Page 64 of The Curse of Ophelia

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Ophelia

Pressure. And pain.

The two alternated, cutting through the wave of oblivion until my entire body hurt.

The images came back to me. How I ended up sinking into this darkness. Teeth and claws, the wind on my face and Sapphire beneath me, the gleam on my blade as I slashed across fur.

Soothing hands caressed my face. They were gentle, beseeching. I wanted to lean into their touch and allow myself that moment of reprieve. But when a trickle of something warm ran down my temple I snapped to the present.

Someone was touching my face, where I was bleeding tainted blood.

No, no, no. No one could touch me.

My eyes opened. Tolek was leaning over me, worry creasing his battle-worn face. His cheeks were smeared with dirt, but he bore no obvious injuries. He looked into my eyes deeply, searching for a hint of life.

I was lying in the black sand of the tundra, trying to make sense of the mysterious way the sunlight streaked through the trails of smoke and organize my racing thoughts. My head was in Tol’s lap, resting on his uninjured thigh as his hand gently stroked hair away from the wound on my temple.

“Hey,” he said, his voice thick. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

I scrambled away from him. The movement sent a wave of pain through my body, and the black earth around me spun. “Don’t touch me,” I wheezed over the soot in my throat. Don’t touch my blood.

Rina halted where she had been dressing the wound in my side with strips of damp linen. My eyes went to her hands, and my stomach lurched. From finger to forearm, she shone crimson with my tainted blood. But she was human—she would be okay.

“Ophelia…” Relief vanished from Tolek’s eyes, replaced by pain. “What’s wrong?” He stretched a hesitant hand toward me, streaks of deep red across his palm and leathers. The world continued to tilt as I pushed myself to my hands and knees and emptied the contents of my stomach into the sand. Repeatedly.

I had worked so hard to conceal the Curse. To not only keep it from spreading, but to keep anyone from knowing. This was the result—my undeniably caring friend coming into contact with my blood with the intention of healing me. My already-broken heart was ripped in two, realizing what I’d condemned Tolek to. This was my failure.

Only when the bile had stopped stinging my throat did I raise my head and look around us to the empty landscape. The wolves’ bodies had vanished.

“Where did they go?” I asked through a mouth that tasted sour. Tolek’s cheeks drooped when I ignored him, but I could not face him yet.

“We don’t know,” Rina explained, still looking at me questioningly. “They went down as you did, and sank into the earth.” She uncapped a canteen and extended it to me. I thanked her, using it to rinse my mouth out. Everything was still so muddled.

As I had suspected, the wolves were connected to the volcano. When I had slayed the alpha, it took out the rest. The leader—

My thoughts froze as the full sequence of events came back to me. I spat water onto the black sand and cleared my throat, afraid to ask the next question. “Cypherion?”

Tolek only inclined his head, still silent. I squeezed my eyes shut to fight the stinging rising to them. Spirits, Cyph—

“I’m here,” a weakened, deep voice answered behind me.

I whirled toward it, ignoring the inclination to vomit again at the motion, and ran bloody hands through my tangled hair, gripping it at the scalp. Sobs lodged in my throat, relief turning my bones to jelly.

“Cyph.” Despite my injuries, I staggered to him, falling to my knees beside his prostrate body, but keeping my distance to avoid shedding blood on him. My sister sat on his other side, legs curled beneath her.

“What happened?” I demanded.

Cypherion grimaced. “We needed a distraction.”

I didn’t want to chastise him for that now, but I swore to the Spirits if he ever did anything like that again, I’d murder him myself.

“How are you alive?” My side throbbed, and I wrapped an arm around my torso, but it seemed a good thing that I was moving.

“You were just fast enough, Ophelia.”

I understood. He dove into the fray of the wolves knowing that it might mean his end, but also guessing that his sacrifice would fuel me with an unstoppable anger. He rode toward death thinking I may take out the alpha, and subsequently the pack, before his life was forfeit. But had he been wrong, he would have given himself regardless. To inspire my mission.

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