Page 45 of Secrets & Curses of Cerithia

“You are not my king. I will not answer to you.”

“Not yet, but you will,” he threatened, but I didn’t understand. “Did something happen in Falgon?”

My body tensed slightly at his question, but I doubted he noticed. His eyes traced over me like he could read me.

“Something happened,” he stated, watching my reaction very carefully. The dirt crunched under his foot as he dared to step closer to me.

“Nothing happened.” I rolled my eyes to hide my discomfort. “I came back because Falgon’s army was not preparing for an attack.”

I started to walk away again because my darkness wanted to snap Jesper’s neck.

“Is there any reason we should be concerned about where your loyalty lies?”

This made me stop and look back at him.

“Who else would I be loyal to?” I questioned.

“Crimson,” he didn't hesitate, but I saw the instant regret on his face. He hadn’t meant to say it, but it was too late to take it back.

“Why would I be loyal to a kingdom that tricked and used me?”

Jesper’s eyes darted around us as if he were looking for a way out of this conversation. But I waited for him to answer me.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Forget I said anything.”

I turned from him and made my way back to the castle, heading for my room. I wouldn’t forget that he was concerned that I could be loyal to a kingdom that had betrayed me.

As I made my way through the halls and reached the corridor, Wisp appeared. She was flickering in front of the black door near my bedroom. Her green form changed to red and black as I stepped toward her. I could see nothing different about the door this time, but something felt... wrong.

“It’s locked,” I whispered to Wisp. “I’ve tried almost every day to get into this door.”

She stopped moving at my words but then wrapped herself around the handle of the door, popping it open with a soft click.

I immediately gasped and stopped moving as the chill of the room instantly coursed through me. Something evil seemed to press down on me, and I wasn’t sure if I should be going in there. Wisp twirled around me as if she were urging me to trust her.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly pushed open the door and stepped into the dark space. As soon as I stepped inside, Wisp slammed the door shut behind me. I turned and panicked, trying to open the door, but it was locked.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I yelled, but Wisp was gone.

I leaned my forehead against the door and took a deep, calming breath. Once ready, I turned and faced the space behind me. My fire magic surged forward, lightly illuminating the small, dark room. Cautiously, I walked forward so that I could see what was so important that this room had remained locked.

My nose itched at the dust that covered everything. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I noticed the room was basically empty except for a large wooden table in the center of it and a small desk against the far wall. I glanced around to make sure no one lingered in the dark corners. It felt as if I was being watched, even though I saw no one. Other than the table and desk, the room was oddly empty.

I took a look at the table and noticed a large map sprawled out on it. At first, it looked like a regular map of Elloryon, but I froze when I realized it included Exile. I looked closer. Not only did it show Exile, but it was very detailed. It showed where every building was. The makeshift stage was there, the shadow boundary, and even, marked with a star, mine and Sybil’s home.

How did my father have such a detailed map of Exile while there was still a border around it? My hands traced over the shadow border until I saw the X on the tall oak tree that marked my escape route. This was just more confirmation that Leer had been telling me the truth.

“I don’t understand,” I muttered to myself.

My father had been so adamant that I made up Exile as part of the curse. Wisp’s blue glow caught my eye, letting me know she had returned.

“How does he know what Exile looks like?”

Wisp did nothing but float in the corner of the room. Panic started to seep in again because I couldn’t think of any reason that was good enough to explain why he would have this. My hands tore the map off the table, and I rummaged through the papers on the desk, desperate for any information they might yield. Most of the papers didn’t make sense until I saw the words ‘the creek will dry, and the forest will die’ scribbled onto one of the pages.

Scanning the rest of the page, I realized it was a contract of some sort. A name I couldn’t read was at the bottom of the contract, along with Gwyn's and my father’s signatures. Quickly, my hands scrambled through the other pages and found another contract, this one detailing an attack on Exile. My heart pounded as I read the details of the plan. Men would come to Exile in the night and slaughter anyone outside their homes.

Flashes of the attack that killed that mother and her young child flashed into my mind. I had done everything I could to savethem, but my father and Gwyn had killed them. Tears pooled in my eyes at the reality of what I had just discovered. My family was responsible for why Exile had begun to fall apart. They were responsible for the deaths of the elite fae there, for the drying up of our creek, and for killing our forest. These contracts proved they had hired witches or some other magical being to harm us. After all, who else could dry up rivers and cause forests to die?

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