Page 55 of The Cursed Kingdom

Blood rushes through my ears, and after a long, tense second, Mason releases me.

I rip my arm to my chest, ignoring the sharp pain that shoots up my elbow. At this rate, there won’t be an uninjured part of me left by the time we reach the portal.

“Watch yourself,” Mason murmurs, his voice low and deadly.

I turn away, hurrying back to Kie.

Lesson learned.

Chapter Twenty-One

KIERAN

THE HUMAN IS too slow.

Mason shouldn’t have pinned her to the ground so violently when she tried to run. Her knees are injured, and she’s struggling to keep up. Her feet drag against the ground, too, leaving clear tracks behind.

Mason is doing his best to cover the evidence of her footsteps, hiding our trail from any shifters who may come across it, but I can tell by his quiet huffs that he’s having a hard time. We can be quick, or we can be efficient, but there isn’t time for both.

It’s only a matter of time before word spreads that we’re in the forest and the shifters come looking. This mission is dangerous, so much so that it borders on being idiotic, but it’s our only opportunity. I won’t be granted leave from the capital once I’m crowned, and the shifters are gaining strength with each passing day.

Zahahasto help.

The shifters are the ones who kidnapped and tortured Lyra, but the faeries are paying the price. Zaha was blinded by anger when she destroyed the shifter kingdom, turning it intodeadlands even the bravest shifters don’t dare to enter. She had to have known the shifters would flee to the Redstall Forest, that they’d claim lands the faeries have rightfully owned for thousands of years.

Her rash decision ruined over a hundred years of tentative peace between the faeries and shifters. Caspian Verlice was a bloodthirsty, power-hungry alpha, and he was a fool to do what he did to Lyra. Everybody knows how protective Zaha is of her youngest sister.

I won’t let the cruel decisions of Mason’s great-grandfather weigh down my people any longer, though. The shifters are cultivating and harvesting delysum, cultivating the wildflower into a weapon I fear will be enough to kill us.

It kills magic, destroys every bit it touches, and we can’t let it continue.

Zaha may be unwilling to return the deadlands to its once-beautiful, habitable landscape, but there’s no reason she can’t stop the growth of delysum. She’s the one who created the flower in the first place, for fuck’s sake.

Every decision she’s made has hurt my people, and I’m hoping she’ll be willing to reverse some of them. I’m hoping offering her Abby will put her in good spirits. She loves humans—all the gods do.

Abby trips over something, an action she’s begun doing with frustrating frequency. I know she’s exhausted, but we need to keep moving.

Every minute we’re delayed is a minute for the shifters to find our whereabouts and attack. I doubt they’d kill Mason, but they wouldn’t hesitate to rip the human’s and my throats out.

Her slow, clunky movements are a liability, and I’m beginning to wonder if keeping her around is worth it. I believe Zaha will be genuinely pleased to receive a gift from us, but it doesn’t mean anything if we die before we reach the portal.

I turn, peering at Abby over my shoulder. Her face is red, and her chest heaves with each inhale. She looks like shit.

“Do you need to be carried?” I ask.

Carrying her is low on my list of desire, but I fear it’s the only solution. There’s no magic this deep into the forest, and I can already feel the beginnings of withdrawal, but Abby is light. I had no issue carrying her when she was under the influence of Mason’s drugs, and I’m not unwilling to do it again.

I’d prefer her being asleep for it, though. It feels too intimate otherwise.

Abby scoffs. “No.”

She sounds offended by the mere suggestion, which isn’t surprising. She’s not making many efforts to hide her dislike for us, not that I blame her. I wouldn’t be pleased if I were in her position, but that’s not my problem.

She shouldn’t have entered the forest. Everybody knows not to enter the forest, and had she been anything but a human, she’d already be dead. Mason and I don’t need the distraction, and killing her would’ve been the easiest and quickest option.

I’m sure Mason still believes it is. He doesn’t think Zaha will be influenced by the gift, but he doesn’t understand just how much the gods love their treasures. Humans are sought after, and Zaha will be pleased.

On the off chance Zaha doesn’t want the human, we’ll do what needs to be done. Mason is correct in saying that it’s a more humane outcome than allowing Abby to be given to one of Zaha’s brothers.

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