Page 44 of Cursebreaker

He grips the bars, his knuckles white. “Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

“I think the words you’re looking for are Thank you.”

A muscle in his jaw feathers as he flashes a biting smile. “Thank you.” His expression darkens, his eyes narrowing. “Now leave me alone.”

I bend, retrieving the keys from the pile of straw where they fell.

“Don’t,” he begs as I rise, starting for the lock once more.

The desperation in his voice—the fear in his eyes—stops me cold.

“Why?” I ask. “And why won’t you talk to anyone? No one is making you stay here. You could just—”

“Just what?” He barks a laugh as he pushes off from the bars of his cage, running his hands over his buzzed hair. “I’ve tasted your blood, Aster.” His voice cracks as he presses his fists to his eyes, shaking his head. “And I… I don’t know if I can stay away,” he adds, sounding small, broken. “I don’t want to hurt you or anyone else.”

My anger fades with every tear that streaks his face.

“You were compelled. You won’t hurt me,” I say quietly, steadily, taking a step closer to his cell. “I trust you.”

“And look where that’s gotten us!” He half-snorts, half-sobs, refusing to meet my gaze. “You’re clearly a poor judge of character.”

His words are like a knife to the gut. Regret flickers in his eyes as he turns to me, his hand flexing at his side, but I speak before he can.

“Like you’re any better!” I say, hoping he thinks rage is what causes my voice to tremble. “This is what he wants, you know. He wants us to blame each other—blame ourselves. I’m not going to give him the satisfaction.”

“You don’t understand. I can’t trust myself.”

“I don’t understand?” I tighten my grip on the keys to keep my hand from shaking. “Will took my choices away—he compelled me so that I couldn’t think clearly. So that I would want to be with him.”

His gaze snaps to mine like a whip. A dark, murderous mask settles over his features. I note the familiar, lethal calm he’s mastered, but because I’ve heard it before, it’s easy to detect the tremor in his voice when he asks, “He what?”

I swallow the lump in my throat. “From the moment Will took my family and me captive, he’s influenced my thoughts, my feelings. I—” My voice turns squeaky, raw. Tears burn my cheeks. I squeeze my eyes shut. Everything is spinning again. Spinning and spinning and—

“Love.” Titus’s voice is soft, tender. Closer than before.

I take a step back, and when I open my eyes, I look down at the keys in my hands—at the indention they leave in my palm.

I can’t believe I ever thought that what he’d said in the dungeons could be true. After everything that’s happened, he didn’t even want to see me. He used me to find the cure for Will—to discover if his fiancée was possessed by Morana. Now he’s lost both Will and Leo—the two people he truly cared about. Not me.

Never me.

I wipe the tears from my face. Take a shaky breath.

I’m finally free of Will’s influence—finally free to think for myself. To feel the things he tried to suppress. Feelings that had taken root in my chest from a time before I can even remember. Feelings that have wrapped themselves so tightly around my heart I feel like I can’t breathe.

By coming here, I’ve humiliated myself. Because clearly, Titus doesn’t feel the same way.

“I almost died for the cure,” I say, praying there’s an edge to my voice that’s sharper than I feel. “If you want to stay here and wallow in self-pity, that’s your choice. But I’m free of my curse, and I intend to live like it.”

He doesn’t say anything as I shove the key into the lock.

“Remember, you have to live,” I murmur, meeting his gaze to find he’s already staring at me, his expression taciturn. “Isn’t that what you told me?”

He flinches, his jaw tight.

“You’ve got your life back,” I say. “Now you get to choose what you’re going to do with it. If it’s sitting in this cell, feeling sorry for yourself, fine. But if you want to do something about all this—if you want to get back at the people who stole our choices from us, then you know where to find me.”

I turn the key. The lock clicks, loud and solid and final.