Page 59 of The Curse of Ophelia

“It should have taken you by now.” I could see her mind working feverishly, searching for an answer. A way out. “You should have died on your birthday, Ophelia, and yet no one has even noticed any symptoms. This is…I don’t know what this is. But it feels different.” Her eyes searched me from head to toe, silent desperation radiating from her.

Silent desperation and hope.

Hope that I couldn’t bear to take from her, because doing so would be killing the spark of it that had formed within myself, as well. The spark that lit when I began this journey toward the Undertaking, and was fed each day by the spirits of my friends around me. One that wanted to turn into a roaring fire capable of forging my broken pieces back together.

No matter how accepting I was of the Curse, I needed that spark to face the end.

“You’re right,” I agreed. I watched the grass curling around my feet as I continued, “It is progressing slowly.”

“And why did it resurface? Why now? Why you?” With her faith in me, her tan skin had assumed its usual glow.

I shook my head, blonde hair shimmering in the edges of my vision. “I don’t know that either.” Damien’s words echoed through my mind—Chosen Child.

“Promise me something, Ophelia,” Jezebel begged, hurrying to me and grabbing both of my hands between hers. “Promise me that you will fight it until your dying breath.”

The silver blurring her eyes was impossible to refuse. They bared the feeble, fearful side of her so rarely seen.

“Okay,” I whispered, squeezing her hands. “But we cannot tell the others. I need them to remain strong. I need their confidence to face what’s coming.”

With her nod, that singular spark of hope warmed my shattered heart.

Chapter Twenty-Five

The last two days of travel passed in a blur. Beneath an unseasonably hot spring sun, with little breeze to cool the sweat beading under our leathers, we marched toward the end of our journey.

The end of the trek, but the beginning of the battle.

I held up a hand, signaling Sapphire and my friends to stop along the spot where grasslands turned to barren desert. Black dirt and volcanic sand stretched before us, absorbing the heat from the sun and bouncing it into the air, ripples blurring the landscape. Tendrils of smoke, remnants from the top of the Spirit Volcano, drifted through the air, clouded our nostrils and stung our eyes.

In that vast expanse of desert, there was nowhere to hide. We were left completely at the mercy of the elements and whatever else lay in wait.

My stomach churned as I took in the tundra.

I looked to Jezebel on my left, and we exchanged a grim smile. The invisible cord of secrecy between us tightened with her nod of encouragement, reminding me that she would be at my side until the end. Beneath the linen covering I had fastened around my wrist, the Curse pulsed.

“Is everyone ready?” I asked, but the question was futile. Only stalling for time.

“We’re ready,” Santorina answered, her voice strong in the face of the unknown.

I looked to Tolek, atop his horse once again. My eyes landed on the dirty bandages wrapping his wound. “Are you sure? You can wait here.”

His eyes hardened. “No, I cannot.” He would not.

I understood.

I scanned the weapons strapped to my body. A dagger strapped to my thigh. Malakai’s spear and Starfire. My own determination and desire to outrun the limit on my life. It was all I’d need.

“Let’s go, then.” I snapped Sapphire’s reins and she stepped forward, one hoof sinking into the black sand. It took her a few strides to understand the earth beneath her. It was not the cool grasses she was used to prancing through. There were no wildflowers curving around her legs, brushing her coat and coaxing her forward in peaceful encouragement.

This ground was different. Energy radiated up through it, a presence of its own. Like the earth was somehow alive, and a sleeping giant had settled in its core, projecting its power up through the land. Shock waves passed through Sapphire, into me—the lifeblood of our entire world centralized within the mountain range we traveled toward.

The horses’ steps were unsteady at first, but within a few strides they began marching across the sinister sand with ownership. I smiled at Sapphire despite the discomfort gnawing at my mind. She truly was a feat of the gods.

But this place was not. The barren land stretching out for miles between us and the Spirit Volcano did not reflect the sublime vision I had of our most sacred land. In the many times I’d visited Damenal as a girl, I’d never seen the tundra. A part of me was glad I hadn’t. If I’d known of the way the air tingled against my skin or the slinking presence that pumped my blood faster through my veins, I may have been afraid.

I had no room for fear.

We had barely traveled fifty yards when the ground beneath us shook, that sleeping beast waking. Violent tremors rocked through Sapphire’s body and into my own, my bones grinding against each other. I clenched every muscle in my body to stay seated atop my horse.

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