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Then the pain hit.
My spine bowed and my knees buckled. I clenched my jaw against my will if only because the muscles seized so tightly that I thought my teeth might shatter. Even over the rush of blood in my ears, I heard Beryl’s chuckle as another curse gripped my bones and etched its story into me.
I was getting tired as hell of fae curses. Beryl found ways to write hers so that I would never escape from them. I couldn’t escape from the curse that twisted my arcana until it was Unseelie because Rhoan and I had kissed long before she laid it on me. True love’s first kiss had missed that one by a matter of hours.
I wondered what misery she’d wrought this time as I gasped for air on my hands and knees. Of course, my court watched with bated breaths. Silence settled in when no one dared speak. Heavy footfalls approached. I could almost hear Rhoan’s rage in them.
He helped me back to my feet. I had no choice but to lean on him as I inspected my new existence under yet another curse.
Beryl grinned down at me.
“You’re nothing but a petulant child who never grew up,” I grumbled as I wiped embarrassing spittle off my chin. “No one would let you play with any toys, so now you’re determined to break as much as you can.”
A flicker of rage sparked in her eyes. No one deserved the childhood she had, but that didn’t mean that she got to lash out at the world because of it. I should know from experience. I had to deal with Alvin all my life. He was a bastard that made my teenage years almost unbearable. But I wasn’t out making that everyone else’s problem.
“You speak of things you do not understand,” Beryl whispered, a threatening tone slithering beneath her words.
She could threaten all she wanted. Every time she hit me, I got back up. And when I got back up, I would hit back as hard as I could.
Now seemed like a good time to take her court. I reached through this domain and the ties that it once had to Beryl’s underground court. They still lingered like dangling threads swaying in a wind trying to push the castle back into her hands. That showed me exactly where I needed to reach until I finally grazed the seed of power in her court.
There was something off about it, but now wasn’t the time for hesitation. I would accept whatever consequences came after this and add it to the pile with the rest.
“If you want to act like a child, then I will treat you as such and take everything away so that you can no longer break anything. Perhaps, if you quit being such a brat, I’ll give it back to you someday.” My brow furrowed even as I spoke.
Beryl leaned back, seemingly bemused by my words.
Had she put some sort of oracle curse on me? What was this? I had absolutely no plans to let her have any of this back. It would be completely irresponsible of me to even consider it. So, why had that come out of my mouth?
If I survived this, I was going to invest in a field of nightsmane and find a way to break this curse through my own craft. I was not going to live under Beryl’s constant stipulations even long after she was gone.
Even Rhoan gave me an odd look, as if to ask why I would even suggest such a thing. I realized that my court had heard it, too. Though I had no idea what this curse had done to me, I needed to be very careful moving forward. My people were listening, and I could not afford to lead them astray.
Lifting my chin, I remained silent while I took ahold of the seed of power in Beryl’s court. The seed opened and unfurled into a set of vines that unfurled all across the court and claimed it as my own.
Beryl recoiled as if struck. She let out a sound that seemed pained. It almost hurt to hear, but I couldn’t afford to let up. Beryl might have been my mother’s sister, but those blood ties clearly meant nothing to her. If I stopped to consider them…
Then I would be a better person than Beryl.
That’s when I found it. Nestled inside my seed of power was another, smaller seed. For a moment, my heart lifted. I thought that perhaps my fae mother had found a way to instill herself inside the seed. I would finally be able to meet her outside of a dream. But no, the seed belonged to a blood relative, just not my fae mother’s.
The little bead of power belonged to Beryl. It soaked up power from all around it—power that was mine.
Looking up, I saw that the glamour of Beryl had shrunken. She was barely any taller than myself now. She stared daggers at me. Even though she still had a tiny stake in the underground court, it no longer belonged to her.
The court was mine, and she could tell.
“Get out,” I said.
I knew that if I uttered anything else, there was a chance that I could betray myself. My court already heard me consider giving everything back to Beryl someday. Speaking had become a risk I couldn’t afford.
Which was frustrating, to say the least—no, that pun was not intended.
I wanted to rush off to my tower and start brewing a potion that would remove the curse from my bones, but there was too much still going on. Though the glamour of Beryl disappeared without another word, I still had a court to address.
The whole point of this party had been to convince everyone that Rhoan was on our side, and that, together, he and I would keep them all safe. It felt a bit like we’d failed.
“If we don’t move quickly, she’s going to take the underground court back,” I warned Rhoan.
