“Why couldn’t the fairies reverse the curse?”
Kira asked, her fingers squeezing Seth’s.
“I don’t know. I know they were asked and
they didn’t.” Taren ran his own palms over his thighs, echoing his
daughter’s earlier nervous gesture. “Kira, I have something to tell
you.”
Taren sounded scared, the first time in
memory Seth had ever associated that emotion with this man. Kira
settled into stillness, her fingers going lax in Seth’s grasp.
“What is it?”
“I was never going to tell you this, but I
have been in discussions recently, discussions of the old days.
After much thought, I think you knowing is the best way to move
forward and to get away from this curse.”
A fine tremor ran through Kira’s form.
Taren’s fear was unsettling to Seth, but it was wrecking his
daughter. “What is it?”
Taren licked his lips. “A week after the
raven delivered the curse, King Thomas came to me. My wife had been
dead a very short time. I sometimes wondered if somehow her death
was part of the evil that had been poisoning us.” A different grief
fell over the man then, as for a moment his memories of his
departed wife were almost tangible behind his eyes.
He shook them off and continued. “King Thomas
said that plans had been made, and that I was to help rebuild the
kingdom…” Taren tore his gaze away from them and went back to the
fire. The flames highlighted the unshed tears in the man’s eyes. He
paused for several moments, and then said, his voice regret
personified, “You are not my daughter, Kira. King Thomas gave you
to me when you were just a baby for me to raise. He said you were
to be trained as a warrior and that you’d be Seth’s companion and
eventual guard.”
Everything went still, and only Kira’s
crushing grip on Seth’s hand penetrated the blankness that settled
over him.
And then Kira released him and ran out the
door.
That’s what Kira did when the emotions were
too much, she ran. She couldn’t stand the thought of breaking down
around others.
And there was only one place she would go.
Seth rose to go after her but Taren’s hand on his arm stopped him.
“No, Seth,” he said. “She needs time to herself, and I still have
something to tell you. It would be better to do so alone.”
“How can you not be her father?” He was
pulling away from Taren, his focus on Kira, but the old warrior’s
grip was still a reckoning for he could not free himself. “Who is
she?”
“I do not know her family. Thomas might, but
I could not swear to that. Please, Seth, I know how dear she is to
you, but she would not welcome your company right now. You know her
better than anyone. If you stop and think, you know what I’m saying
is truth.”
Truth. Yes, it was truth. Kira needed to get
her emotions under control; when she was like this, she didn’t want
anyone around, not even him. Seth stopped struggling, and Taren’s
grip loosened, though it did not leave entirely.
Seth shook him off. “I will not go after her
right now, Taren. Soon, not yet. What else did you want to tell
me?”
How could this man
not
be her father?
He was the closest being Seth would call a friend and an ally,
outside of Kira. How could he turn into this stranger, being used
by his father like every other person in this castle?
Taren sat down himself but did not motion for
Seth to join him, perhaps intuiting that Seth would not relax in
front of the man now. “I know how you can break the curse, Seth. I
know what you have to do.”
Awareness hit Kira layer by layer. First, her
trembling made itself known. And then after the trembling, it
struck her -
Oh, I’m cold
.
After looking down at her arms and realizing
no jacket covered her, it became a debate. Leave the tree and get a
jacket? Stay cold? Why was it so hard to make a decision?
A cloak settled over her, and strong arms
encircled her from behind. The embrace was familiar, so why bother
questioning further?
Welcome sleep overtook her.
When Kira opened her eyes next, full daylight
was hitting her eyes, and her wince against the light was quick and
total. “Morning,” a familiar voice said softly behind her.
She didn’t say anything back. She snuggled
into the arms and stayed silent. Talking meant acknowledging, and
she wasn’t ready to do that yet.
“I’ll confront my father.”
“No.” No, Seth was absolutely not allowed to
confront the king. That was a non-negotiable.
He stroked her arms, the light touch of his
fingers apparent even through the fabric of her shirt. “Do you hate
me?”
The self-loathing in Seth’s tone startled her
and she turned to him. “How can you think that?”
“My father said you were to be my companion.
Somehow your being here is connected to me.”
Kira took his face in her hands. His warm
blue eyes were so full of concern for her that it helped melt some
of the ice surrounding her own feelings.
She took a deep, cleansing breath. “I don’t
know what’s going on, but I’ll never regret us. Nothing in this
world is powerful enough to make me feel that.”
Relief etched itself across his features. “I
hate that you’re hurting, but I can’t imagine my life without you
in it.”
There was no response to that. It was the
truth, but she was still too raw to continue with the conversation.
Instead Kira burrowed into Seth’s chest and wrapped her arms around
him, while his strong arms circled her and cuddled her close.
She fell asleep again, and the next time her
eyes opened the sun was high overhead. “I’m sorry,” she said.
Seth gave a soft snort, not bothering to look
down at her or stop combing his fingers through her hair. “About
what?”
“You can’t be comfortable.”
“Don’t care as long as you are.”
He was so perfect. Why was he so perfect? He
was her heart made free outside her body, and she would never be
able to reclaim it.
No father, no lover, all alone, to always be
on the outside looking in.
“Stop.” His breathy whisper floated past her
ear. “You can’t do that.”
How did he always know what she was
thinking?
“You’re very easy to read.”
“Well, all-knowing one, what do I do?”
He chuffed at her snarky tone and pressed a
kiss to the side of her head. “Do you hate him?”
She shrugged, snuggling back into his chest.
“I will later, I think, at least a little bit. I can’t now. I can’t
feel anything more now.”
“Yeah.” He drew long patterns on her arm, his
thinking gesture. “I’ll hate them enough for both of us.”
***
“He told me how to break the curse.”
They were walking back toward the castle, and
Kira tripped over her feet, stumbling enough that Seth held out his
hands to steady her, though the gesture was ultimately unnecessary.
After she regained her dignity she looked at him, her eyebrows
drawn so tightly together the two became one. “You mean my – Taren
told you? How? Why didn’t he ever mention this before?”
“He said he didn’t know until now.” It had
been so suspicious, how suddenly Taren knew. A mysterious visitor
came and told him, the same one who advised him that he should tell
Kira of her origins, but he refused to divulge who the visitor
was.
It was suspicious, and with anyone else, Seth
would have the person investigated to see if she or he was somehow
connected to the curse. But this was Taren, and the stunning
revelations of the night before aside, the man had always been a
true and trusted ally. Even the weight of last night’s disclosures
had the crush of hopeful expectation and not malignant
intentions.
“But he didn’t say who told him?” At Seth’s
headshake she sighed. “He always was stubborn if he felt he was in
the right. Well then, how do we end this?”
“
We?
” Seth hadn’t meant it to be so
sharp, and all hope it wasn’t as bad as he feared was dashed when
Kira’s brows straightened out into two separate arches, one of
those arches rising high while her hands came to rest on her hips.
He rushed on, trying to fix the mess. “You’ve had enough surprises.
You don’t need to follow me while I take care of this.”
And I can’t have you near me while I’m
forced to carry out my duty.
He closed his eyes and pressed
hard against his forehead with the heel of his hand. He shouldn’t
have to deal with this. He was giving her up, wasn’t he? He was
doing what he’d said he would do. Why torture himself more, by
making her stay by his side while he had to do
this
?
It would be torture. The sweetest torture,
just like last night. He didn’t sleep a minute, couldn’t waste such
a rare gift. She had been pressed against him, the curves of her
body fitting him in perfect symmetry. He had breathed in her scent
all night, twisted the soft strands of her hair between his
fingers, marveling how the slight curliness of her hair meant the
red mass didn’t easily let go of his fingers.
It would be torture, and if he had too many
nights of such torture, his promise would be in jeopardy.
Kira frowned. “Yes,
we
. I have been
with you for every step of this, and I’m not about to stop now, the
situation of my non-father father be damned! Do you think you’re
going to walk into danger without me near you? I protect you –
that’s what I
do
– and you will
not
send me
away.”
Her hands were no longer on her hips. They
were clenched fists at her sides, while long tendons in her neck
became prominent. Her eyes were the storm-soaked green of the
forest, rustling and shifting beneath a howling wind.
She was his protector, his companion, and he
could not stop her from joining him. He could not stop her because
the only way to stop her was to tell her that he was in danger of
crossing the final line that would result in loving her.
And if he told her that, if he gave voice to
the deepest murmurs of his heart, then the action of making it
real, giving it substance, would make it happen. His heart would be
hers. He would be helplessly in love with her and only her.
And Rosamund would be damned.
“Fine.”
Her glare intensified for a few moments until
his reply penetrated her brain, and her face and body deflated,
becoming confused. “No more arguing?”
“None. You’re right. You’re much better with
a sword than I am.” He started toward his room, not bothering to
look back since there was no question she would follow.
Sure enough, within three strides she was
beside him again. “How do we break this curse?”
“I need to marry Rosamund and have our first
kiss. If I do that before the curse takes effect, it never
will.”
If it had been anyone but Taren who told him
the way to reverse the curse, Seth would never have believed it. It
couldn’t be that simple. All the pain, Rosamund’s torture, and it
was over like that?
Kira’s features tightened, a hardening of her
jaw and gaze, but she shook off whatever thoughts invaded and
smoothed out her features before she answered. “That can’t be. Your
father and King Matthias would have had a proxy wedding a long time
ago if that was the answer. We have to be missing something.”
The air was chilly today, and Seth pulled his
coat a little closer. A storm was brewing, and with the talk of
magic and curses, his mind took a fanciful bent.
Bad omen
,
bad omen
,
bad omen
. “Taren couldn’t say if they knew
or not. His
source
wouldn’t give him that information.”
“And we trust this mysterious source enough
we upend our lives on nothing but their word?”
A crow cawed in the distance. The murder
answered.
Bad Omen.
“Your father obviously thought so.”
Kira looked down. With the toe of her boot
she crushed blades of grass into the ground, meticulous with her
choices. “Which means we do what?”
“Do you think my father really wishes me
married?” The answer would be so simple if that one question didn’t
exist. When it came to the subject of his marriage, the choices his
father made were unpredictable. Seth couldn’t get a handle on what
the king desired.
The boot paused in its meticulous destruction
of the surrounding grass. “I don’t know.” Kira’s voice mirrored his
thoughts. “Your engagement makes no sense.”
“My father’s actions make no sense,” Seth
corrected. Maybe if they had a warmer relationship he could ask
why. Why the whiplash decisions and quixotic behavior? But even at
their best, Seth could never claim he and his father were close,
and these days they were far, far from their best.
Kira finally looked up at him again. Her eyes
were tired, lines grooved into the corners and underneath. He
reached up and ran a thumb underneath her eye, as though he could
wipe away all the stress and worry of these last hours. His already
battered heart shuddered yet again in denied yearning, because he
couldn’t chance wrapping her in his arms, not again. He could only
stand still as she took a small measure of cold comfort from the
brush of his hand.
She smiled her thanks, a smile he didn’t
deserve but he squirreled away to reside with all his memories of
her. She spoke. “Why bring up your father’s actions now?”
“If I could trust him, I’d go to him now with
this information. We would ride to Tolshire and Rosamund and I
would marry straight away. We could ask about your…
real…family.”
Seth trailed off, for one of the few times in
his life unsure about how to talk to Kira. This was a situation he
could never have foreseen.
Kira cleared her throat, swallowed hard, but
she didn’t go back to her emotional reaction of earlier. Instead,
she brought herself up to her full height, her chin angled in a
dare. “My real family doesn’t matter, and I wouldn’t trust any
answers your father gave even if they did.” Her posture went from
provocative to empathetic, her eyes softening as she kept her gaze
on Seth. “We can’t trust your father, can we? That’s what you were
saying. We can’t trust him to take care of you, of us. We’re tools
to him, and he’ll turn us around and inside out if that’s what it
takes to accomplish his goals. He’ll sacrifice you if he must.
That’s what you think. That’s why we didn’t go straight to him
after hearing Taren’s words.”