Page 84 of The Curse and the Silver Rose

Tears spilled down her cheeks as she tore at the tendrils, wrenching them aside until half of his face was visible. His garnet eye was frozen and glazed, staring blindly at the grey sky. His skin was ashen and cold to the touch.

“No,” whispered Amelie. “No. Please.”

She exposed his face, but no breath escaped his mouth and nose. Anger bubbled inside her amid the grief, and she ripped more fiercely at the black ropes choking him. But the harder she pulled, the tighter the darkness held on.

Eventually, when the ropes threatened to bury him altogether, she sat back on her haunches, sobbing. She had to accept the cruel reality. Davron was dead.

The crow had stopped circling. It sat on the garden wall, watching her with an amber eye. The tendrils slowed down, yet did not loosen their grip on him.

Amelie felt like her heart was on fire. All she wanted was to sink into the rotting abyss and lie with him for eternity.

“I’m sorry, Davron,” she said. “I am so sorry.”

She leaned forward and put her hand on his cold cheek, gazing into his unseeing eyes.

“I wish I had told you,” she said. “I wish I told you a hundred times. I wish I told the whole world. I will tell you now, in the vain hope you can hear me from the Beyond.”

She brought her face to his, her tears falling onto his cheeks.

“I love you. I love you, Davron, with all that I am. Now and forever, my heart will be yours.”

She closed her eyes and kissed his icy lips, tasting her own salty tears.

“I love you,” she whispered again.

All at once, the tendrils began thrashing violently, throwing Amelie backward. She landed several paces away and tried to claw her way back to Davron, only for the black ropes to lash themselves around her wrists and ankles, dragging her even farther from him.

“No!” she cried.

The tendrils strapped themselves around her chest and started dragging her into their writhing depths. Panting in terror, Amelie could no longer see anything except the featureless grey sky directly above. The crow took flight, passing across her vision like a dark-winged angel, before disappearing from view.

The foul stench filled her nostrils as she gasped for air. Too late, she thought of the Heartstone in her bag, beyond the reach of her bound hands. In her state of grief, she’d not even tried to use it.

Who would find her and Davron’s bodies? Her brothers? Oskar? Anyone who entered these walls would likely die, too.

The harder she struggled, the more tautly the ropes pulled. Soon, her chest would be crushed and she would die in this putrid graveyard. At least she would perish alongside the one she loved, she thought. It was more than Malakai and Levissina were granted. This garden would be Amelie and Davron’s tomb.

Being consumed by the rotting black tangles was not unlike being strangled by the raider. At first, it was petrifying. But as her body lost feeling, the pain and terror began to diminish. All she felt was the struggling rise and fall of her chest, and tears slipping from the corners of her eyes. Even the stench was more tolerable.

Believing it to be her last breath, she inhaled deeply. There was movement at the edge of her vision. A large shadow moved toward her, dark and looming against the pale sky.

“Amelie.”

“Davron?” she gasped in disbelief.

Was she hallucinating? He had died.

The shadow crouched next to her. “Amelie, hold on.”

The writhing of the tendrils slowed, and then ceased. The putrid ropes released her limbs and withdrew. They wilted and shrank from her as if being pulled by an invisible force. Then, before her eyes, they turned to dust.

With Davron’s help, she sat up.

She peered at him in confusion, trying to gauge why he seemed different. His eyes were now a deep, rich brown instead of garnet. The scars on his face and neck and arms still existed, but they no longer appeared painfully unhealed.

The ghoulish tattoos from Levissina had vanished from his skin, leaving behind the symbols bestowed upon him by the High Magus. He still had twelve fingers and he was as tall and bulky as ever, but his broad shoulders now sat evenly. Though the curse had altered him irreparably, she wouldn’t change a thing about him.

“I love you,” said Amelie.

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