Page 84 of Fate's Sweetest Curse
Failing his father and the Mighty.
Failing the mission of his Order.
Failing Phina with his inability to alchemize a cure.
But seeing the cold shock on Hattie’s face in the training yard with Oderin today—fear and betrayal and disbelief—thatwas his worst failure yet.
He knew he shouldn’t have showed up at Hattie’s sparring session. Knew it was a bad idea when he contacted Oderin, arrived at the training yard, when Hattie had picked up her sword. The problem wasn’tknowing better. It was the fact that apparently, he no longer had any Fates-damned self-control. Not when it came toher.
All his life, he’d tried to do the right thing by keeping his true feelings from her, but no amount of logic or self-loathing could dull his desire. In the gardens two nights ago, he’d tried to keep his hands off her, but her skin had looked so soft. At the sight of Hattie’s goosebumps, her blush, her arousal…his resolve had simply snapped.
He’d given her a chance to change her mind, to ask himnotto share how he truly felt, but she’d demanded his truth anyhow. He’d found he could no longer deny her, so he’d been honest with Hattie for the first time in their lives.
And today, she’d learned just how wretched he truly was.
An actual monster.
Just the sight of the black blood welling on his skin had been enough to awaken the cruel, awful curse inside of him. He’d had to leave immediately—not just to protect his secret and spare himself a little humiliation, but to keep the curse from taking over, as it did in his nightmares.
Even now, as Noble wove his way through the streets of Fenrir—following the quickest path back to the Royal Inn—his fingertips ached with the threat of claws. But not once did he remove his hand from the shameful blood beneath his palm.
When he burst through the door of his room, he quickly closed himself inside, rushing over to the newest vials Phina had given him. Hattie’s Black Lace tincture. He ripped the cork out of the bottle with his teeth and drank the purple liquid in three gulps. Then he gritted his molars, waiting for the Hylder’s influence to take hold. He counted to twenty, thirty.
Finally, the abomination in him slackened, falling again into slumber.
Noble wasted no time. Still shaking with adrenaline, he went to the small wash basin in the corner, and—doing his best not to look too closely—rinsed the beads of coagulating black blood off his arm. Then he swiftly wrapped a bandage around the cut, biting one end of the cloth to tighten the knot.
When he was done, he sank to his knees on the floor, buried his face in his hands, and growled into his palms.
30
Blood and Orders
Hattie
You said there’s Gildium in cursed blood. How does that happen?”
Viren looked up from her bench in the enclosed infirmary courtyard, eyes widening slightly as I stormed toward her, still in my sparring clothes. All at once, the sounds of the peaceful garden—birds chirping, bees buzzing, the distant clamor of the city beyond the surrounding buildings—faded until all I heard was my own panting.
It’d been a hot, exasperating walk from the Castle Might training yard to the Collegium campus.
“What have you heard?” Viren asked.
It wasn’t what I’d heard, but what I’dseen: Noble’s blood,cursed. I wasn’t afraid; I was fuming. I wanted to knowhow. I wanted to fix it. I wanted to protect him from—Fates, from what? Himself?
Your identity isn’t the only thing that makes this dangerous, Hattie.
I’d assumed he’d been referring to the research program and the attempt on Viren’s life, but now…
I buried my face in my hands. “Fuck,” I groaned.
Viren’s infirmary slippers scuffed against the gravel path as she slowly made her way to standing. “Hattie. What do you know?”
“I’m not sure,” I said into my hands. “I think I know evenlessthan I did before.”
“Before what?”
I lowered my hands and met her worried brown eyes. “I don’t think I should say.”
