The King's Cursed Bride

The True Curse

Mera and Ryther scrambled into their hiding places, and Carissa placed herself by the door. She just had to make sure that the Reaper King decided to try and absorb her soul, not impale her.

This was it. The moment of her death.

It was hard to believe that so much life could be stuffed into a matter of weeks. Befriending Viltus. Prostitution in Zonah. Marriage to Elon. Fretting over the nobles. Reconciling with her mother. Venturing into Esmeray. And then Elon's death.

Only one event had shaped her more than his death: his love. She still couldn't believe he'd asked to marry her, after all the ways she'd hurt him. He was so much better than she deserved.

And after this hour, she would be with him once more.

The door flung open, and Carissa lunged forward.

A thick steely blade clanged with her, the force of the swing so strong that pain shot up her arms. She glanced up and found herself face-to-face with the Reaper King.

A hood cast his features in darkness. It was rather anticlimactic, if she were to be honest. After the frightening appearance of the Reapers and all the Reaper-King-hype, she'd been imagining all the hideous faces he might wear.

He loomed above her by several feet, his shoulders almost twice the breadth of hers. Even if his face wasn't monstrous, his form surely was.

"Carissa... We finally meet." Though his face would have been mere inches from hers, she felt no breath when he spoke. Was he even alive? And how did he know who she was?

Carissa shoved forward, and the Reaper King danced back a step, letting his blade slide off of hers. "You've been expecting me?"

"I could sense you and your husband ever since you entered my domain. Now tell me: where is the King?"

She clenched her jaw, refusing him the satisfaction of seeing her grief.

"He died, hasn't he? And who killed him, Carissa?"

She clenched her jaw even tighter, willing tears not to well in her eyes. But they came nonetheless. "Your Reapers did!" She swung at his head, a foolish move that he easily parried.

"No, Carissa. You did." His blade descended on hers, faster than she could blink.

Before she could even begin to block it, he knocked it from her hand, making her wrist spasm in pain. He had done so almost without effort. It made her wonder how much of this duel had merely been him toying with her.

But even if she didn't have her dagger, she could still fight. And she would—to the very last breath.

She lunged toward him, aiming to jab his throat.

His hand shot out from beneath his cloak, his pale spindly fingers overlapping as they curled around her neck. His skin was so cold that it burned. Carissa choked back a whimper, biting her lip until it bled.

Where was Ryther? Why wasn't he coming to her aid?

The Reaper King bent his face close to hers once more. "Perhaps the true curse, Carissa, was loving you. At least your curse had a cure. His did not." He lifted her into the air a scarce inch, until she had to balance on her tiptoes to breathe. "You killed him, Carissa. If not for you—the one chink in his armor—I never could have felled him. He would have been standing here right now, slicing me to pieces until I begged for mercy. And I would have received none. But now, you're the one at my mercy."

He laughed, his grip tightening until she couldn't coax air past her throat. "I wonder how Elon feels right now, watching the women he sacrificed everything for dying at my hands."

As her head grew light, she closed her eyes. She was ready to go to Elon now.

"But death is too easy an end for you." His grip loosened, and she gasped in air. "I don't see why I should reunite you with your husband so soon... Our fun has just begun."

There was a shrill scream, and Carissa caught a glimpse of Mera behind him.

Without looking, the Reaper King slammed the flat of sword into her stomach. She flew back before cracking her head against the stone wall and going limp.

No. Mera.

Carissa's grip on the Reaper King's hand tightened, her nails digging into his white flesh. But he didn't seem to feel it.

"Guards! Escort these two ladies to the dungeons. I would like to show them the penalty for trying to oppose me."

He tossed Carissa back, and she fell onto the ground. Before she could rise, Reaper descended on her. She was not going to become the Reaper King's plaything and a means of tormenting Elon.

Carissa slammed her palm into the jaw of one and punched another's throat. She was planning to divest a third of his Scythe when the Reaper King began tsking.

"I see Elon has trained you well, Carissa. But I wonder: what would he have you do if someone else's life were at stake?"

Carissa whipped around. The Reaper King was holding a limp Mera by a fistful of brown hair. Her face was sheet-white, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.

The fight inside her withered. She couldn't let him kill Mera. When the Reapers descended upon her once more, she didn't fight them. They wrapped her wrists in chains, so tight that the links pinched her skin.

The Reaper King dropped Mera as if she were a ragdoll, and Carissa flinched. "Take her as well."

The Reaper bound Mera and dragged her and Carissa out of the room. As they left, the Reaper King said, "I'll see you again soon, Carissa. Very soon."

***

Author's Note: Sneak peek is up!