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

by Kaylin Lee

  “Well, she’s the commander. She changed her mind. And she gave the curses to me, didn’t she?”

  “Now’s not the time for a lover’s spat,” Corbin said, glancing over his shoulder. “We’re about to go save the continent, remember?”

  He pulled his thick, black mask over his head, hiding the last of his skin as Tavar and I did the same.

  Prince Estevan and Princess Belle charged into the room just as Raven opened the transportation curse and flung it over us as we huddled together on the platform. They were surrounded by a crowd of people, Ella at their side. Lord Falconus was there, looking wan but determined, and Alba’s grim-faced beau, Si, along with his brothers.

  Whatever they’d arrived to do, it was too late. They simply knelt, led by the prince with his hand over his heart, offering us the salute we’d been trained to offer to him.

  The last thing I saw before the curse’s tingly, silvery cloud enveloped us was Si, in quiet conference with one of the younger boys before they both left, weaving their way through the kneeling crowd as the rushing, silver cloud snapped us out of the palace.

  Chapter 38

  The old mine was gloriously quiet, shielded from the storm raging over the narrow, protected Hollow. Somewhere outside, the sun was rising, but the shiny, pale-gray sky obscured the sun, and the only light this deep in the mine came from the small luminous lanterns that we’d brought in our packs.

  I slammed the axe against the wall, trying to ignore the headache that wouldn’t go away. Tavar was beside me, working quickly. He separated several small chunks of the rock and got to work fixing them to his mask and chest. His silence was odd, I noticed suddenly. Why was he watching me so closely?

  “Almost done,” I mumbled. “Just a moment.”

  “You honor the Crown,” Corbin said, slapping Tavar’s shoulder and then mine. “See you when the sky is clear.” His cocky grin made my chest hurt. Would this be the last time I saw him?

  The hostage rescue team filed out past us. I set my axe on the ground and attached the rock to my uniform as Tavar had done.

  “Ready.” I didn’t look at him. I reached for my pack, but it wasn’t where I’d left it.

  I faltered, then looked up from the ground and met Tavar’s eyes. He held my pack.

  I reached for it, but he pulled it away. “Raven only gave you two vials. Why?”

  A sick feeling churned my stomach. He’d seen. “She gave me everything,” I hedged. “Let’s go. We need to be there by the time the others send up the signal.”

  “She gave you everything, huh?” His expression darkened. “So it wasn’t just the curse that made you lie. You’ll lie to my face all on your own.”

  “All two of them,” I finally said, dodging his gaze. “Let’s go.”

  “No. I’m not letting you do this.” He glanced at my pack, then threw it behind him and stepped between me and the mine’s opening. “Give me the vials. I’m going alone.”

  Was he joking? “Stop wasting time,” I ground out. “We need to leave.”

  “You’re the one wasting time.” His clipped, accented tone was forbidding. “Give me the vials, Briar Rose. Now.”

  I gaped at him, needing a moment to comprehend his words. How could he push me on this? “It’s the right thing to do,” I said, wrinkling my brow. “I made this mess. I need to be the one to pay for it.”

  “No, they made this mess. You made a mistake. You were barely more than a child, and you made a mistake. That’s it. You don’t get to spend the rest of your life paying for it.”

  “I have to!” My voice crept up. “And what life, anyway? I was sentenced to death five years ago! This is my fate. It’s what I deserve. I’ve made peace with it, and I’m doing it, so move out of the way.”

  “I broke that curse.” His jaw was tight, his expression etched in stone. “You aren’t sentenced to death anymore. And you know what? If someone needs to pay for your mistake, it’s going to be me. I’m the one who loves you. I’ll be the one to pay.”

  “Stop it!” I darted forward and tried to go around him, but he blocked me with a swift, merciless strike, knocking me to the ground. I couldn’t breathe. “You’re insane,” I gasped. “You’re not making any sense.”

  “I’m the one who loves you,” he repeated stonily, standing over me. “I’ll pay.”

  Fury launched me forward, and I lunged against him, knocking him down with my shoulder against his hips. “No! I’m going.”

  I’d struck Tavar in training before, a thousand times. But never like this—never fueled by anger, by utter, consuming rage.

  His face registered no surprise. He allowed my first two blows, blocked the third quickly, then flipped me off him in a smooth, brusque movement, and pinned me under his torso. His weight was crushing, the tightness of his hold almost unbearable. I gasped for breath, numbly aware that he’d been holding back when sparring with me.

  Tavar shifted, then twisted me around. A sudden, jerky pain behind me told me that he was binding my wrists.

  He released me at last, giving me space to breathe.

  I writhed helplessly, kicking at him as rocks jabbed into my back. Every kick only pushed me further from him, humiliated, defeated by my only friend. How dare he? He’d deprived me of the only justice I’d ever wanted, the only thing that had kept me moving forward since the curse had been broken.

  “I hate you.” I spat the words out with a sob. Tears of fury drenched my face. “I don’t love you, Tavar. You hear me? I hate you!”

  He gripped my legs and subdued them, again with efficient, merciless force, then tied my legs so tightly the rope hurt my skin. “Changes nothing.” He flipped me to my side and took the vials out of my pocket, then stood. “I’ll catch up to Corbin, tell him where to find you when it’s over. Goodbye.”

  He strode through the rocky mine entrance without a backward glance.

  I wriggled, trying to free myself, but the binding on my arms and legs did not give. The gravel dug into my side and upper arm. Tavar.

  A sob squeezed my chest and throat so brutally, it was like I’d been punched in the throat by the sudden intensity of my grief. I tried to cry for help, but my sobs wouldn’t let up. Nothing emerged from my lips but dry, useless groans.

  I cried for an hour, at least. Then, finally spent, I lay limp and helpless in the mine as the storm raged outside, the piercing wind growing nearly deafening with rage. The storm was getting stronger. How far had he hiked with the sorbus affixed to his helmet and jacket, protecting him from the draining wind? How long until Tavar—Tavar—was gone from me forever?

  I wanted to be numb, but the rocks digging into my back and the rawness at the back of my throat wouldn’t allow it.

  You’ll make it, Bri. I know you will.

  How could he possibly have loved me all these years, and even now, when I’d flat-out rejected him?

  I squeezed my eyes shut and groaned. How long, how long? Another hour? Two?

  She said you’re brave. You are, you know.

  I pictured Tavar’s broad shoulders clad in the formal Sentinel’s uniform, his facial features perfectly chiseled and covered in perfect, tiny freckles. How he’d studied me as I fixed my uniform, undaunted by my coldness and distance. You look nice.

  Dirt mingled with my tears, coating my cheeks and lips with mud where my face met the ground.

  Changes nothing.

  Something snapped, making me jump and filling the mine’s tunnel with a brief, blinding silver light.

  “Oh!” A familiar, feminine voice gasped.

  “Well, this is unexpected,” another woman added, sounding amused. “Hello, Briar Rose.”

  Chapter 39

  I blinked against the bright spots that clouded my vision. The Masters? Two dark-haired women stood over me, swaying unsteadily. No, not the Masters. Impossible—

  “Bri, hold still. I’ll help.” My sister dropped to a crouch beside me, her warm fingers making quick work of the binding on my wrists and feet.


  “Alba? How … What are you doing here?”

  “Rescuing you, obviously.” Chloe knelt beside Alba, then sat heavily on the ground, as though kneeling took too much effort. “Didn’t think you’d be so easy to find.”

  “I thought you were enervated.” I sat up as Alba settled beside Chloe and leaned against the rocky wall. My voice was raw from crying, and their features were blurry as I blinked at them with sore, tear-stained eyes.

  “We were.” Chloe inhaled deeply as though gathering her strength, then straightened her spine and pulled a small vial from her dress pocket. “Alba’s beau is a resourceful one, it turns out. Badlanders are a useful bunch.”

  “Si and his brothers found a few old fomecoaches sheltered in the palace’s repair yard. They siphoned the fuel out, then poured it out by me and Chloe so we could absorb its magic through the air and wake up.” Alba sighed dreamily, despite her wan complexion. “Being in love with a former bandit has its benefits.”

  I rubbed my eyes, still feeling too slow and overwhelmed to follow. “Why, though? We’re almost to the end. What does it—”

  “Ella told him you would be taking a one-way trip into the crater. He said he figured after all I went through to rescue you, the last thing I’d want was to lose you saving the continent.” She gripped my hand and squeezed. “He was right.”

  “But what can you do about it? Tavar—” My voice broke. I had to pause and clear my throat. “He took my place. He’s been gone for hours, so it’s far too late to catch him. He’s probably almost there as we speak. When he accelerates the storm, it’s going to kill him.”

  Chloe lifted her chin and arched one brow, waving a hand imperiously. “Then we save him instead.”

  “Right.” Alba nodded decisively and held out her hand, a pool of gold sparkles hovering over her palm as a trace of her expellant magic filled the air. “Whenever you’re ready, Chloe.”

  “Ready now.” Chloe lifted the vial with one hand, then gripped Alba’s wrist and closed her eyes. “Pay attention, Bri. The first curse will get you to the crater. The second curse will get Tavar out.”

  Nerves jolted excitedly, shooting through me like a burst of magic. “You can do that?”

  Chloe shrugged nonchalantly, but her eyes remained shut, her face tense in a focused frown. “Si was right to wake us. We were two of the highest-capacity mages in the palace. We managed to make a strong enough curse to get ourselves here, and we still have magic left. The crater is close. If we both enervate ourselves a second time, there should be enough for two more small curses.”

  Gold sparkles rushed across Alba’s skin, pouring down her arm and pooling over the vial before dribbling into it like they’d turned to liquid mid-air.

  “Thank you,” I managed. They’d go through this torture a second time, just to save us? “I don’t know what else to say.”

  “You’re worth it,” Alba said quietly, the gold waves spilling across her lips as she spoke. “It’s an honor.”

  I pressed my palms onto my burning eyes. “Not sure about that,” I whispered, my voice raw. “Before Tavar left, I told him I didn’t love him. I told him I hated him.”

  “Oh, Bri,” Alba said softly.

  When I dropped my hands, Chloe was watching me with lowered lids, as though she was already nearly asleep. Gold continued to pour across Alba’s motionless form, rushing like a miniature river. How did she even have magic left after all Chloe had already taken?

  “Is that the truth? You don’t love him?” Chloe’s question was a dry, tired whisper. She flicked a finger, and the torrent of magic coming from Alba increased.

  “No,” I blurted out, fighting the urge to cover my eyes again. “It’s not. I love him.” The way my voice cracked and shook made the words sound ugly, even shameful. “Which makes it even worse. Even if we manage to save him, it doesn’t change the fact that he took my place, even though I gave him absolutely nothing in return. How do I even begin to make up for something like that?”

  “You can’t.” Alba’s face flickered subtly but her eyes didn’t open. Her voice was the barest whisper of noise. Gold streamed across her face, throat, hands, all twisting toward Chloe’s vial. “That’s the whole point, Sis. You can’t repay it.”

  I stared at her, feeling sick as the rivulets rushing across her body suddenly thinned, then disappeared. Her head slumped to one side as a new cloud of gold began streaming across Chloe’s skin toward the vial. “Then what do I do?” I asked her, stupidly, knowing she was already gone.

  “You say thank you, of course.” The gold hurtled off Chloe’s skin, coming in a shockingly thick torrent and rushing into a new vial. She cracked one eye open again and speared me with a tired glare. “You tell him you’re sorry, and you thank him, and then you kiss him until he can’t remember his own name.”

  I found myself releasing a bemused laugh but stopped short when Chloe’s head listed sideways.

  Her eyes fluttered shut as she collapsed back against the rocky wall. “Take the vial,” she slurred. “Quickly. Almost done.”

  I fumbled for the vial and finally gripped it as her fingers slipped down, a final tendril of gold twining from her arm toward the vial.

  “Bri.”

  I leaned close, straining to hear her faint words.

  “When you get him out, get clear of the crater. I changed the third curse. The accelerant. Didn’t have a chance to warn Ella. Not sure what …” Her head drooped to her shoulder, her energy leaving her body in a final collapse.

  She was gone.

  I picked up the first vial as the last bit of gold filled the second vial. “Thank you,” I whispered shakily to their unconscious forms, my head spinning. I clambered unsteadily to my feet and put on my pack, adjusting the mask and gear so the black rock was in position like Tavar’s had been. I flicked the stopper into the second vial, then held my breath and poured the contents of the first over my torso.

  The familiar tingling of a curse ripped across my skin, and for the first time in five years, the sensation felt more like hope than terror.

  Chapter 40

  “Tavar!” I yelled his name over the wind as I jogged through the spindly, beleaguered trees that surrounded the crater, but he gave no response.

  I had to be close. I glanced up to check the direction of the wind overhead. The sun must be directly overhead by now, but the storm was so thick, it allowed no hint of the sun’s location. Streams of silvery air from every direction seemed to be converging on a spot just up ahead, spiraling toward something at the edge of the crater just like Alba and Chloe’s magic had twisted into the vial in the mine.

  A sudden, orange light lit up the white, stormy sky to the east, followed by the piercing whistle of a Sentinels signal that was just audible over the storm’s wind. My stomach plummeted with twin surges of victory and dread as the light and sound faded. The hostages were out. It was time for Tavar to use the first curse.

  I sprinted toward the storm’s apex, my headache throbbing at my temples as the storm tugged ruthlessly at my helmet and jacket. If I was still moving, it meant the sorbus was working, right? It had to be.

  “Tavar!” I called again.

  There was a distant movement up ahead, a black shadow barely visible in the storm. I rushed toward him. “Tavar, wait!”

  The statue came into view like a specter straight from my nightmares—a lean, towering man of crystal and silver, sucking hungrily at the air as the storm spiraled around it. Tavar staggered toward it, barely upright. He opened his vial and tossed the shimmering liquid onto the statue, then grabbed it, letting the silver cloud of the curse engulf them both.

  “Wait!” I increased my speed, fumbling in my pocket for the final curse as I raced toward him.

  He looked up, his black mask hiding his expression. “Get back!” he shouted, horror evident in his voice. “I said I’m doing this!”

  SNAP.

  I was too late. Tavar and the statue were gone.

  There was a rushing
sound—billions of tiny, white dust particles falling to the ground at once, the statue that had controlled them now locked behind the impenetrable barrier of sorbus in the crater. When the rushing ended, the new silence outside the crater was deafening.

  “Tavar!” I screamed at the rocky crater wall. “I can get you out!”

  There was no answer. I threw myself at the crater wall instinctively, scrabbling up like a spider, the rough rock tearing at my fingers as I climbed. The storm’s disappearance filled me with a sudden surge of energy, like I’d been moving through thick water, and now I was finally on dry land.

  I reached the top of the crater’s edge just as the storm began to accelerate, white clouds surging violently out from the statue like a series of explosions. Far below me, inside the crater, Tavar crawled away from the statue, dragging his nearly limp body away in a final, fruitless attempt to escape.

  The storm inside the crater was deafening, whining like a thousand fomecoaches speeding through the streets of Asylia.

  My hands moved of their own accord, guided by years of relentless drilling. I straddled the rocky ledge and held my legs tight as I whipped the crossbow from my pack and loaded a bolt, then poured the contents of the last vial on the tip of the bolt and took aim.

  I released the bolt, squinting through the rushing storm to follow its path. Tavar gave a shout of pain and shock, then stopped crawling. I held my breath.

  SNAP! He disappeared.

  I swung my legs back over the top of the rock and dropped backward to the nearest ledge, gripping a jagged edge of rock with my fingertips to break my fall. The rocks vibrated beneath my fingers as the storm whirled inside the crater. I dropped again. This time I managed to grab a small outcropping with a swing that nearly pulled my shoulder from its socket.

  “Bri!” The familiar sound of Tavar’s worried voice from behind me made me want to whoop with joy.

  “I’m coming down,” I managed. I didn’t dare look back. I focused on the rapid climb down, victorious, feeling light enough to float down.