Everything was stacked on the table. A golden pheasant rested on the round gold platter my father had touched when throwing the feast celebrating The Touch. An embossed leaf design ran around the edge of the platter. Alongside the pheasant was the big carving knife he’d grasped. Its long, transformed blade gleamed. Next to those rested the single rose he’d plucked from the garden, its petals trapped in a perfect bloom. There were three coins that had previously been worth next to nothing but now carried their own hefty weight. Only the fish symbol stamped on each marked them as having originally been copper. I doubted any shopkeeper would see anything but the color and willingly accept it.
Two chalices, each with a rose border running around the lip, glimmered on the table. My father had ordered them made for my mother as a wedding gift, and they’d toasted their marriage with those cups.
Next to the chalices was a small golden tapestry no longer than my arm. It was rolled up, and I recall thinking it resembled a hollow log more than a piece of art. I never did find out what design it concealed. I’m not sure even my father knew.
At the end of the table was a golden necklace. My mother’s necklace.
My father ran his fingers along the edge of the table. “What are we going to do, brother?” He turned to look at Pheus.
“The gold must be destroyed if you ever want the curse to fully end,” Pheus said.
“Would it destroy me too?” my father replied. His gaze turned back to the golden objects. “Already, I can feel the gold taking over my thoughts. It’s all I can think about. Waking, sleeping. At all times, it’s there, waiting for me to let it take over.”
Pheus laid a hand on my father’s shoulder. “We’ll find a way to end this. Together.”
I wanted to offer some comfort, but I couldn’t concentrate on their conversation. Being that close to the gold ignited something within me. It was almost as if the gold hummed softly, inviting me to come touch it. Just one touch wouldn’t hurt.
But it did hurt.
I touched the necklace, which sat on a plump purple cushion. It looked like the one my mother wore in the portrait hanging in my father’s room. I’d wanted to see what it would look like on me, to see if I could ever be as pretty as my mother despite my now-golden skin.
I never got to find out because the instant the gold grazed my skin, it absorbed into my body. The necklace dulled to silver.
I managed a sharp intake of breath before my insides turned to ice. The gold spun its web across my veins and down my bones, just like it had when my father hugged me in the garden. I flung my hands, trying to shake it off. I cried out.
My hand collided with something. It was the guard, roused by my cry. And the moment my skin touched his outstretched hand, the gold rushed from my body. It climbed over the guard, hardening him in place.
He’d become a statue.
His arms reached out for an invisible object. One leg was frozen backward. Golden eyes stared unblinking.
My father slumped against the wall with a groan. Pheus stood open-mouthed, looking back and forth between the guard and me. “What have you done?” he whispered.
“I didn’t do it,” I stuttered, unable to take my eyes from the guard’s golden form. From my own distorted reflection gleaming back at me.
I reached out to my father and uncle.
Pheus moved away in terror, his eyes wide and his hands clasped to his chest.
I collapsed to the ground, horrified by what I had done. As I fell, my elbow crashed against the golden boot of the guard. Before I could even think my elbow should hurt, the gold careened back into my body, navigating its way toward my heart. All I’d done was touch it, and it had jumped right back into my body.
The guard sputtered back to life. Although his skin, thankfully, hadn’t retained any of the gold coloring, the wild look in his eyes showed he hadn’t escaped unscathed.
He stared at me. His breathing was as heavy as mine.
Before I could explain or apologize or form whatever words my brain was trying to produce, the man ran from the room.
Pheus tarried only a moment before cursing and chasing after him.
I did the only thing I could think of: I reached back and wound my tiny fingers around the necklace. My skin tingled as the gold passed through it, returning the necklace to its golden state.
Only my father remained in the room. I waited for him to speak, to explain or reassure. Even his anger would’ve been better than his silence. But he just stared at me like I was a monster. A monster he’d created.
I fled past him to the library.
When the door to the library creaked open hours later, I stuck my tear-stained face out from between shelves full of nautical books. I expected my father’s form to grace the entryway.
It was Pheus.
He carried a golden candelabra in his hand and remained in the doorway until I emerged. I waited for him to punish me. But what he said surprised me.
“Touch it,” he said, placing the candelabra on the floor and backing away.
I shook my head.
“I need to know if it’s all gold or just the objects your father turned.” He crossed his arms and waited. “This will help me keep the people in the palace safe.”
I didn’t want to know what the powers could or couldn’t do. I just wanted them to go away. I never wanted to touch gold again.
But Pheus wouldn’t leave until I did.
I neared the candelabra.
I knelt a few feet away. I could feel the gentle heat of the candles wafting toward me as I leaned forward ever so slightly. I placed my hand over my heart for a moment, hoping it wasn’t the last time I’d feel it beat.
I extended a trembling finger and touched the base. Gold drained from it into my body. The flames didn’t even waver.
“Do you have the same power your father did?” Pheus pondered. His eyes took on a somber color in the candlelight.
I wanted to shout that I didn’t have the same power; I had the same curse. But I couldn’t answer. The gold was adhering to my insides, clinging to muscles and ripping down sinews, but it hadn’t consumed me. I was still alive. Still breathing.
That didn’t mean I could control it. The longer it pulsed through my body, the harder it got to contain. My head pounded. My muscles ached as the gold dug deeper into them, finding grooves and spaces I didn’t know existed within my own body.
The metal spun through my mind. The room spun in response. Without thinking, I reached out an arm to steady myself against the ground. I didn’t even feel the softness of the rug beneath me before it turned to gold. My body only felt the instant relief of the gold draining into the rug.
Pheus jumped when the rug beneath his feet hardened.
As I gathered myself, I began to realize that as I absorbed gold, anything I was already touching, like my clothes, remained untainted, but the next thing I touched instantly turned to gold. And the size of the object didn’t matter. The amount of gold in a tiny necklace could turn an entire man into a statue. A candelabra’s gold could cover a rug that spanned half the library.
Pheus had moved to the other side of the room by the door. His face was unreadable in the shadows. “Put it back.”
I removed my hand from the rug and then plunged it back down again. The gold jumped back into my body.
I returned the candelabra to its golden state and was left shivering.
Pheus frowned and pursed his lips, as if he already understood the weight of my curse. “Now, I can make a full report to your father,” he said. He moved toward the candelabra, but stopped before picking it up. He withdrew his hands and clasped them behind his back instead. “You must be very careful, Kora. For now, it would be best if you went back to your room.”
Then he’d left to go tell my father about what my curse could do. I’d stayed in the library for hours trying to find a legend, a mixture of herbs, anything my young mind could think of that would fix it. I found nothing and had collapsed, crying and begging to the
library rafters for Dionysus to return.
Later that night, I snuck toward my father’s room. Maybe he and Pheus had found a way to cure us. Or maybe my father would just hold me and tell me it was going to be all right. I crept into his outer rooms. The fireplace was cold and unlit, but light spilled out of his bedroom chamber. I stood outside the cracked door and took a breath, praying that when I walked in and he saw me, he wouldn’t make the same disgusted face I’d seen when he turned me to gold.
Whispered voices leaked out of the room.
“She can’t control what she can do any more than you could,” Uncle Pheus said. “Our only stroke of luck is that the guard she turned to gold ran down to the ocean and drowned himself. No one else can know. The people are superstitious. They’d revolt if they thought the curse was still alive, still active.”
My heart clenched in my chest. I instinctively reached forward to steady myself and collided with the door, pushing it inward.
Uncle Pheus’s eyes went wide at the intrusion. He stood next to my father’s ornately carved wooden bed. My father lay among the silken blankets, looking drained and weak. He didn’t smile. He didn’t react. He only stared somewhere past me.
“Please.” I staggered toward Pheus. He could fix anything. All the people in Lagonia went to him for advice. “Please,” I said. “What can we do?”
He shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry, Kora. We’re trying to find a cure, but I don’t know if there’s anything that can fix this.”
My lower lip trembled. I stared at the ceiling as though I expected to find an answer hiding up there. “What about Dionysus?” I said. I’d found nothing about him in the library, and my earlier begging had failed. But someone had to know his whereabouts and how to bring him to the palace.
Pheus lowered his gaze. “Even if we could find him, I doubt he’d help us again. He deals in tricks and wordplay, always leaving chaos in his wake.”
Guilt coursed through me faster than the gold had earlier. “I didn’t know this was going to happen,” I said. It was the only explanation I could offer.
Pheus nodded solemnly. “All we can do now is prevent it from ever happening again.”
I swallowed. “I promise. I promise I’ll never touch gold again.” Even as I said the words, it didn’t fill the emptiness I felt. I doubted anything ever would.
Pheus made it an easy promise to keep. All the gold objects disappeared from the palace. The candelabras were stripped bare. The gold plates were replaced with silver. The golden mirrors were taken away and sold. Even my father’s crown was replaced with a silver replica. Only a few ornate carriages were left in case visiting dignitaries arrived and needed to be carted around. Pheus outlawed the wearing of gold in the palace. Silver became the highest currency in Lagonia. He passed it all off as my father not wanting gold around, but I knew it was all because of me. He was right to be scared of what I could do, of who I could hurt.
My father lost all the strength he’d gained over the previous days, and a man had died because of what I’d done.
I was a monster.
CHAPTER 13
Aris looks down at me expectantly, waiting for me to tell him about the worst part of myself. But if I reveal my secret and he decides to abandon me here, I don’t know what I’ll do. The whole world would be against me again. Only this time, I know it will hurt worse. Much worse.
He grabs my hand and pulls me closer until our clasped hands are all that stand between us. “You’re safe with me. You can tell me. You are not your curse, remember?”
I am not my curse. I repeat it over and over again. I close my eyes and let the words wrap around my mind, working their way through the wall built there by the gold. The one that says not to tell anyone. Not to admit the truth. Because that would make it real. And part of me still clings to the hope that it was a one-time thing. That it’s never going to happen again.
Aris squeezes my hand, reminding me that he is real too. That what I feel every time I look at him—the uptick in my pulse, the blush in my cheeks—that is real. That is more powerful than any curse could ever be.
I close my eyes. “I can turn things to gold,” I say. I release the words to the wind, to the world, quickly. Because now I can never get them back. “I first have to absorb gold from something else in order to do it.”
“Okay.”
I open my eyes. It’s as simple as that. His face hasn’t faltered. He hasn’t run away. He hasn’t presented me with a golden object and demanded to see a demonstration. He merely accepts it.
He runs his thumb down the back of my hand. Energy pulses between us as he continues the motion, rubbing away the last of the tower memory with his slow circles. I realize it’s the first time I’ve been comforted. No one’s ever told me who I am is okay.
I stare down at our clasped hands, willing him to never let go.
My heartbeat pounds through my body as his eyes slowly move down my face and land on my lips. One hand moves up to my cheek. He trails his thumb down my jawline, stopping at my chin to tilt it upward.
“Is there anything else?” he asks gently.
I shake my head. “You already know I can sense the gold.”
“All gold? Or just your father’s?”
“Just my father’s,” I confirm. “But it hasn’t taken over my mind like it has his.” I pray it never does.
“And we’ll never let it,” Aris reassures.
His eyes stay on mine as he leans forward. And then he presses his lips gently against mine. His other arm swoops behind me, pressing me harder against him.
I close my eyes and let myself melt against him. I want the heat from his arm around me to thaw the iciness that has kept me prisoner so long. The gold tugs at my mind, but I push it away. I don’t want anything ruining this moment.
I focus on the trail of tingling skin his touch leaves behind as his fingers slide across my cheek. I let myself get lost in the warmth of his lips, in the way they draw me closer and closer until my arms wrap around him of their own accord, unwilling to let go.
When Aris finally pulls away, breathless, he lets his forehead rest against mine, like he’s trying to give me the strength to face my curse.
I bite the sides of my cheek to keep a smile from sliding across my face. I can still taste him on my lips, a sweet honeyed mead.
I never dreamed I’d be kissed. I don’t even know if I did it right. I don’t even care.
Aris smiles down at me reassuringly. “Now that we know who we’re up against and what they’re really after, we can stop them. But first we have to get off this boat.”
I nod, glad that we’re in agreement. I feel like we could face anything together. And we just might have to if Royce gets his way.
I drop my voice as several other sailors walk by clearing debris and straightening water collection barrels. “It’ll have to be while we’re on the Island of Lost Souls.”
“I’m sure we’ll be able to find help on the island. It’s our best chance,” Aris says. “You and I will escape and find someone else who can help us go after the gold.”
“And Hettie,” I say. “We can’t leave her behind.”
“Of course,” he says. “We’ll find a reason for all of us to go to shore. But can Hettie keep the secret? Should we wait until we’re on the island to tell her? I’ve heard from the crew she’s been spending time with Rhat. I wouldn’t want anything to slip out.”
Hettie does tend to try to impress people with what she knows, but she won’t let this slip. “She’ll keep it quiet.” If she doesn’t, we’re dead.
He nods. “All right.” He puts one hand on my cheek, warming the skin. “Whatever happens, remember we’re in this together. I’ll do whatever it takes to get you and the gold home safely.”
I nod. And I find I’m not scared, at least not as scared as I should be, especially with a place called the Island of Lost Souls looming somewhere ahead of us.
I stay below deck the next few days, knowing we just have to m
ake it to the Island of Lost Souls. Hettie, on the other hand, has focused on her scheme of figuring out Royce’s plan by getting close to Rhat.
After I told her about the plan to escape on the island, she claimed we would be given away if she didn’t keep up her charade with Rhat. She told me the two of them have been practicing sword fighting, climbing through the rigging, tying things in knots, and spending evenings in the crow’s nest looking at the stars.
The only night I venture onto the deck is the night we near the coast of the Island of Lost Souls. The night we’re going to escape.
The island comes into view just after midnight and looks barely twice the length of the entire castle grounds back home. Small, squat buildings dot the coast. No wonder most people don’t know about it. The island would be hard to find amidst all this open water.
Phipps and Thipps sidle up to me, one on each side, as I stare out over the waves. Their presence is startling. I’m not used to people being willing to get so close, especially once they see me without my hood or veil.
“So,” Phipps says, “my brother and I were thinking, that if the rumors are true and your father outlawed gold because all gold is attracted to you . . .”
Thipps jumps in. “Then we’d be happy to act as bodyguards when the gold comes flying at you right out of people’s pockets.”
“Not to mention we’re good at spotting a full purse and could loosen the bottom a little,” Phipps adds, “if you know what I mean.”
They’re talking so quickly I have to whip back and forth.
“Of course, we’d only want a nominal fee for our services,” Thipps says.
“Nominal. Very nominal,” Phipps assures me. “After all, we are taking the brunt of all that gold coming right at us.”
They both stare at me expectantly, eyes bright and smiles wide.
This is certainly a rumor I haven’t heard before. Gold flying out of pockets because it’s attracted to my skin? It would almost be laughable if there was any truth to it. And while normally I hate people bringing up the rumors about my curse, the twins seem to have done it in such a way that it almost feels like something I should be excited about simply because they’re so excited about it, like this is the biggest moment of their life and I’m lucky they’re letting me in on it.
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