Page 94 of Unraveled
“I didn’t want the hybrids to die, Mia, and if I was going to take the throne, I wanted the guards to know I didn’t stand behind my father’s beliefs. So, I met her gaze and took her instead. Those we take live long lives, like Finley. And Skye was a partner and a friend for many years.”
So they were close, and I don’t need to be jealous of a relationship that clearly ended in flames. But my heart is foolish. I stand from the table, reaching for the grimoire that remains on the floor. As soon as I touch it, it zaps me with electricity. Shaking my hand, I try to move past the cramping left behind by the book’s outburst.
“Did you love her?” My heart pounds as I meet his eyes.
“Not the way she wanted.” There’s a softness in his expression that tells me more than words. He cared for her deeply. He just wasn’t in love. So when he says, “That was the problem,” I know things got very complicated and very sad. I don’t need, or want, to hear the details.
But now I know the cause of the curse. A broken heart.
“When did you learn she worked with the strix?” I ask, but he shakes his head.
Not a question he can answer, or perhaps he doesn’t know. He has told me a few times her betrayal blindsided him.
“Skye used to hide in the garden while my father hosted dances. She loved to spy on the fae, study our behaviors when we were acting our wildest. Once, a couple of high fae found her snooping on their business, so they paralyzed her and hid her body amongst the statues. She was so pale, it took us an entire day to find her.” Ash sighs, dragging a hand over his face and kneeling by my side, picking the book up from the floor where I left it. “Funny how she made sure my people turned into statues when the curse took them.”
So it seems Morla wove details of her life into the spell she created. The statues, the roses...
I press my lips together and try to sort through all my questions as I study the cover of the book she wrote.
“Did she teach you how to glamour yourself into something else?”
“Yes. She was fantastic at it.”
There it is, my old friend jealousy, poking her ugly head back in. I shift my gaze away as I stand and try to hide the horror of the thoughts plaguing my mind. Because I’m not truly great at anything. I can’t control my magic without an amulet. I couldn’t please my father, or my sister, even when I tried.
So instead of obsessing over an old friend Ash didn’t love, and what that may mean for me, I shift my thoughts to something else. Something I’m good at. And that is coming up with theories. Solving problems.
“What about the roses?”
“What about them?”
“Do you think they’re a way to spy on you? Make sure you aren’t close to breaking the curse? What if they changed color because I triggered some sort of fail-safe?”
“Yes, I think they’re something just like that. And when you touched the roses, they sent out a wave of almost-undetectable power that created a fissure in the wards around the castle grounds.”
My mouth feels like it’s full of sand. I remember it like it was yesterday. Finley left for Hedrum shortly after, and I escaped my room that night at twilight, using the same roses, after Morgana told me about the slumber.
I pause as I pull at an errant string on the sleeve of the gown Nera gave me. Because I never got the dresses Morgana promised.
“Ash, did you send a lunargyre to my room to fit me with new clothes?”
Ash strolls to the table and drops into a chair. Shame tints his features as he shakes his head. “I wanted to, but we lost our tailor a couple of years ago to the curse. Finley promised there were enough gowns in the closet for you to use.”
Could it have been Morla who came to me then? My heart rate speeds up, and I’m sweating all over.
“A lunargyre, or at least that’s what I thought she was, came to my room and told me you sent her to fit me for a new wardrobe. She’s who told me about the slumber...”
It’s Ash’s turn to lose all color from his face. “That’s how you knew.”
“I didn’t want Morgana to get in trouble, so when you asked me how I learned about the slumber, I didn’t tell you.”
His knuckles turn white as he fists his hand, golden power licking his fingers. “Did she try to hurt you?”
I shiver as I recall her undoing the knots in my hair with her long fingernails. After a moment of going over everything that happened, I shake my head.
“Damn her,” he says, and lets out a shaky breath. “Her betrayal has weakened her bond with me, but whatever remains makes it so neither Naheli nor I can feel her coming through the wards. That’s why we needed the crystal.”
And why Finley was in such a hurry to leave.
