Cursed: Briar Rose's Story (Destined Book 6)

by Kaylin Lee

  Damon’s eyes widened. “It’s headed right toward that statue you saw, the one that began the whole thing, isn’t it? And when the storm reaches full strength and absorbs every last bit of magic on the continent, it will all be stored up in that statue.”

  “They’ll turn off the storm, move the statue inside their little sanctuary, and live like the ancient Kireth kings for millennia, never running out of magic.” Professor Kristoff stared at his hands. “They planted the sorbus, waited centuries to harvest it, and now they’ve won. All these years …”

  “‘Finish the Master’s work,’” Prince Estevan said, pacing. “‘Control the continent. Rule the weak.’ Isn’t that what they like to say?”

  I nodded. “That’s what their original Master wanted them to do. To rule us. I suppose they decided that the only way to truly rule us would be to destroy us completely.”

  “Not just destroy us,” Damon said, his voice thick with the horror we all felt. “Use us up as a power source in the process.”

  Chapter 31

  “A power source?” Prince Estevan’s voice was a low growl. “Unbelievable.” He strode from the room in the improvised bunker, flinging the door shut with a crash that made my coffee mug jump from its spot on the table. Somewhere in the hallway came the distinct sound of furniture hitting a wall. Everyone in the room winced.

  My stomach growled—it must be almost time for the midday meal. But nobody was in the mood to eat.

  Belle sank down beside Ella on the leather couch, tilting her head back against the seat cushion. “Just when I think it couldn’t get worse, I find out my brand-new trading companies are going to be dissolved into fuel for Kireth alchemy.”

  “I hate them.” Ella scowled and rubbed her belly, shifting as though uncomfortable. “I hate those stricken mages so much.” She inhaled sharply.

  Belle studied her warily. “More contractions? I thought they had stopped.”

  Ella exhaled, shutting her eyes. “Off and on.”

  “It’s too early for that,” Chloe said, setting the mirror back in her bag. “Way too early.”

  “I know.” Ella’s quiet, tense words held untold volumes of pain. She squeezed Belle’s hand. “They’re alive, though. At least we confirmed that. Thank you, Chloe.”

  “Yes. We’ve got a chance.” Raven stood. “Mission prep starts tonight. I’ll send out an alert when we’re ready to start. We’ll train as much as we can while Chloe prepares. See you in the training hall, Bri.”

  I blinked as she exited, followed by Damon and Professor Kristoff. “What did she mean about preparing?”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Chloe said quietly, with uncharacteristic softness. “I’ll do my part.”

  I rubbed my forehead. “Fine.” The less I knew, the less I had to worry about. It was past time to go attempt a sparring match, to make sure I was even capable of going on this mission without the curse’s guidance.

  Chloe followed me to the door, then put a hand on my arm. “Briar Rose.” Her whispered tone was stern, but the concern in her eyes made me feel strangely warm. “How many times did that woman torture you in the crater?”

  “In the crater?” I blew out a puff of breath and glanced down the hallway.

  “Bri.” Chloe’s voice pulled my attention back to her. “How many times?”

  “Dunno.”

  Her lips tightened. “A lot, then.”

  I shut my eyes against their sudden heat. “I guess. The curse was worse, though. When it used to get mad at me.”

  “The curse, too? Years, then …” Chloe’s voice wavered as she pressed her fingers into my forearm. “You come find me after all this is over, you hear me? I heard they found you covered with burns, and Alba healed you. But listen.” I couldn’t seem to open my eyes. I felt her whisper by my ear. “Some things can’t be healed.”

  My eyes popped open at the intensity of her tone. “I’m fine. It’s like you said. Alba already healed me.”

  She shook her head. “Asylians don’t know the first thing about suffering,” she said flatly. “And I’m telling you that you might never be healed from what they did.”

  “What does it matter?” I squeezed the door handle. “I’m not going to survive the next week.”

  “You’ll make it. You will.” She tightened her grip on my arm. “And when you do, you remember this—they took things from you that you’ll never get back, but that doesn’t mean they’ve taken everything.”

  That didn’t make any sense. I stared at her hand on my arm until she removed it. “I’m going to go train,” I said stiffly, shouldering past her and striding down the hallway. “See you later.”

  “They didn’t take everything, Briar Rose.” This time, she raised her voice instead of whispering, her loud, clear words following me down the empty hallway and making my shoulders hunch as though I could block them out. “You just remember that.”

  I turned the corner and sped toward the Sentinel’s old training halls, letting the roaring in my ears drown out the inexplicably hopeful sound of Chloe’s voice.

  Chapter 32

  Tavar lunged for me, reaching for my arm and hip in one, swift movement almost too fast to track.

  I twisted backward on instinct just as he reached, then spun behind him and leapt onto his back. He stumbled as I wrapped my legs around his waist and attempted to get my arms into a choke-hold position.

  “I don’t think so,” he panted, crashing to his knees and jamming one hand between my arms and his neck to loosen my hold.

  With a sudden twist, he flipped me off his back, followed me to the mat, and pinned me between his side and the floor.

  I blew out a breath and tucked my body into a ball, then scooted out of his grasp with a strong kick, shot to my feet, and dove for his back again.

  “Fifth’s time’s the charm,” I gasped, squeezing desperately to tighten my hold before he could break my grip.

  He fell to his back, slamming me to the ground beneath him, but I didn’t let go.

  Seconds passed. I squeezed tighter as he rolled side to side, knocking the wind out of me.

  Finally, just when I didn’t think I could hold on any longer, I felt it—the tap of submission on my clenched arms.

  I released my hold, my pulse pounding.

  He rolled off me and sat up, gasping for breath. “Fifth time it is,” he said, somewhere between panting and laughing.

  “Told you.” I tried to sit up but was too exhausted to move from my prone position on the mat.

  Corbin’s face appeared over me. “Fiercer than ever,” he crowed. “That finish was amazing.”

  “My technique was that good?”

  Corbin smirked. “Pretty sloppy, actually. But Tav turned purple. That part was beautiful.”

  Tavar waved him away with a smack to the shin, then held out a hand to me, pulling me into a sitting position beside him. “Are we done, or what?”

  “Definitely done.” I shoved the sweat-drenched tendrils of my hair away from my face and behind my ears. “I’m starving. Let’s see if there’s any victus left in this palace.”

  The hallway outside the Sentinels training room was empty. Deep in the bowels of the palace, without any hint of natural light, I’d started to lose sense of the time of day. But my stomach seemed certain it was almost dinner time.

  “You fight differently now.” Tavar walked beside me, his hands in his pockets.

  “I know.” I shot him a sidelong glance. “I mean, it feels different. Very different. The curse always used to punish me with sharp stabs to my heart when it wasn’t happy with my performance. Training without the curse, without being afraid of making mistakes … I feel lighter, I guess.” I shrugged and stuffed my hands in my pockets like Tavar, feeling like I’d shared too much.

  Tavar frowned, staring ahead distantly as he walked, and then he shook his head and glanced at me. “Your technique isn’t so perfect anymore, either.”

  I scowled and whipped my hands out of my pockets. “It
’s good enough to—”

  “That’s a good thing!” Tavar laughed and dodged away from my jab toward his abdomen. “You’re a lot wilder now. Less predictable. More intense.” He shot me a grin that made me stumble to a halt. “It’s incredibly attractive.”

  “I thought you were done saying things like that,” I sputtered, glancing over my shoulder to make sure no Sentinels had followed us from the training hall. Did he have to talk so loud?

  “Not a chance.”

  “But you said you understood—”

  “I do understand. And just because I’m being patient doesn’t mean I’m giving up.”

  “But you don’t know me.” I sounded exasperated. I felt exasperated. Hadn’t I just explained this to him yesterday? “The real me.”

  “I want to.” He rocked back on his heels and raised an eyebrow, like he expected me to start spilling my heart right there in the hallway.

  I crossed my arms. “You know, after keeping so quiet about it, you’re sure talking a lot about love these days.”

  He only grinned wider. “Feels good to have it out in the open, doesn’t it?”

  “Good for you, maybe.” I felt my scowl deepen. “But you’re just distracting me from—”

  “You’re too kind and fair-minded for your own good, Bri. You haven’t once mentioned the fact that I’m the one who failed you.”

  I jerked my head back and squinted at him. “Hmm?”

  “If I’d only kissed you sooner, I could have broken the curse years ago. Instead you suffered alone, nearly died—”

  “Years ago? Just how long have you—” There was that grin again. “Never mind. It worked out, Tav.” I shook my head. The last thing I wanted was for him to blame himself for any of this. “If you’d broken the curse early, I wouldn’t know about the storm or the sorbus. I wouldn’t be able to help Raven make a plan.” I shifted. “Besides, the curse was suspicious about you for a while. It wouldn’t have let you get close enough to kiss me if you’d tried.” I ran my hands over my arms, warming them. “You wouldn’t believe how hard I had to work to convince it just to let us be friends.”

  He studied me, the sudden intensity in his gaze making me nervous. “Why suspicious?”

  “Because …” I realized my error too late.

  “Because you thought about it. Didn’t you?” There was nothing humorous about his slow, satisfied smile. “You wanted to kiss me, and it wouldn’t let you.”

  “I thought it would kill me that day. It nearly did.” I looked away. “Learned my lesson.”

  “That day, when we were sparring— And your chest pain—” His voice lost its satisfied edge. “That’s what happened?”

  Why did my eyes feel so hot? “Yes.”

  His arms came around me then, a tight, fierce embrace as I stood board-stiff with shock. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice rough. “And I’m glad that evil thing is gone.”

  He released me as suddenly as he’d grabbed me and turned around to stride back down the hallway before I could respond.

  Chapter 33

  I sat on the bed in the room that had once been our home, nothing but the flickering light of an old luminous to keep the walls from bearing down on me as I waited for Raven to announce the start of pre-mission training. How much longer would the luminous last? And what would we do when it ran out of magic completely, and there was none left to refill it?

  The quiet, dark room was making my skin feel tight. Jade and Kaia were dining with their sister and the prince tonight, and Alba and Si had gone off with their bowls of victus for a romantic dinner, I supposed. As romantic as victus could be, anyway.

  After a long day of helping Raven plan, then the horrible view from Chloe’s mirror and that intense training session with Tavar, I was ready to be alone. So why did the emptiness around me feel starker than usual?

  “Bri?” Tavar tapped the door.

  I swallowed a thick, sticky bite of victus and set my bowl on the floor. “What?”

  “I was thinking we could go for a walk,” he said through the door, and I could picture him smiling, though I couldn’t possibly know. He tapped the door again. “Door looks good. Sorry I broke it.”

  “It only took a minute to fix,” I mumbled, fingers flying to tidy my dress for some reason. “I’ve broken it before.”

  My boots waited expectantly at the door, like they’d known we weren’t done for the night. I slid my feet in, not bothering to do up the laces, and set my hand on the doorknob. But I didn’t open it. “Walk where?”

  There was a brushing sound, like Tavar was sliding against the other side of the door. “Does it matter? I just don’t want to sit in the barracks any longer. Figured you might feel the same.”

  The door opened, and I wasn’t sure if it was due to an involuntary flick of my wrist or Tavar’s hand on the other side of the knob. He met my eyes, just inches away. His shoulders eased slightly as he looked me over, like something about the sight of me had relieved him. “C’mon, Bri. Walk with me.”

  Somehow, I found myself in the hallway, and he shut the door behind me, almost comically gentle as the latch clicked into place. He rubbed his jaw and glanced at me. “You look nice.”

  I tucked a stray wisp of hair, still wet from my bath, behind my ear. “Thanks— Wait.” I felt my brows sink into a scowl. “Walk … like, courting? That kind of walk?”

  Humor glinted in his eyes as he shrugged nonchalantly. “Why not?”

  “Why not?” I shoved my hands into my pockets and started walking. I was getting sick of his newfound sense of humor. “I don’t know, maybe because we’re in the middle of a life-sapping storm that is about to murder the entire continent?”

  He kept pace with me easily, all languid strength and smooth strides as we rounded the next corner. “Can you think of a better time to say what’s in your heart?”

  In your heart. What a ridiculous phrase. For five years, there’d been nothing in my heart but Elektra’s hateful, magical stitch of thread. Now that was gone, and what was left?

  Nothing.

  You’re nothing without me. Nothing, nothing—

  “There’s no point,” I ground out. I couldn’t even look at him. “We’ll all be dust in a few days. It’s not as though we’ll live happily ever after.”

  “Leaving aside the fact that you seem so certain our mission will fail, are you saying that just because we might not live much longer, we don’t get to be happy at all?”

  “No—” We rounded a corner and entered a hallway filled with clusters of young people chatting over small bowls of victus, a few shouting out with boisterous laughter, like the final days had unleashed something in them.

  I dodged their gazes and hunched my shoulders, keeping quiet on instinct as we strode through the hallway and rounded the next corner. The new hallway was gloriously empty. “I just don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

  Tavar’s footsteps stopped. I glanced back, realizing he hadn’t kept pace with me, and found myself walking back to where he stood halfway down the hallway, his expression inscrutable.

  “What? Why are you stopping?”

  “I want you to kiss me.”

  Blood rushed to my face. “I already did,” I sputtered. “You got a kiss a few days ago, remember?”

  “That didn’t count.” There was a bit of redness in his cheeks, but his stance was confident and braced, like he was daring me to argue with him. “I want you to kiss me. To choose me. To kiss me because you want to.”

  A shocked gasp of laughter escaped my mouth before I could restrain it. “That’s not going to happen,” I managed to say. “Like I said, the world’s about to end.”

  He shrugged and raised an eyebrow. “Then I guess you better not waste time like I did.”

  “There you are, Bri!” Alba approached from the end of the hallway, tugging Si’s hand. Two lean, muscular young men walked behind them, both wearing the mud-stained, homespun garb of Badlanders. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you. Wanted
to introduce you to two of Si’s brothers.” She seemed to repress a smile when Tavar narrowed his eyes. “Both of you, of course.”

  Tavar shifted closer to me, his expression now neutral, and rubbed his brow. “Glad you found us,” he said under his breath.

  Si’s eyes crinkled, and the shorter, bespectacled brother behind him coughed. “My name is Damien.” He leaned between Si and Alba and took my hand. “After all I’ve heard about you, Briar Rose, it’s an honor to meet you.”

  “Call me Bri,” I mumbled. “And I don’t want to know all you’ve heard.”

  He chuckled and squeezed my hand before releasing it, his grip warm and callused. “In our family, you’re something of a legend.”

  The tall, broad-shouldered brother inclined his head when I met his eyes. “Anton,” he said stiffly, looking me up and down, then settling his gaze at my feet. “Nice to … ah … meet you. I mean, I’m sure …” He coughed. “You’re nice. I mean—”

  “Name’s Tavar.” Tavar reached out and shook each brother’s hand with a brusque movement. “We were just about to go for a walk, so if you don’t mind—”

  “Sentinels and mages!” Eugene bellowed from further down the hallway, his eyebrows set in a scowl. “Get to the dining hall. Prince Estevan’s holding a brief.”

  “Now?”

  “Now. He wants all the mages and Sentinels there.” He looked pale. “Some things need to be decided before we start training.”

  Chapter 34

  The small dining hall had felt cavernous when it held the few remaining, uncursed Sentinels, but now, packed with every expellant mage who’d found shelter in the palace, there was barely enough room for us to stand at the back.

  Prince Estevan and Princess Belle stood at the front, with Chloe, Ella, and Professor Kristoff beside them. Prince Estevan’s aid, Damon, sat in the front row, his form weak, barely able to stay upright. How much longer would he be conscious?

  The last few stragglers entered the back of the room, and Prince Estevan crossed his arms. “We don’t have time for formalities,” he said shortly, waving aside a few Sentinels’ salutes. “Let’s get right to it. You know the storm outside is the work of the mages who call themselves the Masters. They are currently holed up in the crater of an extinct volcano in the Gold Hills, the edge of which they’ve lined with a magic-blocking rock called sorbus, imported from the Kireth homeland.