Page 61 of Fate's Sweetest Curse
“Volatile?” I supplied.
Her eyes lifted to mine. “Exactly.”
I leaned closer, dropping my voice to a whisper that was mostly breath. “Do you know why you were targeted?”
“What are you, a knight?” Viren joked.
I opened my mouth to protest, but then the tapping of footsteps outside Viren’s curtain faded, until no sound permeated the fabric. I immediately recognized the silence as an effect of sound magic. Anya did the same thing sometimes, shrouding us in a bubble of silence so we could discuss private matters without eavesdroppers.
“Look, I know you’re a curious person, Hattie, and a skilled Hylder alchemist, too, so for the sake of your own safety, I’m going to be frank,” Viren said, speaking at normal volume within the insulation of her magic. “I believe I was targeted by the Order of the Valiant.”
“The Order of…who?”
“The Valiant,” Viren repeated. “They’re a secret Order of Fenrir, tasked to eradicate the realm of cursed beings—abominations, they call them. Monsters.”
I swallowed hard, thinking of when Idris showed up at the Possum with black sludge on his hand, demanding an herb traditionally used for purging evil. Idris, a knight of an unknown Order. The same Order, I presumed, as Mariana’s.
Phina hadn’t confirmed it, but I wascertainthat monsters were the ultimate focus of this study. To know that Viren had come to a similar conclusion…after what’d happened, I didn’t want either of our theories to be correct.
“Monsters,” I whispered, “are a thing of myth.” They were empty words—said for comfort, not truth.
“Monsters are a weapon of war,” Viren countered, undeterred. “At least, that’s my hunch. Even third-year students don’t know much about the programs we assist. Limiting information stunts research, but it also keeps secrets contained.” She stared at me a moment, assessing. “You already knew they existed.”
“Why do you say that?”
Viren smirked. “You didn’t question the notion.”
“Here’s a question,” I said, leaning forward. “You’re telling me that there’s a secret Order of knights charged with fighting monsters, and they targetedyoubecause of your connection to Phina’s research?” I asked. “Are we not working tocurecurses? Wouldn’t that put us and the Valiant on the same side?”
Viren’s small mouth twisted into a tiny, knowing grin; apparently my question was proof enough of what I’d already uncovered. “No more monsters, no more Valiant Knights,” she said.
“You think they tried to kill you because our research would put them out of ajob?” Thatdidsound far-fetched.
“Not a job,” Viren said. “A sentence. Valiant Knights don’t take their Oaths voluntarily—it’s a punishment.”
I waved my hand as if to clear away that idea. There was no way Idris was a reformedcriminal—he was one of the kindest men I’d ever met.
Mariana, on the other hand… She fit the description. In more ways than one.
Yet Mariana had been there in the alley with Phina, demanding Hylder for the hooded figure. Why endeavor to help Phina’s mysterious friend,only to turn around and target one of her students? It didn’t make sense. Something was missing.
“Think about it, Hattie,” Viren continued. “Imagine you’re a criminal. You have a choice between dungeon or Oath. You choose Oath. Your Oath is dissolved…you go back to the dungeon. If we cure the curse, their Order becomes obsolete.”
My skin itched with anxiety, a slow march of horror swarming my senses like soldier ants. “But why would they targetyou, specifically? Why not another researcher? Why not Phina?”
Viren shifted against the pillows at her back, scooting more upright with a wince.
“The curse is in the blood,” I realized. “And your expertise is blood.”
She nodded weakly. “More specifically, I study the intersection of herbal alchemy and metal alchemy in healing. Weaving herbal magic into blood by binding it to iron.”
“Phina wants to alchemize monster blood with Hylder?”
“Precisely.”
I’d assumed we were merely making tinctures and potions with the herb, trying to refine Hylder’s potency for consumption. This was…farmore sordid. Blood alchemy wasn’t outright illegal, but itwashighly regulated—and though what Viren was describing wasn’tquiteblood alchemy, it was close. No wonder my Oath of Allegiance prevented me from revealing anything about Viren’s role in the research.
“Wait,” I said. “I thought Gildium was central to Phina’s research, not iron?”
