Page 45 of Heirs of the Cursed

“Keep your voice down,” Bassel whispered, holding up one of his dark hands. “They could be wandering around the tents.”

“Well, I hope our seer has some decency and sticks her crystal ball up their—”

At the sight of a young woman walking toward them, Darcia interrupted her girlfriend, “Sadie!”

Sadira smiled jubilantly at her. She was still wearing an apron stained with flour and chocolate, and in her hands, she held a silver tray with nothing but crumbs.

“I wanted to bring you the leftovers from the bakery,” her friend laughed, “but I ran into the children and . . .”

“They ate them all,” Bassel finished for her. He walked over to her and gave her a soft kiss on the forehead. “I believe you, sister. It’s the intention that matters.”

She rolled her eyes before hugging both her brother and her best friends. As they parted, she looked at Darcia with a worried grimace.

“Are you okay? You look paler than usual.”

“She hasn’t been sleeping,” Caeli answered before Darcia could think of a lie.

“Nor eaten,” Bassel added.

“And I bet she hasn’t drunk any water either,” Sadira said with an arched eyebrow.

Darcia glared at them. “It’s not that.”

“Yes, it is,” her girlfriend replied. “You barely speak these days. You move by inertia and even your shows, incredible as they are, seem designed out of tiredness.”

Darcia wanted to object, but the words left her before she could speak them aloud. Bassel must have noticed the hundreds of emotions she was trying to conceal, for he leaned closer to her and stroked her back.

“Tell us, what’s troubling you?”

She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to tell them about her dreams and tribulations, afraid that they would want to know more. All that the curse of stone and shadows, the Fallen Kingdom, and the Dark Twins promised was chaos that would sweep through Laivalon if no one found a way to stop it.

Gion had always told her that fear was a difficult disease to eradicate, and she didn’t want to be the one to spread it among the people she loved. Nor did she wish to lie to them. So Darcia looked once more at the faces of the people who had been with her all along, at her family, before daring to tell them the truth.

“Lately, I’ve been thinking of the curse and the missing princesses. Of what it means that they are nowhere to be found while the world perishes.”

“Perhaps that is their intention,” Bassel said, tense. “To destroy those who betrayed their family.”

Sadira frowned as she asked, “Why would they want to destroy Lên Rajya?”

“Kirus has been an enemy of the Boreaalinen family for a long time now.” Caeli twirled the braided bracelet on her wrist. “And revenge is served on a cold plate. There are debts that must be settled, in one way or another.”

“I still find it hard to believe that there are hearts so dark that they would accept the death of innocents in order to punish their enemies,” Sadira replied.

“The world is cruel,” Darcia said, “and there is nothing more dangerous than a heart torn by hatred.”

Silence embraced them with the coldness of a treacherous lover.

“The king’s soldiers won’t stop until they have killed the princesses,” Bassel voiced their deepest fears.

“That’s what worries me.” Darcia admired the circus through the raffia of the tent; children scampered about and laughed as the adults tried to send them to sleep. The people seemed cheerful, but she could sense their uneasiness. “I worry that such hatred will overtake us all and that we won’t be able to help anyone.”

If that were to happen, darkness would rise, and only light would be able to stop it once and for all.

Darcia walked in silence with a troubled mind. She’d spent some time playing cards and marbles with the children, and read them one of the many stories they loved so much. When the sun set, she accompanied her friends and girlfriend safely home and left for the cabin.

The crickets’ chirping slowly faded into an eerie silence, the night aware of her presence. Darcia hugged herself against the cold and did her best to ignore the gusts of wind heralding the new storm that would sweep through the city.

When the sound of branches snapping behind her reached her ears, she stopped in her tracks, alert. It wasn’t unusual to encounter animals in Ferus Woods; from wild boars to deers, wolves and rabbits, they always appeared and fled in a hurry. But this time, the sounds were different, too heavy to belong to an animal.

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