Page 142 of Cursed

Each tremor of her delicate hands sent jolts of fury racing through me.

What would happen to us—what would I lose—if I broke ranks and ran to the front of the room and pulled her away from Lucian?

Her gaze settled on me, then Bastian, and then Titus.

Silently pleading for help.

Fuck.

“Fuck,” Bastian whispered at the same time.

“Fuck,” Titus growled.

They remembered their initiations, too.

We couldn’t allow this to happen—not to her.

Initiation.

Confusion and fear streaked through me like lightning.

Lucian’s fingers were ice cold on my shoulders, his fingertips dug into my skin and I knew they would leave bruises.

Expectant faces stared up at me—the Black Council.

Lucian’s loyal followers.

They had watched my father die.

Probably in this very chamber,the grimoire whispered in my mind.

Titus, Valen, and Bastian stood at the back of the room. They leaned casually against the stone wall, gloating.

No.

No—Valen’s jaw was clenched. Bastian’s fists were tight at his sides, and Titus— Titus’ dark eyes glowed with anger.

I forced myself to lift my chin and blinked away the tears that stung my lashes.

“I asked you a question, my dear.” Lucian’s voice wound through my thoughts like a viper. “Do you recognize her?”

I did.

The young woman at the center of the circle, bound and on her knees, was a ghost from my past. A nightmare I had hoped to forget. Her long, pale hair fell in tangled waves around her shoulders, framing a face I could only remember being twisted with cruel laughter.

Clara Duvall.

A name I’d whispered in secret, a name that had set my heart racing with fear back at the Academy. She had delighted in tormenting me, and she had been far too adept at twisting every single insecurity I had into a weapon.

Even now, bound by dark magic, she glared at me with resentment and hatred in her cold blue eyes. But there was something else—fear. It flickered beneath her bravado, and for a moment, I felt a sickening rush of justification. Maybe this was justice. She had tormented me, shamed me, bullied me for my magic—and now it was my turn to wield power.

But— I couldn’t.

I wasn’t like her. I couldn’t become her.

“Well?”

Lucian’s voice was smooth and dark in my ear, and I realized that everyone in the chamber was looking at me.

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