.

  Lilith whirls with the sword in her hand. “If I have him, I no longer need you.” Then she steps forward, ready to drive the blade into his side. Right under his wing.

  That’s where he’s vulnerable, Grey once said. The wings.

  I don’t think. I leap at her. I leap at the sword. I don’t know what I’m doing. I just can’t watch him die.