by Kaylin Lee
I trudged through the muddy clearing and up the steps to the entrance, letting the curse lead me. It shivered with excitement as I pried open the grand, double doors and stepped inside.
They will be waiting, it preened as it shuffled me through the hallways. Right on time, right on time, right—
The ballroom was enormous. I scanned it numbly, noting the high windows, the extravagant crystal chandeliers, and the crowd of beautiful, colorless mages who watched me enter, their expressions ranging from bored and disgusted to satisfied, even thrilled. I expected whispers, laughter, or mockery but received only ominous silence.
“Welcome, Briar Rose.” Piers stood at their head.
Elektra smirked at me from beside him, her gaze holding a secret humor. “Yes, welcome,” she echoed. “If you will …” She gestured behind her, and the crowd parted to reveal a high, thin bed in the center of the ballroom. Silvery gauze surrounded it, blown by a magical wind.
My limbs felt heavy, my stomach ill. I’d known. I’d known. I shouldn’t be so scared, but I was.
I fixed Tavar’s face in my mind as the curse pulled me toward the bed. Well done, Bri, he’d said a month ago, and I wanted the words to be the last I ever heard. You’ll make it. I know you will.
I lay down. The bed was stiff. The gauzy fabric scratched at my skin.
My head touched the pillow, and with a satisfied cry of victory, the curse took hold. A heavy, fuzzy wave of sleepiness drifted through my body. Fabric rustled around me, bright and tingly with magic, and I got the sense that my Sentinels uniform had been replaced by something new. I could only imagine what my shroud must look like as my eyes drifted shut.
I was dimly aware of applause and laughter coming from the ballroom. “Beautiful,” someone cried. “Bravo!”
Heaviness slowed my heartbeat and immobilized my arms and legs, then my fingers and toes. Eternal sleep had come.
I waited. Wait … why was I still conscious?
A shadow darkened my closed eyes. I tried to open my eyes, but only managed a sliver. It was just enough of a crack to reveal Elektra leaning over me.
“Not what you were expecting, is it?” Her soft, playful tone filled me with dread. “I made a few tweaks when I designed your curse. Thought it would be more interesting this way. Eternal sleep of your body, not your mind.”
She brushed her fingers gently across my cheek, then dug her nails into my temple hard enough to leave deep gouges.
The curse’s sleep held me so tightly, I couldn’t even whimper.
“You made it five years, and here you are. I’m sure it wasn’t easy. Well done, Briar Rose. It’s amazing what a curse can do, isn’t it? Push you to the limits of yourself.” She chuckled. “And even beyond them.”
Through the fringe of my eyelashes, I could just barely make out the flash of light glinting on a crystal vial as Elektra poured a new curse over my skin.
Chapter 17
“Well done, Bri,” Tavar said quietly, his gaze approving, even admiring. “You’ll make it. I know you will.”
I touched his face, dismayed when my fingers slipped through his image. “Don’t leave me,” I tried to say. But there was a strangling fire in my throat, and the words wouldn’t pass my lips.
Tavar shook his head, his brow furrowing like he was disappointed. Did he know about my curse yet? Had Alba returned and told the Sentinels what I’d done? I wasn’t sure how long I’d been sleeping. The time I’d spent under Elektra’s torture curses had passed like a whip, never giving me a moment to catch my breath.
It didn’t matter. He’d find out eventually, and once Tavar knew about my five years of lies and betrayal, there was no chance he’d still call me a friend.
My skin was so sore. I ached for relief, for coolness. The fire from Elektra’s most recent curse had sent me into the dark peace of unconsciousness quickly, but I could feel the pain again now, even half-asleep, which meant she hadn’t killed me. Yet.
Tavar appeared again. “Well done, Bri. You’ll make it—”
I reached for Tavar’s face again, a torturous longing rushing through me, almost more painful than the burns ravaging my skin. “Don’t leave me. I can’t do this without you.”
My fingers slipped through his image once again.
Another voice came from behind Tavar—a woman sobbing, words in the Western language intermixing with her cries.
“What about the ones we left behind?” Tavar spoke to me, translating Balei’s words as he’d done so many years earlier. His gaze was hard now, accusing and condemning. His features shifted, his anger so cold, I barely recognized him. “What about the ones we left behind?”
I’d betrayed him so completely. Of course, he would hate me now. I’d served the cruel mages who’d killed his parents, who’d created the plague, who’d destroyed the Western world on a whim.
I tried to picture Tavar’s face again, tried to imagine it affectionate rather than accusing, but the details of his features were fading already.
It didn’t matter how he felt about me, did it? I was alone now, alone in the dark, horrible future I’d made with my own mistake. And this was what I deserved—to pay for my own senseless, selfish choice.
At least Mom and Alba were safe. No one knew where I was, and no one would be coming for me and falling into this trap. That would be my comfort.
“—delivery is late again. Worthless Fenra servants! The native descendants of this continent are shifty to the core. You can never trust them to do what they’ll say.” Piers’s sour griping pulled me from sleep, heightening my awareness of the fiery wounds on my skin.
“That’s why we make curses.” Elektra sounded bored. “I don’t know why you always expect them to choose obedience. They’re no better than animals, brother. Choice is wasted on such weak-willed creatures.”
“It’s the principle of the matter,” Piers ground out. “They should recognize our power, just like the land does. Drusilla did, remember her? Of course, the old Wasp had to be cursed in the end, but we got several years of service out of her by threat alone.” He huffed a sigh. “As it should be. Obedience is the only proper response to power.”
“Drusilla was obedient, yes.” Elektra’s voice drew closer. I heard the horrible clinking of glass on glass over my head. The now-familiar sound always ushered in another one of her curses. “But Demetrius was a nightmare, the foolish old Wolf. Remember how he tried to spare his own clansmen from becoming our servants along with the rest of Draicia? A good curse would have kept the very thought from his mind. And we would be enjoying vast stores of power sucked from the aurists right now, instead of squeezing the last few drops of magic from the land.” Her shadow darkened my closed eyes as she moved closer to me. “Aren’t you sick of pulling magic up from the earth? This worthless continent is nearly empty by now. It’s been three centuries since my skin held the slightest bit of color. I’m afraid we’ll be nothing but mists and vapors any day now.”
“Mists and vapors? Oh, don’t be dramatic.” Piers huffed. “The aurists would only have lasted a few years anyway. Yes, we’ve had to scrimp and save out here, but soon we’ll be swimming in magic, won’t we? Just as the Master planned from the beginning. We’ve waited long enough, and soon we’ll reap our reward.”
Tingles of magic tickled my absorbent sense, announcing Elektra’s newest curse. I pictured the open vial hovering over my helpless, sleeping body. Dread and anticipation coursed through me. I was still burning from her last curse! Why wouldn’t she leave me alone?
“Elektra.” Piers’s voice held a warning note.
“What? I’m not going to kill it. Not for at least a century or two. And certainly not until Zel is here to watch.”
“You just cursed it a few hours ago! Must you waste our resources on an unconscious servant?”
“Has it occurred to you that in less than a fortnight, there will be hardly anyone left to curse? I’m only using up the torture vials I made in the past few decades.” A hot, tingly liquid landed with a wet spl
ash on my chest and stomach. She’d just dumped the entire vial—
“Honestly, Piers, don’t look at me like that!” Elektra snarled. “Killjoy. I’m just as thrifty as you are. Don’t begrudge me a bit of fun. It’s not as though we’ll need them for anything else, will we? Why should I let my hard work go to waste?”
Fire licked my skin, searing my nerves with excruciating pain. I focused on the conversation, the room, the noises—anything to take my mind off the pain.
“—long as you save the strong curses. We might get some use out of them yet. You never—”
An angry clink of glass, the stopper shoved back into the vial.
“—shouldn’t have to curse that foolish Procus couple to get our deliveries on time. And the woman—foolish, vain Althea—I don’t know why you’re not just as angry as I am. She failed to deliver Briar’s twin. Didn’t you want a matched set of sleeping girls for the ballroom? You even made a second bed—”
The burning grew in strength as the new curse spread throughout my body. I tried to picture Tavar’s face, but it wouldn’t appear.
“—would have been nice to have the twin, yes. Of course. But we can’t all have what we want, can we? We must make sacrifices for the cause. Finish the Master’s work, control the continent, rule—”
Fire consumed me.
“—the principle—”
“—final shipment. Can’t you waive your principles for a moment? The crater wall is nearly complete! We should just go and retrieve—”
The pain won. I felt my consciousness withdraw, unable to stand the heat on my skin any longer.
Tavar’s image appeared at last. Memories blended together, a comforting blanket of treasured moments woven by desperation.
“Well done, Bri.”
“She said you’re brave.”
“Their lives mattered. It was enough.”
A voice echoed in the distance as reality faded away. “Oh, fine. Fine! Let’s just go. But I won’t leave those two Fenra idiots standing, I promise you that. They’ll know the price of their disobedience—”
“You’ll make it. I know you will.”
The pain disappeared, taking my mind with it.
Chapter 18
I woke abruptly. It was night. I could sense the darkness even with my eyes closed. But the ballroom was full of mages, the trace of their tingly magic brushing painfully against my burned, scarred skin.
“The one you await is close.” An unfamiliar mage spoke. “The mirrors have confirmed it. What are your orders?”
There was a wary tension in the room. It was near silent, though I sensed dozens had gathered near my bed.
“Elektra.” Piers’s voice was deep and solemn. “Is the device ready or not? Another delay—”
“It’s ready,” she hissed. “Are you?”
There was a skin-crawling pause.
“Yes.”
“We could always wait, you know,” Elektra sang teasingly. “Slaughter the soldiers, capture Zel, and then start the device. I don’t want you to miss the fun.”
“The device is our top priority,” Piers said stiffly. “And the land magic is nearly drained. We can’t take the chance that the device will be damaged or its activation delayed.”
“Surely we can handle a few magicless creatures, no matter how many weapons they carry.”
I forced my eyes to crack open. Piers stood beside a tall, crystalline structure. It was a statue, I realized as I squinted in the dark ballroom. A statue in the form of a tall, narrow-shouldered man wearing old-fashioned robes.
“We cannot take the risk.” Piers squared his shoulders. “Finish the Master’s work. Control the continent. Rule the weak.”
The mages gathered in the ballroom echoed his words, their voices high and excited.
“Let us have a toast,” Elektra said. She waved her hand. Goblets appeared in front of each mage.
Piers took his from the air and lifted it as he turned to face the group. I could just barely see his profile as he stood beside the tall statue at the foot of my bed.
“Seven hundred years ago, Death’s Master made us,” Piers said solemnly. “We were the strongest of his people—resistant to our True Names, powerful in magic, second only to the Master himself. He offered each of us a choice—to submit to his curse and rule with him forever, or to die at his hand. We chose life. Survival for eternity. We chose power, everlasting power, sustained by the will of the only one more powerful than us.
“When our Master sustained fatal injuries at the hands of those irreverent Fenra creatures, he knew that true dominion over the weak would be accomplished only in his death. He devoted the last of his will to the creation of our first sorbus seeds, the ancient rock that our ancestors had thought perished with their homeland.
“The seeds were planted in this very mountain. The rocks grew and were harvested. His magnificent crop of sorbus lines our crater now, and we are ready to enact the final step of his plan. Our patient obedience, dear brothers and sisters, has been rewarded at last.” Piers lifted his goblet higher. “To our great Master—to Death’s Master! May he rule eternally, even from the grave.”
Piers drank, then threw the goblet to the ground, where it shattered. He faced the statue, opened his arms wide, and threw his head back. “Let us finish his work!” he cried. Silver light shot out his body toward the statue.
A flash of bright light flared from the crystal statue, absorbing Piers’s silver light before it disappeared.
I blinked instinctively at the brightness, the barest flicker of my lashes.
Piers frowned at me. Had he seen me blink? His gaze locked on my face, his mouth parted in a surprise O, but it was too late. More silver rushed out of his body and swirled around the statue. His face slackened and his eyes went blank. He collapsed to the ballroom floor.
A surge of powdery, white wind rushed through the ballroom, encircling the statue. A high-pitched whine quickly built into an ear-piercing crescendo.
Elektra opened another curse. A fresh wave of silver engulfed the enormous statue. There was thunderous SNAP, and the statue disappeared, taking the wind and noise with it.
The dark ballroom was silent for a moment. Elektra stepped over Piers’s body.
“Our brother’s sacrifice has begun the work we’ve planned for centuries,” she cried, addressing the mages gathered before her. “We will honor his sacrifice by changing the plan.”
The mages stirred uncomfortably.
“We will not kill these soldiers. No. We will curse them.”
“But our brother said—”
“He was wrong.” Elektra tossed her thin hair and raised her chin. “It would dishonor our Master to kill everyone.”
“But our instructions were—”
“We’ll kill nearly everyone, of course. The rest of the continent will be dead in a fortnight, exactly as planned. But we’ll leave these soldiers alive for our continued dominion. You’ll find this well within the bounds of our curse.”
There was a thoughtful silence, then a few mages nodded, like they’d tested her words inside themselves.
“Do we truly need them alive?”
“No, no. But I’m certain we will want them. You will, especially. Otherwise I’ll have no one to use for my amusement but you lot, and you don’t want that, do you?”
There was an awkward shuffling noise, like the other mages weren’t sure whether to chuckle or argue.
“What kind of curse did you have in mind?” The mage closest to me spoke up, his voice obsequiously polite.
“Something pretty and colorful, to go with our silver, sleeping girl here …”
“Perhaps the flower garden enslavement curses?”
“Ah! Perfect. Roses. A rose garden.” Elektra tapped my feet. “Fitting, to surround our Briar Rose with a garden full of friends and family, a garden to suffer with her into eternity.”
“They are nearly to the crater.” A mage held up a small mirror. “You’re certain we are not to fight
?”
“We are all under the same curse, are we not?” A large, crystal vial appeared in Elektra’s hands. “Tell me yourself if this is the Master’s true way.”
The mage nodded slowly. “You are right, sister. Our dominion will be more complete if we have a few more witnesses.”
They fanned out, muttering strange words and flinging liquid from their vials onto the ballroom floor, quickly leaving my line of sight. I felt the stinging of the curses with my absorbent sense as their magic leeched into the air.
“Retire to your rooms when you’ve finished our garden,” Elektra said from the far end of the ballroom. “There’s no need to exert ourselves in this fight, and they will enter the trap more confidently if we are not present.”
With a rustle of robes and whisper-light footfalls, the mages left the room.
I waited, unmoving yet inwardly hysterical, my final comfort taken from me.
This—to not only suffer, but to cause the suffering of everyone I loved—this would be my true end.
Chapter 19
An eternity passed before I felt a quiet rumble in my bed. The rumble turned into a bone-jarring blast, and then the ballroom wall opposite my bed disintegrated into a cloud of smoke and rubble.
Smoke cleared. Shadowy figures filed into the ballroom, crossbows pointed. I strained to open my eyes fully as two shadows sprinted toward me, but I could not manage more than a small crack.
“Bri!” Mom’s face appeared above me, her brow furrowed. Her fingers brushed the burns on my face and neck. “Baby, oh my girl, my girl, what have they done to you?”
I only managed to blink helplessly at her, desperate to warn her but unable to do anything more than flutter my lids.
“Free her! Hurry!” Dad appeared beside Mom, his gaze wild. “We need a medic over here!” he called over his shoulder in a hoarse whisper.
“A medic won’t be enough.” Mom tugged at something, making the curse shriek inside me. “We’ll have to get her straight to Alba.”
“It’s all tangled—”
“Just cut it.”