Page 126 of Cursebreaker

“Where is she?” I demand, my head spinning. “Where is Morana?”

The fire seems to leap at my voice, hotter now than when I first arrived in the Burning Lands, so intense it feels as if it might melt the flesh from my bones.

“She’s been gone for days,” Will says, his voice a deep, low rasp. “She plans to hold the people of the Red Island for ransom until the Order relinquishes the Relics.”

My blood turns to ice. I stagger backward, and Will reaches out as if to steady me, but he falls short, dropping to the stone in front of me. For a moment, it appears as if he bows before me, and when he looks up, his long, dark eyelashes casting shadows over his freckled cheeks, a grim smirk tugs at the corners of his lips.

“What do you mean days?” My heart throbs, my chest painfully tight. “How many?” Sweat slicks my palms, but I tighten my grip on the dagger, point it at his forehead.

There’s a flicker of something in his eyes that looks far too much like regret. “Seven,” he says tightly, his jaw ticking.

I try to fight the panic clawing at my ribs, but it strangles my voice. “Don’t lie to me!” I shout, silent tears streaming down my face. “Don’t you dare lie to me!”

His keen eyes track me with that calculating intelligence I once saw every time he studied a landscape, asking questions he never says aloud. He takes his time as he stands smoothly, his hands open at his sides. “I’m telling you the truth,” he says, and there’s a touch of softness in his voice that is wholly Will—not Azeron. For a moment, we could be back at Bludgrave Manor, meeting for a secret midnight rendezvous. “Your heart did not beat for seven days.”

The day of my eighteenth birthday had come and gone—the surge of Manan and bloodlust passed, along with any opportunity to use it to my advantage.

My head feels light, my legs turning to water, and when I reel backward, my foot slipping from the stone altar, Will is there—his hand wrapped around my wrist.

Around the band of braided leather. He must have slipped it back onto my arm after Morana left.

Our eyes meet, our chests heaving.

“Are you going to kill me?” I ask.

A teasing smile as he licks the blood from his bottom lip, exposing sharp teeth. “Do you want me to?”

I throw off his grip, and he takes a step back, hands lifted as if in surrender.

“You’ve made yourself rather difficult to kill,” he says, his gaze dipping to my throat. He looks away, shoves his hands into his pockets. “Besides, if for some reason you didn’t stop me, he would.”

He looks right, where the wind stirs as two massive wings beat the air, sending tendrils of smoke whirling.

“Emrys?” I scramble down from the altar and hurl myself at the dragon.

Emrys chuffs, nuzzling against my embrace. Tears prick my eyes as Liv swoops out from around the dragon’s head, pressing her nose to mine. Laughter bubbles up in my chest, easing the pressure building between my ribs.

“You’re going to need this,” Will says from close behind.

I whirl, the dagger raised, ready to put distance between us again, but he lingers a few paces away.

He holds the golden Key in his outstretched palm.

Before a threat can form on my tongue, he tosses it to me.

It hums at my touch, glowing from within.

“I don’t understand,” I say, my eyes narrowing on him as I widen my stance, anticipating an attack that doesn’t come. “I had Shifter venom in my veins when I died. Am I alive because I turned?” The unspoken question lingers in the space between us. Shouldn’t I be bound to you?

He shakes his head, strands of dark hair splaying over his forehead, wet with blood. “You broke the Shifter curse the day Owen raptured you from Havok.”

My voice is low, lethally calm. “Don’t say his name.”

He huffs a laugh. “As you wish,” he murmurs, his eyes dark. “You will always have Shifter venom in your veins.” He crouches, retrieving a lump of fabric from the charred earth, and I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a hint of pride in his slow, sinister smile as he holds up the coat, an invitation. “That power belongs to you and only you.”

I snatch the coat from his grasp. “The venom didn’t bring me back?”

Will casts his eyes skyward, considering. “No,” he says, chuckling softly as he drops his gaze to mine, twinkling with amusement. “I believe it pays to have friends in high places.”