AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re right. I’ll get it, though, you don’t have to. Just keep looking,” she says, standing up. But as soon as she stands, she starts to wobble before falling to the side. I catch her, setting her back into the chair.
“Are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah, I think I just really need something in my stomach,” she says.
“I’ll get something for you, hold on,” I say, walking to the kitchen and grabbing the taura cheese before heading back.
When I walk in, Annette is lying on the floor. I drop the cheese, running to her.
“What the fuck happened?”
“I tried to get up, I was going to come with you since you don’t know how to cook. But I don’t know what’s wrong, Rukh. I feel off.”
I touch the back of my hand to her forehead, feeling her temperature. “You’re burning up.”
“Do you think it’s the curse?” she asks.
I stop for a moment, running through everything I know about curses. “It could be. Let’s get you to bed. You should rest. I’ll get you some food, and this time you’ll stay put.”
“Rukh, shouldn’t we be researching?”
“You can’t research while feeling like this. But after you eat, I’ll get right back to it. I’ll find something. I promise,” I say as I lift her into my arms.
Once in the bedroom, I set her down gently and tuck her into the blankets. Before leaving, I press my lips into hers, savoring her taste. How did all of this happen so fast? The last time we kissed, which was only a few hours ago, everything was perfectly fine.
I head to the kitchen, feeling frantic as I look for something to feed her. This is exactly why I need to learn how to cook. I light the stove, and once it heats up, I crack two of the eggs she got out earlier into the pan. I saw her do this a couple days ago, so hopefully I can replicate it.
Once the eggs look like they’re done, I grab a bowl and add them into it with some cheese sprinkled over it. It looks like shit, but now is not the time to be fancy.
“Here,” I say, handing it to her while setting a glass of water on the bedside table.
“Thanks,” she mumbles.
I can tell by the redness around her eyes that she was crying while I was out of the room. If I could bring that witch back to life and kill her all over again, I’d do it in a heartbeat for making my girl feel like this. Instead, I spend the rest of the night reading every book in the cabin.
I’ll do whatever it takes to lift this curse. Kill whoever I have to kill. Travel to whoever has the knowledge to stop this. I don’t care what it is, I’ll do it.
27
ANNETTE
My stomach churns violently, my innards feeling stretched beyond their capacity. I can barely feel my fingers, and my legs have given way to constant muscle spasms.
In short, I am in pain. Parts of it, I try to hide from Rukh, who worries himself over every cough and sneeze. He tells me that over the past 24 hours, my skin has gone from a pale gray to an almost bile yellow color.
“I found some fylvek grass and some gankoya,” Rukh says as soon as he barges in the door. “The local alchemist said they might work together, but we’re going to have to try and see.”
“Local?”
I stifle a cough, my body sweaty under the covers. When I lift the blankets off, I’m frigid, and I feel like my heart might stop from how slow it becomes.
“Yeah,” he says. “I’ve been stopping in Mellara. In disguise, of course.”
On the table in front of me are several open books. Occasionally, when Rukh steps away, I reach out with my foot, bringing the book toward me. Unfortunately, I soon reach the same conclusion Rukh does.
Nothing in this cabin is any help for my particular condition.
Maybe when the witch imparted the curse, she knew there wasn’t a cure. Maybe I just need to make peace with my death.
