Page 60 of Cursed

“It will hold, father. The curse will stay broken, and if there’s any way for us to stamp it out forevermore, we will. You should be happy. Now you won’t have to subject your youngest child to such a ridiculous quest. Now that beautiful new baby can be born into a new dawn of the Saleri family.”

The mention of the child seemed to recall Silas to himself, and Edeena’s heart twisted in her chest at the change that came over her father. He suddenly looked like he was going to cry and she stiffened.

“What is it?” she asked, horror beginning to well up inside her. “Is there anything wrong? Please tell me nothing is wrong with Maria or the baby.”

“Nothing . . . nothing’s wrong,” he said, but his words were almost anguished. He stared down at his hands, then up at Edeena. The words he spoke next seemed to be pulled out of the center of his being with pliers.

“Your mother was a good woman, Edeena. She tried, but she never believed in the reality of the curse on the Saleris, that we were to be doomed to eternal strife unless we married into royalty. She never believed it—and when she was alive, I almost didn’t believe it either. But then . . . then she died, and everything fell apart.”

Despite her long-stoked anger toward her father, Edeena couldn’t help her hand beginning to tremble as a sob wracked his body. “For a long time, I thought I could make things right by connecting you with Aristotle, but it . . . it wasn’t working, it never seemed to work, and it should have! You were beautiful, gracious, strong, and he was an idiot not to see it.”

“We were friends,” she said gently, and Silas laughed—a laugh which at one time would have been bitter, but was now simply sad.

“Friends, yes. I know. But I was so sure . . . I met Maria, you and Ari were practically engaged, I . . .” he sighed. “I proposed to her. Then Aristotle disappeared, she became pregnant and instead of believing that I could finally have a new beginning, I was caught up in the horror that the Saleri curse would continue and I would be destined to lose anyone I loved.”

His voice cracked, but he soldiered on. “And I do love her, Edeena. Her and the precious child she carries. At the last minute, I decided we would have a better chance if that child carried on the fight—not you. I’m not proud of what I tried to do, to induce all these men to stand down. In truth, I suspected it wouldn’t work. But I had no other choice! You defied me at every turn, you didn’t seem to understand how difficult the curse would be to break. But everything was in place and there was no time to call off the ball. You certainly weren’t interested in listening to reason.”

“Reason . . .” Edeena echoed.

“So I did what I could to control the outcome, to control you.” He smiled ruefully, the first genuine smile she’d seen on his face in years. “I should have known it was no longer possible.”

“Silas.”

Vince turned away from Marguerite and Caro as he heard the queen’s strong, quiet, but above all, compassionate voice, and realized the queen was folding the tall, lean man into her embrace. Silas was crying, and Edeena looked stricken.

Vince moved toward her instinctively, but her sisters got there first, not realizing the scene they’d just missed as the king and queen quickly and covertly escorted Silas off the gazebo and into a phalanx of guards. To anyone else, he would seem overcome with joy at his family’s good fortune, but Edeena’s face had told a different story.

Still, as he half listened to Caroline’s and Marguerite’s joyful reunion with their sister, Vince watched the trio make their way through the crowd. Despite the net of security, they stopped for one man, then another, and at each new contact Silas stood a little straighter. One man shook his hand, another clapped him on the back. No less than three old women hugged him. A young couple approached, and then another, and the king and queen stood at his side in silent affirmation of his status with the royal family, as he slowly, and then with greater speed, welcomed the distant relations of the Saleris, come to pay their respects.

Vince didn’t know what would happen once the shock wore off for the man, but for the moment, he was away from Edeena, and that was all that mattered.

“Vince.” Edeena turned to him now, and the slightly dazed sound to her voice matched his own reaction. It was almost impossible to believe that he’d proposed to the woman, she’d accepted, and what seemed like half the country had applauded the move. He wasn’t at all sure how she would feel about it in the morning.

Then again, that wasn’t very fair of him. He knew how he’d feel, after all.

But still . . .

Edeena reached out to him when he didn’t respond, her expression now shaded with worry. “We’ll have to run the gauntlet at some point,” she said, motioning to the teeming throng surrounding the gazebo. “Are you ready?”

Her voice was as hesitant as her gaze, but he quickly stepped forward, letting her pull him down the gazebo stairs. They made their way back through the crowd much the same way Silas had—with rounds of back clapping, hand shaking, hugs and smiles from people he’d never seen before but who now were addressing him as if they were old friends. Marguerite and Caro got into the act, too, meeting relations they didn’t know they even had—as well as some they clearly did—each reunion more boisterous than the last.

By the time they re-entered the more formal internal ballroom, Vince knew that if he never saw another crowd as tightly-packed as this one, it would be too soon. Still, the interior of the Visitors Palace atrium was like an oasis of calm after the rowdier open-air party. He grinned as he watched Caro and Marguerite give one look to the more staid couples dancing in a formal waltz, then disappear back through the open doors.

That left him alone with Edeena—his favorite place to be.

Liberating two champagne glasses from a passing waiter, he offered a flute to Edeena. She took it, but there was no missing the sudden nerves that sparked in her expressive eyes.

“Countess Saleri,” Vince said, touching his glass to hers. “I’d ask you what you were thinking, but I think I already know.”

“Vince . . .” Edeena blew out a quick breath, pursed her lips. “I . . . all of that happened so quickly, I don’t know what to say.”

He nodded. His heart had suddenly stopped beating correctly in his chest, but there was no better time than now for them to have this conversation. It would have to happen sooner or later. Better to know whether he should be working on contingency plans or, well . . . on moving plans.

The unexpected weight of that thought must have shown on his face, because Edeena drained her champagne flute, then eyed him over the rim. “You don’t have to go through with this, Vince.”

“Edeena.”

“No, let me talk. I’ve been preparing for an arranged marriage of one type or another since I was ten years old and my father first told me about the curse. He’d told me how his generation didn’t fit the criteria to solve it, but mine did, and when the time came, that would be that.” She released a long sigh. “So while I could never have predicted the events of today, I . . . well, I was ready for them, in a way. You weren’t. All of that happened so quickly, there’s no way I will hold you to a mar—an engagement to me.”

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