Again, I fight against the binding magic, desperate to get to her. To end him. But the hold is too fucking strong. Too painful.
“You know,” he says, tapping his lips as if he’s actually thinking about helping her, “the cursedoeshave one loophole.”
“Tell me,” she breathes, and Verrick’s smile stretches wide.
Too wide, and I know whatever he says next will be nothing but a trick, even if there’s some truth to his words.
A silver lining with a rotten, bloody core.
“Westlyn,” I say with a gasp. “Don’t… don’t listen to him.”
But it’s too late.
She’s spent too many long, sleepless nights searching for a loophole, and now she thinks he’s going to hand it over, just like that.
I can’t blame her for it. Haven’t I been searching for it too? For fifteen hundred bloody years, against all the odds, all the shadows in my heart that only sought to remind me again and again that Verrick wouldnevergrant our freedom through something so simple as a loophole?
“If the curse should be broken by one whose love is true,” he says, “the gargoyleswillbe granted that choice.”
Bloody hell, it’s the kind of drivel straight out of a fucking fairytale, yet evenIcan’t help but wonder. Hope.
But all too quickly, Verrick’s smile twists again. “Obviously, you love them. It’s a pity you can’t be the one to break it, little moon.”
“Why not?” she asks. “You said it yourself—I love them. So tell me how to break it. Tell me, and I’ll give you the Codex. I’ll wear the crown. Whatever you ask of me, just tell me!”
His eyes glitter, but it’s not because of her offer—as much as he wants all those things.
It’s because he’s about to twist the knife in a little deeper, just like he always does.
“Oh, Iwould, daughter,” he says. “Absolutely. But I’m afraid it’s just not possible. The curse is demon- and fae-made both, tethered to an immortal bloodline that ensures its eternal source of power.”
“What does that evenmean?” she demands, the tremor in her voice echoing off the cave walls.
“A curse of such immense power is much more than a simple spell,” he says. “It must be tethered, for lack of a better word, to an external source of magic to ensure that its potency never fades.”
“I still don’t understand,” she says.
Verrick sighs. “For all your spells and witchery, for all your fruitless searching for the Spell of Unmaking, the only way to actually break such a powerful curse is to break the tether, and the only way to break the tether is to break the bloodline it’s tied to—the bloodline whose magic ensures the curse is truly eternal. Quite ingenious, really. All the best curses are, of course.”
“Whose bloodline?” she asks, but she already knows the answer.
We both do.
Verrick answers anyway.
“Mine,” he practically hisses. Then, with one last cruel, ice-cold smile, he delivers the final blow. “And if I shall meet an untimely demise, the tether passes to my heir. Yes, child, youarefully immortal—make no mistake about that. So you see, my moon, the power to end the curse of the gargoyles maytechnicallybe within your grasp, but breaking the tether requires my death as well as your own, and surely that would defeat the whole purpose of setting the men you claim to love free. Quite a sticky dilemma, is it not? Anyway, now that we’ve settled the matter of the curse, it’s time to—”
“You’re lying!” she screams, but deep down, I know he isn’t. The twisted, sharp-edged riddles of curses and tethers are just the sort of trickery the dark fae thrive on.
“I’m not,” he says with a simple shrug. “You know, Westlyn, most people would consider it an honor to be entrusted with such a valuable tether. Alas, there’s no need to prostrate yourself. Consider it a father’s gift to his doting child.”
“Yeah?” Westlyn laughs, cold and empty. “Then consider this your doting child’s thank-you note,asshole.”
For the briefest instant, I swear her eyes shine silver like her father’s, and I know—I know with a sickening, terrifying realization what she’s about to do.
“Westlyn,” I warn, nothing but a quiet rush of air, but it’s too late. She’s already lunging for that sword.
Verrick is so shocked by the move, it takes him a beat too long to realize she’s stolen his weapon. Without hesitation, she stabs at his chest, but she’s untrained and he easily dodges the attack, grabbing her wrist and using her momentum to throw her to the ground.
