Page 58 of Beneath the Cursed Veil

“Maeve was incredibly gifted, even as a child. Her power was the kind that hadn’t been seen in living memory. When she started to go through the passage, my father gave her an amulet. No one knew that it was spelled,” he said, staring at her statue. The way he looked at her made me think he was reliving that day. He cleared his throat. “He siphoned her power to kill the furies. With a single command, the entire race went extinct, apart from my mother and myself. He didn’t believe I would harm him, and he’d chosen to poison my mother instead. He claimed it was because he loved her and wanted her to have the chance to say goodbye. My sister wasn’t given the option. Once he killed the furies, he could have stopped, but instead he chose to drain her to the very end. It was her power that allowed him to curse the land as he died.”

My heart broke for him. I could have sworn there was a crack that sounded. “But why? If he killed all the furies . . .”

Vareck shook his head. “As the only living Einar, I would inherit the crown. He died at the end of my sword, and he cursed Faerie to punish me.”

I let out a stuttered breath. My eyes blurred as water filled them. I tried to blink back thetears, drawing him into focus again. “It’s not your fault,” I whispered. “The curse. Their deaths. None of this is on you. If anything, you were the greatest victim of all. To lose your family all at once,” I shook my head. One of the tears fell and turned to ice partway down my cheek. “I’m so sorry.”

Vareck kneeled down, wiping the snow off the plaques with their names. He remained there, his arm resting across his thigh while he stared at the quote beneath his mother’s name.

Spring will come on shadowed wings.

“Is it a part of a poem in her honor?”

“Those were her final words to me. She said it was how to break the curse.” My heart jolted. If the curse were broken, the entire kingdom wouldn’t be on the brink of starvation. My family could come back home. That tiny ember of hope winked out when logic kicked in. If he knew how to break the curse, he would have, and the sorrow in his eyes told me what I already knew.

“Nobody knows what it means, do they?”

With a single shake of his head, he stood up, dusting the snow off himself. “I’ve sought out fortune tellers, soothsayers, oracles, and witches. Not one of them understands it and I don’t know how to find the answer.”

A thought occurred to me. It was a stretch, but worth trying.

“What if I could help?” I murmured, thinking through it as I spoke. “I don't know if it's possible. But at first, I thought my powers could only help me find objects. Then I learned it could find a person. Maybe there is a way for me to use my power to find the answer? It's not a concrete thing I can search for, but maybe if I figure out how to ask the right questions, it can lead me to where we need to go.”

Vareck’s eyes were cautious as he thought about what I’d suggested. “Would this be something we do together?”

I bit my lip. “After we find Damon.”

“You’re trying to leave again.”

I shook my head, trying to find the words to explain. “I am used to working alone. I took a job I shouldn't have simply because I wasn't willing to ask my family for help, and I wasn't willing to throw in the towel on a business that's been sucking me dry. I'm the epitome of ‘I can carry my own fridge.’”

“You’ve lost me now.”

“It's just a saying in the human realm. It means that something is heavy, and you shouldn't be lifting it by yourself, so you should ask for help from people you trust. It’s a metaphor. Instead of asking for help, I am more likely to find a way to carry it myself.”

“What’s that have to do with you leaving?”

“I’ve always done things by myself. It’s not meant to be an excuse. It just is. To find Damon, I will need to leave again. But I’m coming to realize I may not need to carry the fridge on my own.” I gave him a sad smile. “Damon's the fridge in this scenario.”

“So we would do this together?”

I nodded. “Assuming you wanted to come with. I know you have kingly duties, but given you’re not keen on me leaving you behind, I’m guessing you do.”

Vareck stood slowly. “I do.” He dusted the snow from his gloves. “You can’t find him with the necklace on.”

I inclined my head, sensing his wariness. “I need my powers. Otherwise I’m no better than an amateur sleuth.”

“I want to trust you, Meera. I have a duty to my people and my kingdom, and he’s the heir. I don’t want to bring him back because I'm related to him. He's a twat and hisoverbearing mother has put him on a pedestal where he can do no wrong. Honestly, this might do him some good. Introduce him to hardship in the real world. Until he's willing to act like a man, he wouldn't make a good king. But he’s the only other Einar alive. I swore…” He stopped, looking up at the statues of Maeve and Lore before finishing his thought. “I swore I'd take care of our people. That I would put them first. This is difficult at the moment, because every instinct I have tells me to fuck everything and not let you leave. That if I remove the necklace, you’ll leave without a trace, and I’m not willing to let you go.”

Part of me wanted to rebel against the notion that he could keep me, and yet another part of me melted over the possessiveness of his admission. I blamed it on my romance books, bleeding into my reality. I had to shake it off. It was doing funny things to my decision-making skills.

“You’re not the only one with a promise to keep. I owe it to you and everyone else to bring Damon back. But I can’t find him without my power. “

He glanced down, rubbing his thumbs over my hands. After a suspended moment, he nodded to himself. “What if there was a way to do this?”

“Remove the necklace?” I was confused. He should be able to take it off me. The only one that can’t remove it is the one wearing it.

“That, but also ensure that you didn’t go back on your word.”

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