Page 83 of The Curse of a Kingdom
Orion pushed one of the chairs, the noise of metal scraping over the brick ground the only noise around them. His magic burst out of his fingertips. “You didn’t think of telling me that my—” He stopped himself and took a calming breath. His brother's challenging smirk was anything but apologetic. “You don’t care a thing about what could have happened to us if—”
“On the contrary, I’mforcedto care about your relationship,” Devon snarled and pushed off the chair, fixing his white cravat with both hands. “And for the record, I did tell her to tell you. Maybe that way, we would be out of this place by now.”
“Well, she didn’t, and I’m not leaving.”
Devon shrugged, walking around as he looked at the purple flowers that hung from the winding plant above them. “I’m sure she was mistaken to be afraid of your reaction—you are taking it quite well.”
A prickling sensation crawled down his spine, and he rubbed his fingers together, trying to calm his speeding heart. “I never wanted a soulmate, but I have wanted her every minute of the last four months, even when I thought she was your . . . bride-to-be.”
“Oh, the joy that gave me.” His eyes shone, and Orion didn’t know if he wanted to punch that smirk off his face or just keep asking questions. “The world gives you what all of us mundane people want, yet you are too good for it, as always.” Devon’s eyes blazed on him.
“I don’t need your passive-aggressive shit right now, Devon.”It was confusing to know what his real feelings toward Nava were when he now knew magic forced some into him. His need to cherish and protect her had been there since the first day. Those were magic-induced, right?
The way his heart skipped a beat when she smiled or his stomach dropped with her magic; her stubbornness drove him mad in the best and worst ways. Those were real. Orion wiped his hands over his face, pacing around.
What he felt had grown to more than something physical, more than good chemistry and desire. The way she challenged him, her sense of humor and laughter. He had been in awe of her magic and the beauty of what she truly was.
Too good for him to taint. She intrigued him, and it wasn’t just a magic-induced want. This was real.
Devon returned to the table, his dark gaze studying him before he lowered back into his chair. “Last year when we met, you didn’t want to be without her. As a matter of fact, you wanted to stay in that place.”
He didn’t want to be without her now either, but the man he’d been before . . . that was scarier than even the bond he had formed with Nava. Why had he stayed on the Grey Island and forgotten about his own duty?
Orion needed to protect a whole kingdom, yet he had forsaken them all.
The fact that he had gotten kidnapped from his own home said a lot about how relaxed he had become, not only putting himself in danger but Nava as a result. “I don’t want to remember who I was four months ago.”
Devon paused halfway in reaching for the forgotten cup. Lifting both brows, he faced him. “Are you saying you can remember if you choose to? Or is this more of a—”
“I was able to get a memory back a few days ago. I remember chasing them across the ocean to the Grey Island. I have an idea of what spell was used to fog my memories, and I could use some of the dreams I have had to unravel more.”
“But you don’t want to?”
“What kind of man would have stayed on an island full of deserters when this whole kingdom fell into despair because of it?” His voice grew heavy, and he remembered the ghost of his mother, burned and blackened. His heart soared with the need to find answers. “It’s likely I didn’t even set wards to protect Nava. I knew who I was and the fact that my father would come for me at some point, and I didn’t do anything to prevent it.”
Devon’s long, pale fingers wrapped around the handle of the cup. “Those were my exact thoughts last year. You grew soft there, brother.”
Orion nodded and sat on the chair with a heavy sigh. He needed to get the keys for the bracelets from the king. He didn’t claim to understand the ins and outs of how the magic worked in this kingdom, but with them, the king could track both Devon and, most importantly, Nava. He couldn’t get her out of this place and into temporary safety while she wore the bracelets.
* * *
The tree burned bright red. Hissing demons surrounded it. Its wide trunk trembled as the rolling flames devoured the previously green leaves with orange and yellow shades. She screamed, her throat raw from her pained cries and the burning smoke. Her skin blistered as the heat crept closer. But she was too weak to move against the ropes around her body.
Her voice soon gave away, breaking with pain so raw and unlike she had ever felt; however, deep within her soul, she was calm. While this was the end of this life, she had succeeded in a way. It had been a fool’s errand to come to this forest to make sense of this madness. To see if it was him after all. To have him call these demons away. Maybe her death would be what he needed to finally rest in peace.
Then darkness coiled in from the sides of her eyes. For a moment, she floated over the burnt tree in the forest, anger and sorrow stealing in her breaths, but she couldn’t moan out loud. She couldn’t reach those she loved anymore.
Her most beloved had killed her.
Orion inhaled, and it took him a panicked second to understand in the haze of sleep that he wasn’t really in that forest. Every inch of his body ached as if he had slept on the hard ground instead of his feather-filled mattress. It had been days since the nightmare of his mother’s passing had plagued his sleep.
He peeled the sheets from his sweaty skin, which felt like sand rubbing his body raw. The atmosphere of the room changed with a heaviness that lingered. He wished he could say it was the first time the suffocating sensation of being watched had loomed over him, but it happened right before the ghost of his mother appeared to haunt him.
Looking around the room with his heart beating in his throat, he expected the burnt corpse to appear in front of him at any moment now. But his room remained empty. He took another breath and rested his face in his open palms, wishing he knew better what the spirit wanted from him. It was known that spirits remained in this realm because their souls were restless and needed closure.
Orion had been grasping at straws. He’d considered he had been the one killing her, the heir born sick. But how could he have, when he’d been just a toddler when she’d been killed, and on another continent? Her last thought was always that her most beloved one had killed her—could that be his father?
The sun rose behind the banisters of his balcony, tinting the sky in gold tones as the warmth hit his face. It was too early for most in the castle to be up, and the scent of smoke lingered in the room—could be his mother somehow or an impending attack from the demons.
