Page 110 of The Cursed Fae

Thorns appeared on the vine, piercing our skin. She didn’t flinch, and neither did I.

“Will you defend me against my enemies, even if you call them family or friends?” My voice was lower this time.

Zosia did not hesitate. “I do.”

A second row of thorns dug in beside the first. Crimson rivers wove down our arms, mixing on the green grass below.”These vows bind us for eternity.”

“For eternity,” she repeated.

The third row appeared, spilling more of our sacred blood.

This should’ve ended the ceremony, but there was one more promise I needed from her. I leaned closer and put my free hand on her shoulder, whispering the question in her ear.

Zosia stiffened. She turned and found my eyes.

“Please,” I added.

“I do,” she whispered.

Another winding vine of thorns appeared. Bonds could be broken, and I intended ours to stand the test of time and magic. Her vows would carry through the centuries and through our future lives whenever we met again.

Early morning sunlight peeked through the curtains and woke me. At first I didn’t understand the roiling in my gut and desperate and sudden urge to look in a mirror. Then I remembered Zosia’s red irises and pearly fangs. My hand went to my mouth, thankfully finding nothing unusual with my teeth.

The scene had seemed so real in the moment. Sun had warmed my face. Wind had ruffled my hair. I’d smelled the delicious scent of blood as the thorns tore my skin. I had seen Mat as clearly as he appeared in life, only I experienced none of the fear.

He hadn’t scared me in that clearing the way he did now.

Maybe it was because we were both vampires—equals. Except Mat wasn’t only a vampire. He was an eternal.

My next breath came too fast, the one after even faster. Air refused to reach my lungs. Teeth clenched, I started rocking back and forth in my bed.

It’s just a dream. It was only a dream.

Was it, though? My nana’s words filled my ears: “No matter what else she may be, Winter is a Sable.”

My great-grandmother hadn’t been reassuring my mom because I was a dimensional fae, but because I was like Mat. That was why she’d fled from Arcane Landing. She feared people learning what I was—who I was.

Then, my mother was beside me, sitting on the edge of the bed. She stroked the hair away from my numb cheeks, her cool water magic washing over me like a wave.

“It’s okay, baby,” she whispered, as if I was a child. “It’s okay to forget.”

With each pass of her hand down the back of my head, the memory grew hazier.

“It’s okay to not remember,” my mother soothed.

Yes, it is, I thought.

I would’ve let her make the dream fade away, as she’d clearly done before, except for the person I’d heard. Her voice, Zosia, calling to me. I had made her vow to protect me across lifetimes. The promise didn’t go both ways. But our bond did. She needed me to remember. No spell my mother could’ve performed would trump the magic used to seal my pact with the eternal wolf.

The soothing energy calmed me, and I pretended to fall back asleep. Mom lingered, which surprised me a little, and I faked a few quiet snores so she’d leave. I counted slowly to 300 in my head, giving my mother five whole minutes to locate my Nana Essie and tell her I’d had another dream.

Because if this was not the first one, and it definitely wasn’t... my great-grandmother knew about the others. How much had they made me forget?

My own fucking family had erased memories of my previous lives. Why didn’t they want me to know who I really was? I remembered the night Nana told me about the Prophecy of Eternals. I’d asked her how we dealt with creatures like Mat, though I hadn’t known his name until Lena told me.

“Typically, before they rise.”

I didn’t understand her words then. Now, I did. A risen eternal had no weaknesses—at least, not that anyone shared with me—but we were all mortal before we rose. And what was it Nana had said about the High Fae Council trying to erase the prophecy from existence? The only way to truly do that would be erasing the eternals.

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