Page 6 of Curses and Cures

I don’t have much time to explain why you are so very important to me and my daughter, Christy, but I hope that this letter will be enough to convince you to help us both.. To help all our families to heal, including yours…

The words waver in front of me, and I blink back the grogginess from the blow of Soren’s fist to my temple earlier today. The bastard has no issues beating women. He does it regularly for kicks, and I’m not the only one he abuses given the state of the blonde woman he keeps by his side at all times. Covered head to foot in bruises, she has met the wrath of Soren on many occasions.

As the leader of the Skull Brotherhood, Soren leads by example. To him, women are nothing more than worthless vessels to use and abuse as he sees fit. They’re just a fleshy punching bag, an orifice to suit their base needs.

Worthless bitches.

Unless you have a skill he can profit from.

Then perhaps you’re worth stealing, worth starting a war for.

And that’s exactly what they’ve done by stealing me right under the Deana-dhe’s noses just like Arden’s aunt, Nessa Dálaigh, had predicted.

Casting my gaze to the swirling cursive, I once again read the letter my mother’s best friend wrote to me long before I was even aware of her existence. A letter I was given just a few short weeks before I went to live with The Masks and many years after she was murdered.

Your mother and I grew up together. We were the best of friends and I loved her like a sister, but circumstance and hatred between men tore us apart.

When I heard of Aoife’s death, we hadn’t seen each other in years, not because we didn’t want to but because we had no choice. It hadn’t surprised me that she died protecting you in a war she couldn’t prevent. Her love for you was like the ocean, vast and deep.

She was the most beautiful soul, and I miss her every single day..

“Me too,” I choke out, my throat tightening at the thought of my mother.

Tears blur my vision, each drop stinging as they fall down my cheeks, a reminder of all I have lost. I blink back my sorrow in a desperate attempt to keep my tears at bay. Swallowing down the emotion, I continue to read.

I wish, more than anything, that I could’ve been present in your life. That you and Christy could’ve grown up together and become friends just like your mother and I had. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, but I hope, more than anything, that you will form a lasting friendship after all of this is over. I hope that old wounds between families can finally heal and that you won’t be kept apart like your mother and I were.

In this envelope you will find two letters. The first is for Christy. The second is for the men who call themselves The Masks, your old friends and my daughter’s kidnappers.

I’m asking you to give the letter to my daughter exactly two weeks after she arrives at Ardelby Castle. The second letter you must give to The Masks on the night of the show when Christy wears the pink dress…

And that’s exactly what I did. I followed Nessa’s instructions, handing the letters to Christy and The Masks at the very moment she asked me to. I watched their story unfold, guided by the love of a mother for her daughter.

These letters have been kept safe for fifteen years by your grandmother who, like me and Aoife, was tired of seeing the people she cared about hurt by foolish men. She gave them to you on this night for the same reason I am writing this letter, to stop more bloodshed. She was a good woman, and I’m so terribly sorry for your loss...

As I hold Nessa's letter in my hands, I'm flooded with memories of my grandmother. She’d always been a great source of comfort and knowledge, continuing to teach me the craft of herbology after my mother’s murder. Her death, almost two years ago now, had been as difficult to bear as my mother’s had been. It still is.

You must be confused, so I hope this letter will go some way to explaining things. By now Arden Dálaigh, my nephew, will have asked you to pay your debt. I know this because I’ve seen it. Like my daughter I have the ability to see things that are yet to happen.

The Deana-dhe want revenge for my brother’s death. They want you to kill The Masks.

You can’t do that.

Not just because you are a good person and cannot, under any circumstances, darken your soul with murder. Not just because these men and my daughter’s future are inexplicably entwined. But because I’m trying to prevent history from repeating itself.

There’s been too many deaths, too much heartache, and if I can do one thing before I leave this world, it's to fix this mess our fathers and their fathers before them have inflicted on us all. Your parents' families have been at war for years, as have my family: the Dálaighs and the Brovs. Men have caused these wars, all of this pain, and it’s time for the women to take back control and end the violence once and for all. It’s what your mother wanted, what I wanted, but fate conspired against us. Your mother died trying to stop a war, and in a few years, I will die in the crossfire of another.

It wasn’t our time to fix it, but it will be yours. Yours and Christy’s.

This time the stars have aligned better than I could ever have hoped for. There’s a chance that peace can be found and lives saved if you help my daughter to fulfil her destiny, and trust me to help you to fulfil yours.

Tonight you must leave your home and revisit your old friends. Go to Ardelby Castle and find your place there. Tell them whatever you need to in order for them to allow you to stay.

You must wait until my daughter arrives and help her to fulfil her destiny. Guide her as best you can without telling her what you know. Not until the time is right. You’ll know when the time comes for honesty. Whether I like it or not, she was meant for The Masks as they were meant for her. The Dálaigh’s and the Brov’s war will end with their love, it has to, otherwise all of this will be for nothing…

At the time I’d read her letter with incredulity, and if it hadn’t been my grandmother’s dying wish to follow the path Nessa had encouraged me to step on, I may never have ended up here. But my grandmother’s faith in a woman long since dead, and her unwavering love for my mother, persuaded me to go to Ardelby Castle and await Christy’s arrival. When everything began to play out just like Nessa had predicted, it was easier to do everything she’d asked.

She will fight against it, and there is a point in Christy’s future that I can’t see beyond, but I’m hoping that with your help it won’t be the end of her journey, just the beginning. That is why you must deliver these letters. It’s imperative that you do.

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