Page 36 of Courting Envy
She tucked her head against my shoulder, one of her horns perilously close to ripping open my cheek, but I didn't want to move her. I liked her right here, with me.
"I feel so weak," she mumbled. Her body relaxed against mine, exhaustion making it impossible for her to keep fighting. My heart clenched because I had done this to her. Made her this way.
"Your magic lies in Envy, sweet one. The moment you stepped outside you were stripped of everything that can keep you safe and strong."
Her body shook. It took me a moment to realize that she was sobbing. "So, I'm literally trapped here until this stupid fucking curse is broken."
I squeezed her harder, pressing a kiss against her hair. Why had I not been fixated on how to break the curse? Part of me had thought that just finding the right woman would be enough; clearly, it wasn’t. I had to say something to make this better. Even a little.
"Not trapped, but safe. Envy wants you." I swallowed the lump in my throat. "I want you. And I want to break this curse so that you can go and see your sister. I just don't know how."
She looked up at me then, eyes full of sorrow and anger. "Maybe you should have tried to figure that out before you brought me here. Take me back." Rava closed her eyes then, and I feared that I'd lost her for good.
Chapter twenty-one
Rava
Iclosedthedoorbehind Lucien and leaned against it.
Part of me wanted him to knock, to demand to enter, to wrap those strong arms around me again and tell me that this was all going to be okay.
Even if it wasn't.
His gentle touch, his obvious sorrow at inflicting this on me went some way to softening my heart toward him. But this curse was holding me captive, and we had no idea how to break it.
I let the grief swallow me then, devour me from the feet up. I felt it travel over every inch of my skin and drag me to the ground like it was a physical thing. The tears flowed and I hated myself for feeling so fucking weak and pathetic, but it felt like there was nothing I could do to change my fate.
The ache in my chest was growing too, the one that said there was something seriously wrong with Marie.
"What are you doing?"
Kyveli.
I forced myself to sitting and stared up at her.
"Don't you ever knock?" I asked, wiping my cheeks with the back of my hands. "It would be nice to have some privacy."
"I promise never to walk in on you in the bathroom, or while you're having sex with someone, if that helps?" The shadow woman cocked her head, the darkness around her trailing off into smoke as she became more solid and crouched in front of me. "But really, what are you doing?" Her pale eyes were vibrant in the dull light of the room, compelling me to speak the truth that had broken me.
"I just learned for sure that I can't leave this damned place. At least, not until the curse is broken."
Her eyes narrowed slightly. "And what are you doing to break that curse?"
I frowned and shook my head. "It's not my curse, it's Lucien's."
"It's really more like a curse on all of Hell. Every circle, every son, every queen." Kyveli stood and reached a hand down to me. "You're a queen, aren't you?"
Huffing out a breath, I gripped her hand and let her pull me up. "I am, technically, a queen."
"And yet you were just sobbing on the floor."
"You're very good at telling me what's obvious," I said, letting go of her. "I'm upset. I'm worried about my sister. Things might seem very cut and dry to you, but I'm not you. I'm me." I walked away from her, shrugging off the cloak which was clearly just a normal cloak now. All the invisibility must have leeched from it when I went through the portal.
My legs were still wobbly and fatigue weighed on me heavily. I couldn’t feel a single spark of my magic and for some reason that just added to my grief.
Kyveli walked behind me. She reached out and grabbed my shoulder, spinning me around so that we were face to face. That flush of desire I felt every time she touched me rushed back in, even though I didn't want it right now. I wanted to be angry at her too, to shun them all and be free from the stupid attachments I'd formed here.
"I know your head still tells you that you're human, but you're not," she said. All of her shadows dropped away, as if she wanted me to see the expression on her face. It was fierce and full of fire and passion. "You're a fucking queen, and it's time that you acted like it. You're part of Hell. Part of Envy. Part of me, and Lucien, and even Reon. I can see the tethers between us all even if you're intent on ignoring them. Why won't you just accept it?"
