A Vow So Bold and Deadly (Cursebreakers #3) - Brigid Kemmerer Page 0,1
have begun preparing armies on Lia Mara’s behalf.”
I close my fingers around the silver cubes. “Yes.”
“Syhl Shallow’s coffers have begun to run dry. You will likely have one chance to stand against him. The losses in the final battle with Emberfall were already great, due to Prince Rhen’s creature. A second assault will not be possible.” He pauses. “And you granted him sixty days to ready for battle.”
“I know.”
“As much as you long to preserve lives, these battles will not occur without loss.”
“I know that, too.”
Another gust of wind sweeps across the veranda, dashing out the flame again. This time, the wind was drawn by Iisak. I’ve learned the feel of his magic, how it lives in the air the way mine lives in my blood.
I give him a look and coax the flame back to life.
Another gust, and I narrow my eyes. Iisak always pushes. When I first began learning to control my magic, I found it frustrating, but I’ve come to enjoy the challenge. I keep my finger there, and the flame struggles to stay lit. Stars fill my vision as I try to keep the magic in place. The wind has grown strong enough that it stings my eyes and grabs at my cloak. Iisak’s wings flare, but the flame doesn’t die.
“Do you remember me saying I was cold?” I say.
He smiles and lets the wind swirl out to nothing.
In the sudden absence of his magic, my flame surges high for a moment, sending wax coursing down the sides of the candle, and I let go.
“Maybe it would be good to show Lia Mara’s people how magic can be useful,” he says.
I think of the people who’ve been healed by my magic. The way I’ve been able to keep enemies away from me, and, more slowly, away from anyone fighting alongside me. “I already have,” I say.
“I don’t mean you should simply strengthen your military force.”
I study him. “You mean I should use magic against Rhen.” I pause. “It’s exactly what he fears.”
“You told him you’re sending an army. He’ll be prepared to retaliate. He’ll be prepared to fight from a distance, the way kings do.”
But he’ll be powerless against magic.
I know he will. He already was.
“Rhen knows you,” says Iisak. “He expects violence. He expects an armed assault. He expects an efficiently brutal attack not unlike the one Karis Luran herself sent. You’ve assembled an army, and you may as well have made a vow.”
“Don’t underestimate him.” I think of the whip scars on my back. On Tycho’s back. “When he’s cornered, Rhen can be efficiently brutal himself.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Iisak makes the flame flicker again, and it glints off his black eyes. “So can you.”
CHAPTER TWO
RHEN
Once again, it is autumn at Ironrose Castle. The first cool wind of the season drifts through my windows and I shiver. I haven’t needed a fire in the morning in months, but today there’s a bite to the air that has me wanting to call for a servant to light the hearth.
I don’t.
For a near eternity, I used to dread the beginning of the season because it signaled that the curse had begun again. I would be newly eighteen, trapped in a never-ending repetition of autumn. I would be alone with Grey, my former guard commander, trying to find a girl to help me break the curse that tormented me and all of Emberfall.
This autumn, Grey is gone.
This autumn, I have a girl to stand at my side.
This autumn, I suppose, I am nineteen for the first time.
The curse is broken.
It doesn’t feel like it.
Lilith, the enchantress who once trapped me in the curse, now traps me in another way.
Harper, the first girl to break the curse, the “Princess of Disi” who swore to help my people, is in the courtyard below my window, swinging swords with Zo, her closest friend. Zo was once her guard, too, until she helped lead Grey to escape. I won’t take away Harper’s best friend, but I can’t have a sworn guard displaying divided loyalties.
Tensions are already too high.
Harper and Zo break apart, breathing heavily, but Harper almost immediately reclaims her stance.
It makes me smile. Cerebral palsy makes swordplay challenging—some would say impossible—but Harper is more determined than anyone I know.
A light voice speaks from behind me. “Ah, Your Highness. It is so adorable how Princess Harper believes she can excel at this.”
I lose the smile, but I don’t move from the window. “Lady Lilith.”
“Forgive me for interrupting your ponderings,” she says.