Curse Breaker (2)

1

In the fairytales my father used to tell me, the villain was always someone who wanted you dead.

They would chase after me through haunted forests in my nightmares. Their skin was wrinkled, noses hooked, eyes sunken in, teeth yellow and sharp. They were never young or beautiful. They were never kind or warm. They never lured you in with handsome smiles and fleeting touches.

Because a story where a villain can be someone you thought a friend is far too terrifying for a child.

But, still seated in the Torinnian shifter carriage as it jitters beneath my body, I can't help but wish the fairy tales had more adequately prepared me. Perhaps if I'd known, I wouldn't have been so fooled by a charming smile and bonded over stories of broken families. If I'd known, I wouldn't be held hostage, heading towards a Torinnian shifter camp instead of back to Veymaw.

If I'd known, I wouldn't have fallen for the enemy.

I brush a finger across Samu's forehead. His skin is warm, eyelids fluttering at my touch. We travelled along the road for more than a day. I stuck by Samu's side in the turbulent carriage the entire time.

Even now, sitting by the rising flames of the fire Killian lit, my stomach churns. I focus on the rise and fall of Samu's chest, his twitching fingers—observations that keep me from launching myself from back into the dark forest and sprinting as fast as I can through the trees.

Lei sits opposite me, her back facing us as she rifles through one of the luggage bags from the carriage. Killian and Draigh disappeared soon after we stopped travelling to rest overnight, the shadows swallowing them whole. I can't help but wonder if they're sitting just at the perimeter, watching Samu and I in the firelights, awaiting my escape attempt.

The possibility makes my stomach lurch.. I've already had one run-in with one of them—Draigh—when I tried to run earlier. And yet the memory isn't any near as terrifying as the thought of facing Killian again.

After explaining everything and receiving my reluctant compliance, he left me alone. His words roll over in my head—all that he revealed, what he did, what he's known for months. It fights for thought space in my convoluted mind.

They all think I'm descended from a being with magical powers, a Kinjri. The very Kinjri who King Ereon used to create the cloud as a weapon against Torinne during the war. It's only now, when the cloud encroaches on Elel territory and the evocion claims shifters' lives, that King Ereon wants to destroy it.

It feels like a long time before Draigh and Killian reemerge, slinking from the shadows like they were there the whole time. It's a bone-chilling reminder of what they are. A thought I haven't allowed myself to dwell on. Because when I do, fear coils in my stomach.

Shifter.

My entire life has been dictated by their species. My brother was kidnapped, father was killed. And now me, manipulated and taken against my will. They're ruthless, deceptive, and dangerous. Especially those from Torinne.

I haven't seen him since he convinced me to stay with them. And though I tried to banish him from my mind the past 24 hours, Killian wove throughout my thoughts like a relentless weed.

I avert my gaze back to Samu.. Pulling his body closer to mine, I rest his head against my lap, the other hand settling around the hilt of the dagger beneath my grimy skirt.

It brings me a foolish sense of security.

Draigh pays me no attention as he pulls the meat from his stick, shoving it into his mouth.

"You can come closer to the fire," Lei says. "We're not going to bite."

"Speak for yourself," Draigh grumbles. "The little szou punched me."