Because I suddenly realized exactly what I was about to describe in painful detail—right in front of his friends. And exactly why he’d beat me to speaking first.
“Seems the Princess is proving herself in Dragontail,” Rory said, her voice surprisingly warm. “Let’s see how you do in the trials next month.”
The tone caught me off guard—almost intrigued, almost… kind. Even the other night in the tavern, she hadn’t been as vicious as she’d been when I first arrived at the academy. Maybe she wasn’t as heartless as she pretended.
But I wasn’t about to linger after yet another wildly inappropriate moment with a Moonveil. Heat crawled up my neck as I realized how it must have looked.
So I left—quickly without saying another word.
Chapter 24: The Truthfinder
“The curse of lovers across factions is the oldest sin of the island of Rionis,” Professor Vao intoned, his deep voice rolling through the vaulted lecture hall like a somber hymn. Sunlight poured in through the tall arched windows, gilding the dust motes drifting between rows of restless students.
“The first son and daughter of Solvir, god of the sun and Lunareth, goddess of the moon, met in the forest of Eden, what we now call the King’s Forest.” His ink-dark robes whispered behind him as he paced. “They were warned never to mix light and darkness. Though their magics coexist to balance the island, they cannot—must not—merge within mortal flesh. Only the gods themselves can bear such opposition.”
I stiffened.
A history lecture about forbidden lovers and soulbounding curses weeks after I’d nearly thrown myself into the arms of a Moonveil in a hallway like an unhinged idiot.
Perfect timing, Professor Vao. Truly.
I forced my gaze forward, even as Lorik Draventh’s silver eyes flickered through my mind uninvited. Even as the phantom heat of that moment, my moment of weakness, tried to crawl back beneath my skin.
“But the first mortal male and female Moonveil and Sunheart did not listen,” Vao continued. “Lust clouded their judgment. And lust is harmless until it becomes love. Love binds fire and shadow. And mortal bodies cannot withstand such power intertwined. Their souls merge, and their minds fracture. Their magic becomes unstable and a threat. A curse imposed by the gods when their single rule was broken: live together, but keep your magic pure.”
A hush swallowed the hall.
My heartbeat slowed.
Breath steadied.
Relief, thin and bitter, uncoiled in my chest.
Lust wasn’t the curse.
Love was.
“So, class, how do you know if someone has been cursed, and what do you do?” Professor Hog asked.
“Kill them before they become crazy and before they kill us first,” a female voice from the back line answered without hesitation. Laughter filled the room.
“Well, a typical Dragontail response. But you cannot kill them yourself; you’ll go to jail. Someone else, please, with a bit more logic and restraint?” Vao asked, with annoyance, about the brute-force responses of the Dragontail trainee without a doubt.
“Their eyes change, similarly when you consume auroric potions... just that the eyes change permanently,” Soehl responded from beside me with a low, steady voice.
“Finally, someone with logic. Miss Cheryn, explain what you do with those soulbound by the curse,” Vao asked excitedly.
Soehl hesitated for a moment, then responded in a soft, sad tone, “We report them to the Emberkeep guards.”
Of course, reporting to the Emberkeep guards who were controlled by the Emberkeep general and the Solenhart court. Those with the curse would not be given a second chance. It was a crime, and they would be executed.
“Correct. The crime of the curse is punished by death. Luckily, the curse affects fewer and fewer people every decade because there is more education in schools throughout the island about the topic.” Vao concluded.
As the class ended, a breath of relief slipped out of me. Whatever had happened between Lorik and me that night, whatever had torn through me like wildfire, it wasn’t love. It would never be love.
I didn’t have the luxury of dwelling on it anyway. With the Dragontail Trials less than a month away, I not only had to push harder in my Dragontail training, but I still had every Emberkeep requirement to complete. And now I was already late for my interrogation class, a class I despised, mostly because I wasn’t here to learn. I was here to be used. A wall to push at. A mind to test. A target.
I entered the Emberkeep Atrium late and completely unenthused, Jan Radke drifting in beside me. The skylight above washed the room in warm, honey-colored light. Students from every year filled the space, truthfinders, mental benders, coercers, memory wielders, each sharpening the skills theSolenhart courts relied on daily. Pairs had already formed, settling into their usual training matches.
