***
Sashe and Sierra went straight upstairs once they got home. Allison and her parents were talking with Alastor in his study. Sashe had tried to speak to Alastor, but he told her he’d talk to her after he was done. She paced around her bedroom, wringing her hands, while Sierra sat by the window and stared outside.
“What are they doing?” she asked.
“What?” Sashe said distractedly.
Sierra beckoned her over and pointed to Seth, Evan, and Dar outside. They were crouched by a tree, talking quietly. Evan had a stick in his hand, and he kept hitting Dar with it. Dar tackled him down, and the two started wrestling. Seth watched, laughing. The scene made Sashe’s heart lift a little bit.
Sierra laughed and shook her head. “They’re so dumb. When do you think Dar will mature? Like physically?”
“I don’t know,” Sashe said, shrugging. “Boys are always later than girls.”
“I’d hate that.” Sierra looked down at her chest. “I had to wait forever for these.”
Sashe rolled her eyes. “Please. Be glad you didn’t get them when you were ten, and they’re not as big as mine.”
“Oh, right!” Sierra scoffed. “If you had small ones, you’d want them bigger, I guarantee it.”
“And if you had these, you’d want them smaller, trust me.” Sierra grabbed her chest, the breasts for which she spent three years going through new dresses.
They started laughing, at first softly, then more and more loudly. They became kind of hysterical, especially as Sashe thought back to what they’d just sat through, what they’d just found out about the curse. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and somehow her laughs turned into sobs. She buried her head in her hands, sniffling.
Sierra wrapped an arm around Sashe. “Don’t cry, Sash. It’s going to be okay. Alastor will take care of everything.”
Sashe wiped her eyes and looked at her sister. She wished she could still believe Alastor could make everything better. But two dozen Avialies had died two weeks ago, and how many more would? She took shuddering breaths and leaned her head on Sierra’s shoulder. “I hope someone does.”
They started talking about what they’d heard through Allison’s door. They sat by the window and watched Allison’s carriage leave the courtyard and ride away.
“We should go ask Alastor and Natalia about the curse,” Sierra said.
A knock on the door sounded before either of them could stand from their spot by the window. Sashe stood and opened the door. The boys stood in the corridor, and Dar and Evan strode in past Sashe.
“Aren’t you supposed to ask to come in?” Sashe asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Can we come in?” Dar asked as he flung himself onto Sashe’s couch.
“May I come in, Lady Sashe?” Seth asked.
She rolled her eyes, her cheeks warming. “Please, Sir Seth,” she said with a curtsy.
He smiled and walked in. He glanced around the room, taking it all in. She sat at the chair in her desk, trying not to stare at him and gauge his reaction. Her room was fairly large. A couch and two armchairs stood around her expansive window. Her desk sat next to the door, and her wardrobe and bed were pushed up against the opposite wall. The carpets were blue and gold, and the tapestries had love stories with fantastical creatures woven into them.
“It’s nice in here,” Seth said, perching himself on one of the armchairs. “Almost as big as my whole house in Jolen.”
Sashe turned her chair towards him. “Did you live close to the ocean?”
“About five minute’s walk away.” Seth leaned back, straightening his legs in front of him.
“All right, all right,” Evan said loudly. “Tell us what you guys heard. Alastor and Natalia won’t tell us anything.”
Sierra told most of the conversation they heard, becoming very animated with the story. The boys were outraged he’d threatened Allison, especially Evan, who had a crush on her. When Sierra told them about the curse, they looked confused, then crestfallen.
“But. . .how can that even. . .how can one Thieran curse all the Avialies?” Evan asked.
“And how did they know about it? How come we didn’t know about it?” Dar asked. “They told Allison, but not us?”
There was a soft knock on the open door. Alastor stood in the corridor. Sierra and Evan jumped up with questions, and he held his hands up. They fell silent, Sierra with a sigh and Evan with a groan.
He walked in and sat on one of the armchairs. Sashe was a few feet away on the chair, and Sierra sat back on the window seat. She felt as if they were out of the picture, far from being touched by the curse. But that wasn’t true. They could never have children with an Avialie, even if they married a shape changer.
She thought of what she told Seth, how she hoped to learn more about him. No matter how well they might grow to know each other, she wasn’t having his children unless they broke the curse. Her face flushed. Two weeks of knowing him, and she was thinking about marrying him? She pushed the thought out of her mind.
“It’s true, what Allison said,” Alastor said. “Or at least, we think it is.”
“Could they be lying?” Dar asked, a note of hope in his voice.
“We have Thierans who have looked at pregnant women since the battle. That’s when we think they cast the curse, two weeks ago when Seth’s parents were killed.”
Sashe glanced at Seth. He was watching Alastor with his arms crossed, his face drawn.
Alastor continued, “Women can get pregnant with Avialie children, but the child won’t survive the pregnancy. The woman might not, either.”
A hand on Sashe’s shoulder made her jump. She looked up to see Natalia standing next to her.
“Isn’t there a way to break it?” Evan asked. “There has to be.”
“There has to be,” Alastor repeated faintly. “We have Thieran friends who are trying to find out ways to break it. Everything should be all right, but. . .”
“But if we don’t find a way, we could just die out,” Evan said quietly. “In a hundred years, there wouldn’t be any Avialies.”
“I won’t let that happen,” Alastor said. “None of us will.”
There was a moment of silence. Sashe couldn’t believe they were using magic to stifle them when they thought magic was so evil. No, only magic that could change forms was evil? Not magic that could kill an entire race of people?
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Dar asked.
“I didn’t think you should know,” Alastor replied. “I didn’t think you needed to.” He looked at Seth, then Sashe, and back down at his lap. “I didn’t want to worry any of you.”
Natalia’s grip tightened on her shoulders, and Sashe crossed her arms, staring at her feet.
Sierra sat up suddenly, staring out the window. “Someone’s coming. . .oh, my goodness, I think it’s. . .” She gasped, her eyes widening.
The others crowded around her. Sashe tried to see past them.
“It’s Lyle and Allison,” Alastor said, pushing past them to reach the corridor.
Seth spun around and ran straight into Sashe. She stumbled, and Seth grabbed her arms to steady her. “Sorry,” he mumbled.
“It’s all right,” she said, taking his hand and pulling him into the corridor after the others. Alastor and Natalia led the group, and she and Seth ended up in the back. They jogged down the corridor, down the steps, to the front doors.
They burst outside just as Lyle fell on the front steps. Allison fell from his arms, bloody and beaten. A large rip tore through her dress, her stomach stained with blood. More blood covered her battered face. Sashe gasped, backing up into Seth. He touched her arms, and she leaned into him.
Alastor ran for Allison before she could roll down the steps, and Natalia dropped next to Lyle, whose face and clothes were smeared with blood. Sashe couldn’t tell if it was his own or not. Allison looked so small in Alastor’s arms. She was the shortest of the three of them, the skinniest. B
lood dripped from her hair onto the concrete.
“Is she okay?” Natalia asked, her voice shaking.
“She’s dead,” Lyle choked out.
The world spun around Sashe, and she felt like the air was sucked from her lungs. Her knees went out, and she fell to the ground, but Seth was behind her, his strong arms around her as he murmured something in her ear. His breath tickled her neck. Sashe was vaguely aware of Sierra screaming. She tried to drag herself out of her shock, but it was as though she was watching the scene from underwater. Everything was fuzzy and she couldn’t breathe.
“Breathe, Sashe,” Seth whispered, his lips moving against her ear.
She closed her eyes, taking in shuddering gasps. The tears fell then, and Seth held her as she cried.
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