“You’re an ugly crier.”
She should have scowled or huffed a laugh, but instead she hiccupped and realized that the strange tightness in her chest had slackened without her noticing. All that was left was the regular fear expected from a brush with death.
“How did you survive?” She was unable to keep the wonder from her voice.
“Sheer willpower.” His eyes roved over her with distant assessment, as if in search of injuries. “I’m assuming it was your good luck. Though it didn’t seem to help my soldiers back there.” His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “I thought you were right behind me.”
She should tell him she was a dark omen beckoning misfortune. But she couldn’t.
Instead, she swallowed the words down and locked them in the same place she kept her other griefs, tucked between her ribs.
Prince Javi went on, “Should we discuss the very tragic circumstances that have led us here, or do you need silence to magic us out?”
Risa glared at him as she struggled to her feet, acutely aware of the exhaustion in her bones and the sting of new cuts all over her body.
“I’m not a witch, you fool. I don’t have magic.”
“I have been called many things, and foolish is at least the third worst.”
The prince, for having borne witness to the massacring of his general and guard, looked rather…unbotheredat first glance. The more she stared at him, however, the easier it was to see where he’d come undone. His shirt was untucked from his trousers, the ends flapping beneath his doublet. There was a haunted look behind his amber eyes as they shifted with unease. He was holding himself together by a very thin thread. And she couldn’t blame him: He was unprotected and stuck in a cursed forest with a pathetic magical girl, all while assassins were searching for him.
Risa realized she might not like him very much, but she couldn’t let her bad luck finish the assassins’ job. He was a dead man walking with her. It didn’t matter that Brunhilda’s curse would kill her; she didn’t want to be the reason foranothersenseless death. Even if that meant leaving him. In an evil forest. At the mercy of assassins. Who would probably kill him anyway.
Still better than staying with her.
“Well, this hasnotbeen fun.” She dusted off her trousers. The mud caked onto her thighs did not budge. “But I should be on my way. Best of luck.”
Bottom lip tucked between her teeth, she gave the prince a wobbly salute before marching through the small clearing with no direction in mind. The trees on her left looked less terrifying than the ones on her right, so she veered that way.
Prince Javi fell into step with her, hands stuffed in his pockets. “You can’t go off on your own. What do you expect me to do without you?” He wore the expression of a man who had never been forced to do a single thing for himself his entire life.
“I don’t know. Find a way out of the woods and go get married. It’s not any of my concern.”
He stopped her with a light touch on her elbow, his fingertips trailing down her arm until they gently grasped her hand. He brought her knuckles to his lips, hooded eyes beseeching, lashes fluttering like leaves on his cheeks. His touch was molten.
“I need your help.”
Her heart pulled. A side effect of Brunhilda’s curse, surely. Dangerous business, walking around with a faulty heart like that.
“No thanks.”
She forged into the darkness and left Prince Javi behind.
CHAPTER SIXIn Which a Girl Cannot Simply Walk Out of a Cursed Forest
Risa needed to focus. After what couldn’t have been more than ten minutes, she felt an ache start behind her ribs. A few moments after that, she swore her breathing grew shallower. Then, no more than a heartbeat later, she struggled to keep from passing out, all thanks to Brunhilda’s curse.
Couldn’t the curse understand? This was for the prince’s own good anyway! She had enough people blaming her for things. Killing a royal was not on her to-do list, even if he was annoying and probably deserved it.
Suddenly, an impenetrable, gloomy mist descended, and it became impossible to see farther than a few feet ahead. Her breaths grew ragged as a sharp pain pierced her with each shaky inhale.
This wassounfair.
She sighed. Turned around once, twice, until the curse tugged her toward the prince once again.
Risa attempted to resist for a moment. Took a step back, heels digging into the damp soil. But her vision darkened at the edges, and she was too tired to fight.
She sighed and stepped forward. The taut line around her heart slackened infinitesimally. Another step. More slack. After an eternity, she crossed into the same clearing that she had walked away from a hero.
