Page 25 of The Curse and the Silver Rose

Marcel had been correct, then, about the provenance of the Heartstone. The gem seemed all the more precious—unimaginably, impossibly precious—now that Amelie knew the sacrifices made to bring it into the mortal realm.

“Your mother must have been extraordinary,” said Amelie, her heart heavy. “I’ve never heard of anyone accessing the Beyond like that. Usually, it’s a oneway journey, is it not? But Levissina did not kill you?”

“No. I was cursed and I bear it still, but I did not die.”

“Why?”

Again, Davron was quiet for a long time. Amelie waited patiently.

“You have to understand that Levissina’s curse is driven by love. Love turned upside down and inside out. Made dark, made foul. But love, all the same. My parents died from the curse because they loved each other. My fiancée perished too, because she was in love with me. I did not?—”

He cleared his throat. “I was very fond of her, but I’d known her since we were children. She was my second cousin. I did not love her in that way. And so, the curse did not kill me. But nor did I escape it. I came here, to my family’s summer castle, hoping to outrun her. Of course, the curse only followed me. I have been here, alone, ever since. And she still haunts me. She is demonic now, devoid of heart. Her only remaining pleasure is torture and tricks.”

“What of her son?” asked Amelie.

He shook his head. “I’ve tried many times to locate him, to offer whatever assistance I can, to no avail. His trail went cold many years ago, when he boarded a pirate ship as a stowaway. What happened to him then is anyone’s guess. If he possessed a shred of his parents’ tenacity, he survived. He’d be close to my age now.”

Davron fell into silence, which Amelie did not rush to fill. Instead, she attempted to understand everything he had told her. The situation was more complex than she’d supposed. There seemed to be no way out of the curse. It was done, long ago. People had died. Davron alone remained, his face and body bearing the marks of Levissina’s vengeance. A vengeance with a ferocity undiluted by time.

In the warm light of the library, deep in contemplation, Davron appeared to Amelie like he hadn’t before. It was almost akin to a soldier removing his armor. She glimpsed beneath the scars and cruel ink to the pain he’d endured.

Upon first meeting him, Davron’s ferocious appearance concealed any of his humanity or pain. This was precisely the Dark One’s intention, realized Amelie. Part of her vengeance was that he was unbearable to everyone he encountered. If the curse couldn’t kill him, he at least would not know love, peace, or kinship.

“May I?” asked Amelie, reaching for his closest hand.

He blinked in confusion. “What?”

She took his hand in both of hers and held it. Davron became very still, except for his pulse thumping through the veins in his hand.

Spiderweb tattoos started from each of his knuckles, extending across his whole hand, and she traced them with the tip of her finger. She rotated his hand by the wrist, and he let her. His palm exposed, she ran her fingertips over his thumb with deliberate care, then each of his fingers in turn.

“I was very young when my mother died,” said Amelie without looking up. “It was the most impossible-seeming thing. She was there one day. Then she wasn’t, ever again. We had a funeral, and her body returned to the earth. And I remember wondering where the rest of her went. When a person dies, what happens to them, really? Where do their memories and hopes and frustrations and love go? No one could tell me. At least not in a way that satisfied me. Everyone said the Beyond, but not with any certainty or detail. The Heartstone is perhaps the most proof anyone has ever shown me.”

“Unfortunately, the biggest questions often have no certain answer.”

“That is the truth. Or I’d surely know where my sister hid my favorite shawl on the eve of the new year. She swears she’d not seen it, but I believe she lost it in the village after too many mugs of ferment.”

Davron gave a throaty chuckle, and his hand finally relaxed in hers. “One of the greater of life’s mysteries.”

“Indeed.”

Amelie found that she liked touching him, and didn’t particularly wish to stop. But she had to, of course, because this was incredibly improper. Not least of all, because they had been discussing their lives’ greatest pains. She was at Castle Grange as a guest, nothing more. And yet, warm blood rushed to her chest, then pooled in her stomach. She had the strange desire to run her fingertips farther up his muscular arm.

Whatever was the matter with her? She gave herself a little shake.

“I’m sorry I—” she started, pulling away.

Davron interrupted her sentence with a loud growl. She looked up, fear seizing her heart. His eyes were wild and lost to reason, his teeth bared. Where his fingernails were a moment ago, there now were sharp silver-white claws. He loomed over her like a savage beast with raised hackles, his predatory growl unceasing.

“Davron!” she cried, scooting back as far as she could on the lounge.

His hands gripped the lounge on either side of her body, leaving her unable to flee. He flicked his long tongue over his gleaming teeth and sniffed the air in anticipation. Amelie squirmed beneath him, panting, which only made him draw closer to her. She could feel the hot whoosh of his breath on her bare neck. Was he going to eat her? Or something else?

He pinned her to the lounge with one hand, his six fingers spanning the width of her waist. With his other hand, he swiped at the skirt of her dress, shredding the material with his claws. She kicked him with her slender legs and feet, but she may as well have been striking an oak tree trunk for all it affected him. He leaned in closer. Through the fabric of his pants, his massive erection pressed against her inner thigh like a baluster.

“Davron, please,” she gasped. “What are you doing?”

As scared as she was, she also felt pure, hot fury. Had he only pretended to confide in her? Was this all a sick game to him? If so, he was even worse than the raiders she’d encountered on the road. He was truly twisted.

---