Page 134 of Cursebreaker

Painted portraits of our family, framed in pieces of wood that I recognize in an instant.

“Is that…” My voice catches.

“Wood from the Lightbringer,” Elsie says, and I think her bottom lip quivers as she smiles. “Not easy to come by, mind you, but a few mermaids owed me a favor.”

I touch the surface of a canvas portraying our family’s ship, the sails washed golden in the light of dawn. “Did you paint these?”

She beams at the portraits. “No,” she says, but she doesn’t tell me more, and I don’t ask, because she’s already dragging me out of the room and down the hall. She shows me the kitchen, a vast room full of sunlight, equipped with tools I don’t recognize. “For you and Father and Owen,” she tells me, swiping a tear from her cheek.

When we reach the end of the hall, Elsie pauses at the double doors, her mischievous grin reminding me so much of Owen I start to cry.

She wipes away my tears, her nose scrunching with a kind smile.

I thought Elsie forgot us. That she moved on. But she’s spent all this time preparing a place for us to join her someday.

And I think, as Elsie leads me into a library the size of a ship, it would be so easy. I could simply wish for my family to be whisked away from the battlefield—for them to come here, where we can all be together. Safe. Happy. Whole.

Rainai enters the library, lingering near the open doors, and there’s a proud, fatherly glint in his eyes as he watches Elsie race from aisle to aisle.

“I found these for Titus,” Elsie says, pointing at a shelf stuffed to the brim with fairy tales. “And these—” She drags me toward a stack of cookbooks. “I thought Henry would like these. Oh! And Gabriel…”

When she tugs on my hand, I don’t move.

“Az?” Her brows knit. “Is everything all right?”

My chest tightens. “I have to go back,” I say quietly.

Her face falls. “Now?”

I try to speak, but all I can manage is a small nod.

She takes one last look around the library, as if she were saying her own silent goodbye. “Of course,” she says, half to herself. “It’s time.” She pulls me along behind her as she makes her way to Rainai. She glances at me sidelong, my hand clasped firmly in hers. “She’s ready to make her wish.”

Rainai’s expression is solemn, his smile heavy. “And what is it that you wish for, daughter of the sea?”

I clear my throat. “My ancestor,” I say, my voice shaking. “He wished to free the Underlings for power—not because he truly wished for their freedom.”

Rainai nods slowly, his twinkling eyes narrowed. “He sought to wield them as a weapon, just as Morana continues to do. Both he and Morana claimed to pity them, but the Underlings are born of the things which humans try to hide—their wickedness, yes, but also their shame, their grief.” His gaze softens with fatherly reproach. “The only way to free an Underling is with love. And love doesn’t seek power or control. It keeps no record of wrongdoing. Sometimes love is knowing when to let go.” He glances at Elsie, and my stomach sinks. “But,” he says, peering down at me with a knowing look, “sometimes love is knowing when to hold on to those who give us strength. That—love, family, friendship—is true power.”

My ancestor wished for power, and it brought a curse.

And now I have the opportunity to wish for anything—the full power of the Lightbringer, Morana’s defeat, the Underlings vanquished. But it would mean letting go of Elsie. And even still, I can’t be sure that if I wished for any of those things, it wouldn’t cost me something else.

I realize, now, that there is only one way to defeat Morana.

I take a deep breath. Lift my chin. I knew, before I’d even seen her, what I would wish for. But now… I fear it isn’t my choice to make—not after seeing the life she’s built here, in this heavenly realm. Still, it’s the only thing I truly want.

“I wish for Elsie to come home with me.”

I glance at Elsie, tears rolling down her cheeks, and it feels like the wind has been knocked from my lungs.

I say, my voice breaking, “Only if you want to?”

The smile that transforms her face is brighter than starlight. “There’s nowhere else in the universe I’d rather be.”

Rainai tilts his head, his gaze narrowing. “You could have wished for power.”

I tighten my grip on Elsie’s hand, holding on to her like I wish I could have that night aboard the Tidesinger, and for the first time in months, my smile doesn’t hurt.