Page 26 of Born of Blood and Thorns

The room was impressive, and I loved it, but it also meant it would take me forever to find anything in it. It was huge, and I could spend weeks in it and never even find what I was looking for. I groaned, gently running my hands through my hair and pulling the strands. I could do this. I had nothing but time. So I walked the aisles of books, running my finger down the spines and trying to decipher the catalog system. I soon realized there wasn't one. Which made my job much harder.

"This is ridiculous!" After hours of studying the titles, I finally said to the crackling fire, a lone candle flickering across each one. I pushed further into the library, where the room became chillier, and found another room in the back. A bed with rumpled sheets and a wardrobe occupied the whole room. It was clearly a man's room.

Men's clothing was strewn in a few areas, and masculine touches of dark blues and blacks were adorned everywhere. It had to have been Lore's. Alastair didn't strike me as the type to make a bedroom in a library. I suspected he slept near or with Alysha from how they acted around each other. Next to the bed was a shelf full of journals. I stared at the shelf for a long moment, debating whether I wanted to be the kind of person who snooped on someone's thoughts. I was sure Lore would hate me even more if he found me reading his journals. I needed answers and a way out to break this curse so I could leave.

"I don't care if the dragon boy likes me," I said into the shadows of the night. A pang of guilt still struck me as I snatched up the first journal, which appeared older and yellow, the pages brittle and aged.

I gingerly opened it, careful of its delicate nature. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, deep down, I did care. That feeling of heavy lead set deep in my stomach, refusing to go away as I read his inner thoughts.

She's gone, and Father has sent me to war in her absence. I've done unthinkable things on his orders. Things I am ashamed of. Things that will haunt me until the day I die. I have blood on my hands. The blood of innocents. I've become a monster.

I stopped reading, feeling this was too private to continue, and scanned the book until the end, looking for something to help me. I found it.

Like a storm cloud, she burst through the front doors during the spring solstice ball. With a flick of her wrist, everyone froze, unable to move. She marched with a deadly purpose. Her gaze was so thick with vengeance and hatred that it clawed its way up my throat as if it were manifested physically. Her pale hair streamed out around her as she stood before the throne, her clawed hands pointing toward the king and queen with malicious intent.

I should have known, and I should have moved faster, but I was too entranced. She was the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen.

"I do not beseech you mortals and your petty wars. When you take one of mine from me, then you must pay." Pain flashed in the creature's dark gaze, and her eyes became as pitch black as the night. It was then I realized this was no woman. This was a goddess—and not just any goddess: it was Nyx, the moon goddess.

She twisted her hair, a sadistic smile warping her perfect features. "Your kingdom will suffer for more years than a person should live, trapped in a state between the living and the dead. As the world outside passes you by, you will all be forgotten," she sang.

She spun around and danced across the floor as we watched in horror, frozen in place by the celestial power.

She sang in a high-pitched voice that turned soft and mocking before her lips twisted into a wicked grin. "You took my daughter." She pointed her finger at me. "So I'll take everything from you."

She looked to the king and queen frozen on their thrones and began to weave the curse that changed everything. "Every curse needs a way to break it," she said at the end, "though you never will. But I like to dangle a little hope above your head while you suffer. To break the curse, the dragon prince must willingly sacrifice his heart."

The guards rushed forward to stop her, and without even looking at them, she threw them and half the room back with her magic. Like the rest of the castle, she froze the throne room and moved toward the dais. I stood frozen, unable to move, as I watched her finish twisting her dark magic.

"You will be forgotten, even by your sun goddess, my sister, Allora. You will lose everything." She turned to me. "Unless he who took what is most dear can take the life of his one true love, or die by her hand."

Her gaze met mine, and in her starry night eyes, I saw all that was to come: the hopelessness I would feel all those years, the hope that would never come, and the despair I would countless times fall into. How can one even find a way to break a curse such as this? I was alone. No one was coming—not my true love, not anyone. I would die here and my kingdom with it.

A raging storm brewed in my head, screaming for her to stop because we had suffered enough. My sister was dead. The beautiful, deadly creature before me smiled bitterly. "You will suffer the most, for it was you who took her life from me. You who cannot love. It is you that will spend years living with your pain and regret only to end it with the worst agony ever known. To take the life of the one you hold most dear."

With a flick of her wrist, everyone vanished, gone from this world. Before she left, she ensured the king and queen would never live again, even if the curse broke. With her magic, she ripped them apart, leaving them in pieces.

I gasped as I slammed the journal shut harder than I had meant to. I shoved it back into place and left, shaking my head as I went. I was truly stuck here then. The only way to break the curse was to kill Lore or for him to kill his one true love. A plan began to formulate. One that would end with my dagger in his heart. Because I wasn't going to wait around forever. He had to die.

Footsteps outside the door startled me. I blew out my candle and crouched in the shadows, afraid Lore would find and confront me. The steps faded.

In the darkness, I weighed everything I thought I knew. I had blamed Lore, but now doubt gnawed at me. To escape this curse, I would need to betray the man who had saved me from wolves—or be stuck here with the rest of them. The choice seemed impossible. With a heavy heart, I slipped from the room, the books' secrets burning inside me.

I heard the dragon's roar that night, and my feet pulled me from bed, clad only in my sheer nightgown. I found my way through the dark and haunted halls of the castle as if pulled toward the monster, the beast that waited for me outside. I knew I should be scared—any sane person would be terrified—but my feet refused to listen to my head.

Soon, I stood underneath the moonlight as a crimson dragon soared overhead. Seeing me, it landed, rumbling the ground with its weight. I stood still, unsure if I should move forward. My body wanted to pull me in the direction of the beast. My mind was telling me this was insane. I should be running. Yeah, maybe the dragon liked me and even cared for me in some odd way. It was a beast, and it could decide to make me a tasty snack at any moment.

I didn't have to decide because soon, the massive dragon made its way to me. His scales glowed like fire in the moonlight. I thought I'd be shivering from the chill, but the closer the beast came, the warmer I felt the heat radiating off his body. The beast—Lore, no doubt—now stood within chomping distance of me as he slowed, then tilted his face down until it was level with my own.

I closed my eyes, not particularly in the mood to watch myself being burned alive and then eaten because I had some dumb notion that this beast and I had a connection.

No, I was crazy and about to be devoured. The dragon just stood there as if waiting.

I opened one eye and gazed into his fiery red eyes. The dragon stood unnaturally still. I realized the castle, its curse, and everything else absolutely bonkers in this world were connecting. I thought I heard a voice in my head calling out my name. Isabella.

"I'm crazy!" I yelled into the night and into the face of the beast standing before me. "It's official, I've gone insane." I paused as I heard a deep laugh. The dragon in front of me was shaking in a way that would indicate laughter. At that, I listened, almost wishing I hadn't.

You are mine, a deep voice said in my head. The dragon, Lore, turned and took to the sky. As his mighty wings lifted him into the air and the wind pushed me back, I thought I heard a softer, forever.

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