Page 25 of Of Curses and Beauty

“You sent her away,” Alaine finished for him.

“I tried to. The guards must have underestimated her. She broke free from their grasp and the second she touched me, I was transported here.” He dropped his head in his hands and when he spoke again, his voice was muffled. “I’ve considered my decision every day for over three hundred years, but I’m not sure there ever was a choice. If I wasn’t trapped in a cottage, I’d be trapped in a marriage. I was cursed from the first moment I sent her away. From that action forward, my life was not my own.”

Daric sighed, feeling like a great burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He lifted his head to meet Alaine’s gaze, contemplative where he expected to see pity.

“What are you thinking?” He knew it wasn’t his place to pry, but he constantly wanted to know what was going on behind those deep brown eyes.

“It might be nothing, but,” Alaine bit her lip, considering. “If my face was restored and you can speak about your past, maybe the curse is broken?”

The hope in her voice nearly broke him.

“I thought you liked it here,” he joked, trying to lighten the mood. He wouldn’t admit how much it hurt him to think of her leaving.

“I did. I mean, I do,” she backtracked. “It’s just with the witch showing up, I’ve come to realize how much we are just pawns in her game. I guess it takes the fun out of it.”

The right side of her mouth turned up in a semblance of a smile, but Daric recognized the effort behind it and matched it with one of his own. He sensed she was only telling him part of the truth, but he let the matter fall. This was as good a time as any to tell her of his latest bargain with the witch. Maybe her mood would improve if she knew her sentence was only temporary.

“Alaine, I want you to know that I—” Daric choked, neck spasming as he tried to dislodge the words that stuck in his throat.

Alaine jumped to her feet, a look of concern creasing her brow as he coughed violently. Rushing to his side, she thumped him on the back until the fit subsided into great heaving gasps. He wiped the tears from his eyes and gratefully accepted a glass of water that Alaine proffered, nodding his thanks before taking several large gulps.

By the time he regained most of his composure, Alaine had resumed her seat, concern still pulling at the corners of her eyes. He ran his fingers through his hair and groaned when he realized what had happened. “It would seem the rules of the game have changed.” Of course, he wouldn’t be able to tell her. By changing the parameters of their agreement, he’d altered what could be considered pertinent information.

He stewed in silence as he considered what this new information meant for them, but something niggled at the back of his mind, something off.

He studied Alaine anew. Something had changed in the hours since he’d seen her last. When they’d bid farewell, she had been disturbed, but amicable, nothing like the cold and distant woman who had emerged from her room today.

“How is it that you came to know of my title?” he asked as casually as he could muster.

Alaine kept her eyes downcast as she answered. “The witch visited me this morning.”

“What?” Daric exploded out of his chair, clenching and unclenching his fists. He knew he should have stayed with her last night. His desire to maintain decorum had kept him from imposing, but the idea of the witch coming to her when she was alone in her room had him seeing red.

“It wasn’t exactly a visit, per se,” Alaine clarified. “She appeared to me in my looking glass.”

Daric’s feet moved of their own volition as he stalked from one corner of the room to the other, the distance too short to take the edge off his anger. He was a caged beast and he wanted blood. “Did she say why she came to you?”

“Not in so many words,” she hedged.

“Alaine!” His frustration was a palpable thing, like a small child repeatedly poking at a sore spot. “What did she want?”

In response, Alaine thrust her jaw forward, glaring at him with the force of a thousand suns. If he hadn’t been so afraid for her at that moment, he would have stopped to admire the expression. No other could make him contemplate his life choices with one look alone.

He rushed toward her, reaching to touch her, to assure himself of her safety. It was the first time he’d reached for her in urgency since that first day. He’d almost forgotten her reaction then, but this time, he froze no more than a handbreadth from her, rendered completely immobile by shock as she flinched from him.

Chapter 22

Alaine

“Whohurtyou?”Daric’svoice was lethally calm as she opened her eyes to find him frozen mere inches away.

“What are you talking about? No one hurt me.” She couldn’t understand why he was having this reaction. “The witch just talked to me. She wasn’t even really there in the room. I think it was—”

“No,” he interrupted her rantings. “In your past, at home, in your town, wherever it happened, someone has hurt you. This—” he gestured to her tense, fetal-like position, “is not normal.”

She forced her limbs to relax, placing her hands in her lap and willing her trembling legs to still. How could she tell Daric about Baxter? Daric was everything Baxter was not, but Baxter existed in the real world. In her short life, she’d known more men to be like Baxter than Daric. “It’s—”

“Don’t you dare tell me it’s nothing.” Though his voice still held a hint of the anger simmering beneath the surface, his brows creased in concern.

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