“Iwantedto accompany you, but Alexei wouldn’t let me come,” Kiara said, almost with spite.
“You had no business being there,” Alexei said shortly, like the matter wasn’t up for debate.
I shared his sentiment. I wouldn’t have wished for Emma to witness such atrocities either, but she was a queen, and it was her duty.
“I am training to become a priestess. I have medical training. I could’vehelped,” Kiara insisted.
“The best healers in the world could’ve donenothing, Kiara!” Alexei shouted. He abruptly stood up, and his goblet clattered to the floor. “It would’ve only caused you pain, as it did me!”
I felt for Alexei. As a griffin, and an empath, he had absorbed all the feelings of everyone at the camp— the injured, the grieving, the dying. It was more than he could bear, and he wanted to shield Kiara from that.
Kiara went to bite back a response, but before she did, her skin became pale. I watched as a white sheen came over her skin, and her body completely froze. Her eyes turned to glass, her lips and cheeks painted on. She became an impression of a child’s plaything, locked in place.
Slowly, she began to tip backward. My insides twisted as I realized something was deeply wrong.
Alexei gasped, and reached out to catch her. He did so, but as he touched her skin, he cried out. He laid her gently on the floor, and I knelt beside him, touching Kiara’s cheek.
It was cold and hard, exactly as porcelain would be. She’d somehow been transformed into a life-sized china doll.
“Kiara,” Alexei wept. The doll remained frozen in shape, unmoving.
I refused to accept anymore death— not after today. “She might still be alive,” I said quickly. “This must be a hex of some sort.”
Alexei was beginning to panic. He moved closer to her, and his knee accidentally knocked one of her hands. The pinky finger broke off, shattering into pieces against the hardwood.
“Stop!” I cried out. “You’ll break her!”
Alexei paused, unsure of how to help. I got to my feet and rushed into the hallway, hoping there was someone nearby who could help. “I need a healer, a priestess, someone!” I cried out.
A couple of guards jumped to attention, but I feared by the time they located someone, it would be too late.
But with luck, Arthur and Vara had been passing by. They rushed into the room, kneeling at Kiara’s side. I hoped that Arthur had read or researched something that could help us, but as his visage fell, I realized he wasn’t sure of what this was.
“Save her,” Alexei pleaded. “There must be a way.”
Vara studied Kiara’s fragile complexion. “This is a curse,” Vara said. “I’ve seen it before.”
“How do we stop it?” I asked.
“There will be something planted in her bedroom,” Vara said. “Beneath her pillow, or underneath the bed.”
I took off running. I climbed several flights, in the direction of Kiara and Alexei’s room. When I entered, I floundered toward the bed and began yanking off pillows and blankets, searching for a clue.
I didn’t find anything, so I sank to the floor and looked under the bed. There was some kind of object tucked beneath the headboard. I yanked it out.
In my hands I held a miniature doll, fashioned to look exactly like Kiara, right down to her raven hair. I smelled the doll, and a scent that I knew rose past my nose. I sneered, then took off with the doll back in the direction of the parlor room.
Everyone looked up when I entered. I waved the doll in the air. “This is definitely Gabby’s curse. It has her signature, and her scent. She charmed this herself. One of Gabby’s spies must’ve gotten into the castle and planted it.”
“Give it here.” I handed the doll to Vara, and she studied it. Once she’d observed the doll, she grabbed it by the legs and tossed it into the fireplace, where the porcelain shattered and turned to ash.
Kiara gave a great gasp, and sat up. Her features had returned to normal, and she was herself again.
That was before she gave a wretched scream of pain, and clutched at her hand. The finger Alexei had accidentally broken off was gone, severed at the stump and bleeding profusely. Kiara screamed as the blood gushed down her arm. I saw with horror the torn remnants of Kiara’s finger against the carpet, bits of mashed skin and bone.
“She needs the infirmary!” Arthur barked at Alexei. The griffin scooped Kiara up in his arms and carried her in the direction of the palace hospital. Kiara left a trail of blood behind, her screams filling the palace.
I shuddered to think of how things could’ve been worse. If we’d accidentally broken her torso, or her head… she’d be a bloody mess on the floor…
