Page 76 of Cursebreaker

“There’s only one feeling I’m certain of.” He leans forward, wetting his lips. “I wish, now, that I could have done things differently. I should have told you the night of the Reckoning Day ball. I should have—”

Owen bursts into the room, breathing hard.

“She’s—” He skids to a halt. A wry grin twists his mouth as Titus retreats to the opposite end of the couch, his fists clenched in his lap once again. “Well, well, well.”

I glare at Owen, promising retribution, but he just smiles.

“Hate to break up whatever’s going on here,” he says, clucking his tongue, “but Batya’s finished the salve.”

We gather around the shield, teetering on a small, rickety table, as Batya coats her eyes in a foul-smelling green mush.

Gabriel watches, eyes narrowed, as she plasters on the paste. “So… can anyone use the salve?”

“No,” Batya says simply.

“Only Sorceresses?”

“Yes.”

“All Sorceresses?”

“No.”

He drums his fingers on the surface of the shield. “Just the ones who can read…”

“Animaela, yes.”

“And—”

“Perhaps,” Titus says with an exasperated look at Gabriel, “Batya could answer your very pressing questions after we’re through here?”

I think the pointed tips of Gabriel’s ears might burn crimson, but Batya begins to chant, her hands hovering over the shield, and a hush falls over the room.

Titus stands beside me, our shoulders touching just barely, enough to send waves of heat coursing through my veins.

“Aster?” Batya says, her voice a low hum.

I take a deep breath and place my right hand on the shield. The air pulses, casting my hair over my shoulder, and to my left, Titus’s fingers brush mine.

When Batya speaks again, her voice is clear, resonant.

“Where mermaids call

Born by night

Where dragons soar

And stars take flight.”

The shield rattles.

So do the floorboards.

Gabriel draws a long, curved blade from a makeshift sheath at his back. I don’t even have time to wonder where he got it before he hisses, “Someone’s coming.”

The shield glows brighter, almost blinding, engulfed in a cloud of glittering golden dust. Batya’s hands begin to shake.

“Where what is given