Page 95 of Unraveled
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know . . .”
Ash’s expression softens. “Mia, I don’t blame you for trying to escape whatever way you could. You knew nothing about me or Morla, and I hadn’t given you a reason to be on my side. It’s not your fault.”
The weight in my chest loosens, and my affection for him blooms warmly in my heart. I glare at the grimoire on glamours, the one Morla wrote, and think back on the roses that allowed me out of my room all those times.
She’s remarkable at spell crafting—I give her that much.
But there must be a weak spot even to hers, because when crafting an enchantment, the spell master must weave into the strands a way to reverse it. My skin tingles as adrenaline rushes through me.
The hybrids will come under a blood moon to the unseelie halls. Plural.
One to cast the curse—one to break it.
“What if only a hybrid can break the curse? That may be why the roses turned and warned her I was there.”
“Mia...” His eyes pin me down right before he stands, and his tone turns reverent. “You’re brilliant.”
I may not be a master of spells or of glamours, but I’m going to break them out of this mess.
“There’s something else, and I need you to be truthful with me. Ash, does the curse spread through reflections?”
His whole body stiffens. “How did you?—?”
“There are no mirrors in the castle,” I blurt out. “Not here, or anywhere you frequent. At first I thought it odd, but then in Hedrum, I thought maybe it’s a detail woven into the curse to prevent you from breaking it. Perhaps the mirrors shatter when you’re nearby.”
“Mia”—There’s panic in his voice as he reaches for me, then brings me closer to him—“the mirrors aren’t the solution.”
I’m not sure I fully believe it.
I fight the need to fidget under his scrutiny. His expression settles into something intense and intimidating, and the apprehension shining through makes me sweat.Back in Hedrum, the grimoires said the wordsthe curse of mirrors.
Right when the monster made of shadows leaped out of the reflection and at me.
“Have you found one?” he asks.
I shake my head, even as Marlena’s mirror flashes through my mind. I tucked it inside my traveling trunk back at the manor, but all those things remain there. There’s no point in panicking him more when I don’t have it either way.
He lets out a breath. “Please, don’t look for one. The curse spreads through reflections, and the reason everyone in my life is dying, dead, or worse, is because I was foolish enough to not realize it.”
“But what if it spreads that way, and it’s also how we can break it?”
“No.” His voice is so harsh I snap my lips shut. “I will not watch you die cursed because you want to help me. You are important to me, and I’d rather you are safe, even if it means I remain this way.”
“But what if?—”
“Every human and hybrid affected by the curse died within a month,” he says. His eyes glide over my face. “There are no exceptions, Mia.”
“But Finley isn’t dying.”
“He’s never met the curse directly through reflection. The effects he feels are directly correlated to his connection to me.”
He doesn’t know that, back in Hedrum, I used my amulet to deflect his curse when it jumped at me. I may have broken my hairpin, but I still did it. I open my lips to tell him as much when the clopping of hooves over gravel echoes from outside.
Ash’s head snaps to the window, and he’s a blur of black feathers as he presses his entire face against the cloudy glass. The fog parts as a carriage enters through the metal gates out front. Finley and Nera are finally here.
By the time we’re outside, Finley’s already out of the carriage. His face is strained and filthy. There are scratches on his chin, and oil shimmers over his forehead and cheeks. The beasts pulling the carriage breathe loudly, foaming at their mouths while their reddish eyes pin me down. The glamour has faded, and they no longer look like stallions. Instead, long teeth protrude from their small snouts. Like a bald horse mixed with a boar.
“Finley, what happened?” Ash opens the secondary door, checking on Nera, who I presume is inside. I keep my distance from the beasts, my hair rising as they follow my every move.
