Page 94 of Cursed

“You dare take my name from me,” she hissed. “I am the Mistress of Withermarsh—”

She was confused—did she know she was dead? Did she know what had happened?

My heart hammered in my chest as she reached one of her clawed hands toward me. I struggled against the instinct to flee. A part of me screamed to unleash my powers to bind or banish her shade before it lashed out at me. But something kept me rooted in place until her icy fingernails grazed my cheek.

The chill of death seeped into my skin, a bone-deep freeze that made me gasp.

“I need answers,” I choked out. Shadows and steam danced like wild phantoms around her naked form and my hands curled into fists at my sides. Magic thudded under my skin as my nails dug deep into my palms.

The specter laughed—a horrifying sound that shattered any illusion of familiarity between us. Her laughter echoed in the cavernous room and bounced off the cold tiles.

“Answers?” she flung the word back at me. “What answers do you think you deserve?”

“Who did this to you?” I blurted out. “Who—”

A sudden, brutal wave of emotion tore the words from my lips. Julia’s black eyes shone with a devastating intensity, her gaze colder than the fierce winds that howled outside Withermarsh’s tall, stone walls. She was wrath incarnate in this limbo between the living and the dead, and her beauty had been twisted into something unrecognizable and deadly.

“Who?” she mocked, a scornful laugh echoing off the tub’s porcelain walls. “Who woulddare? Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you know who comes to my bed at night?”

I swallowed hard.

She was dead. No one came to her bed now.

My mother’s eyes narrowed as she focused on me. “Maybe it wasyou— You stole my life so you could steal him away from me—”

Her words seared me, scorching me with their severity. My throat tightened at her contemptuous tone. The room seemed to blur around her as she floated there in the scarlet water, a spectral queen on her bloody throne.

The gusts of cold seemed to intensify as she extended an arm toward me once more. Her thin fingers ended in viciously sharp nails, inches from my face. I could feel the wisps of her power brushing against my skin, buttery soft but tinged with a darkness that made my own magic recoil instinctively. Remnants of the magic that had been ripped from her corpse as she choked on her last breath.

Her power had dimmed— But she was still dangerous.

Julia’s shade sneered down at me. “Don’t deny it,” she hissed. “I can smell Romano magic on you— You’re... stained by it. Is this what you’ve become,daughter?” The shade’s voice sliced through the heavy air, sharp as glass. “A pathetic little girl, clinging to shadows in a desperate attempt to take my place? So you can be a willing whore kneeling at Lucian’s feet?”

Her words struck like physical blows, and each accusation twisted in my gut. I flinched despite myself, and my mother’s face contorted in triumph.

I swallowed hard and forced myself not to look away from her burning gaze.

“That’s not true,” I managed, but desperation clawed at my throat. “I’m not—”

“Oh, but you are,” the shade breathed. “I can see it in your eyes— You’ve debased yourself with those men… Traded away the only thing that was valuable—”

“Shut up,” I snapped. “You don’t understand— You’redead.”

“And youstoleeverything from me,” the shade hissed back. “My life— My power— Everything—”

The room tightened around me and the shadows flickered like restless spirits drawn to her anger. The steam from the bath curled with malicious intent and wrapped around my limbs. I batted them away and took a step back.

The bitter chill sank deeper into my bones, and every shuddering breath I managed to draw into my lungs made me hate her.

“Stop!” I shouted, and desperation unleashed the power inside me that made me stand straighter, my feet firm on the tiles. “I’m not afraid of you!”

But the shade just laughed at my words and her laughter was hollow and cutting. “Oh,daughter. Youshouldbe. There is only one punishment for betrayal—”

Fear shot through me. “I didn’t betray you,” I cried. “How can you say that?”

But instead of a reply, she lunged forward, a wraith of rage. Her malevolence and dark intent filled the air. My magic reared up inside me as instinct screamed for me to defend myself.

Time slowed as my mind raced, all thoughts converging on a singular point of focus. I raised my hands and felt the pulse of my magic thrumming beneath my skin. “Bybloodandwill, your wrath I chain— Ibindyou!” My voice rang out in the room.

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