Page 144 of Fate's Sweetest Curse
I looked up at her through tearful eyes. “What?”
She inclined her head in Noble’s direction.
I looked down at him, searching for the remnants of the man I knew. Long lashes fanned out over a gaunt face. Gnarled antlers protruded from the soft waves of his hair. The smooth skin of his neck was streaked with thin black veins.
Only…the veins weren’t just black. They wereflickeringwith gold, flashing like lightning beneath the surface of his skin, as if his blood were…changing.
I sat up a little taller, watching the scintillating light travel through his veins. Mariana reached forward again, finding his pulse point, and she flinched when she found it. I watched as his skin gradually cleared of the black webbing entirely, his sickly gray pallor returning to his usual warm brown coloring.
“That’s it,” I encouraged, voice breaking. “That’s it, Noble, come back. Come back to me.”
A startlingcrackhad me jumping to my feet, stumbling backward, colliding with Mariana. She gripped me by the middle, holding me upright as I watched Noble’s body begin to transform in reverse: antlers breaking off and crumbling into dust, legs shrinking down to their normal sizewith a series of sickening snaps, claws dulling to form regular nails again, wounds healing at a rapid pace. The Oath tattoo around his neck faded and disappeared.
Each new change in Noble’s appearance was like the pierce of a needle, a timid, anticipatory relief stitching my heart back together. Breathing became a little easier. I leaned into Mariana, allowing her to take my weight as I watched Noble turn back into himself.
As silence filled the clearing once more, I heard Brendan stirring over by his tent.
“Fucking bastard,” he growled.
Mariana released me. I didn’t follow her path toward Brendan; I kept my eyes trained on Noble, watching as his chest jerked with a breath. Then another. When his breathing leveled out, I sank to my knees beside him again and placed my palm over his heart.
It thudded against my hand in a steady rhythm.
He hadn’t opened his eyes yet, and his breaths were shallow, but his body…his body washisagain. Familiar, perfect,human.
I let out another sob, this one of pure, unbridled relief.
It worked—not just containment, but acure.
Ihad solved the curse.
A strangled, “Hey!” punctured the quiet, followed by a swift smack and a thud. A quick glance over my shoulder showed Mariana standing over Brendan’s unconscious body, shaking out her fist.
She smirked at me.
I huffed a laugh.
Then my gaze caught on the horizon behind her.
Dawn was approaching, a soft paling in the east; washes of light blue and apricot swept across the sky, dimming the stars.
And there, on the hillside, were the silhouettes of countless horses and riders. Their armor glinted gold; bannermen brandished the Maronan flag.
General Kalden Asheren’s regiment.
51
Dream
Noble
Noble’s life had never felt like his own.
When he was a boy, his days had revolved around preparing him for proper society—a dream of his mother’s, while his father climbed the ranks in Marona’s branch of the Order of the Mighty.
When he was an adolescent, and his father was promoted into King Braven’s inner circle, Noble’s existence had then centered on training to become a Mighty Knight, himself—a dream of his father’s.
When he’d entered the Order of the Morta, of course, his existence had been all but forfeit.
