A Vow So Bold and Deadly (Cursebreakers, #3)(101)

Grey speaks through clenched teeth. His hands have turned red and raw from the wind, his knuckles bleeding. “You will—stay away—from—Lia Mara.”

“No,” she says. “I won’t.”

The window shatters inward, exploding with glass and a large black shape that lands and rolls. Wings unfurl, and I suck in a breath, swearing, shoving myself backward, dragging Tycho with me.

But the boy doesn’t seem panicked. His eyes light up. “Iisak!” he says in surprise.

The creature doesn’t even acknowledge him. It launches itself at Lilith with outstretched claws, just as freezing wind blasts through the open window and ice crystals form on the walls. The room is suddenly bitter cold, and it’s harder to move, as if my limbs have begun to freeze in place.

For the first time, I see Lilith falter and fall back. Her eyes no longer appear victorious, they are instead wide with shock. “Nakiis?” she says, and I don’t know the word, I don’t know what it means.

“Not Nakiis,” the creature hisses. “His father.” And then those claws slice into her, shredding the dress, shredding her flesh. Blood blooms along the satin fabric. The creature growls, and there’s enough menace in the sound that I shiver. Lilith makes a choked sound. For an instant, I think this will be it, that she’ll finally meet her end right here in front of me.

But Lilith still has that dagger in her hand.

I know what this is, she said.

She drives it right into the side of the creature’s rib cage. Then she pulls it free and does it again.

And again.

Again.

The wind in the room dies. The ice melts from the walls.

“No!” Tycho is screaming. He’s scrambling away from me, trying to get to the creature. Grey is able to stride forward, a blade in his hand, aiming for Lilith. The creature begins to fall away from the enchantress, and she makes a gurgling, choked sound, but she lifts that blade one more time.

Instead of aiming for the creature, she’s aiming for Grey.

There’s no wind, no resistance. I move without thought. I tackle Lilith around the midsection. There’s so much blood. She was already injured, so she all but collapses under my weight.

I don’t realize she still has a dagger in her hand until it stabs down into my shoulder, right where my armor ends. It’s like an iron poker. Pain ricochets through my body without end. Someone is shouting. Someone is screaming. Someone is sobbing.

Lilith is panting, her face, blood-speckled, above mine.

“You’re such a fool,” she hisses.

I don’t think anything can hurt more, but she yanks that dagger free of my shoulder, and puts the point right against my chin, pressing upward until I feel the skin split and I can barely breathe.

I can’t see anything. Just Lilith’s terrible face.

“Let him go,” says Grey. His sword point appears at Lilith’s neck.

“I can kill him before you kill me,” she says. “Grey, you were once willing to swear an oath to me. Are you still?”

“No.” My breath is shaking. “Let her kill me. Just let her kill me.”

“No,” says Harper. “No. Grey. Please. Grey.”

Lilith’s eyes bore into mine. “She always begs for you, Rhen.”

“Do it!” I snap at Grey, then choke on a gasp as she presses with the dagger. “Do it, Grey. Now it’s my turn to bleed so you do not.”

That blade at her neck doesn’t move. I can hear Grey’s breathing, quick and panicked.

“Do it,” I choke out. “Don’t make the mistake I once made.”

“Do something!” Harper cries. “Grey, use your magic!”

Lilith grins down at me, and her voice drops to a conspiratorial whisper. “Do you realize that he’s just as afraid as you are?”

“Use your magic,” says Tycho, and his voice is thick, and it’s then that I realize he is the one who was sobbing. “You’re stronger than she is.”

“He’s not,” snaps Lilith. “And he’ll yield right now, or I will kill Prince Rhen.”

“Curse me,” says Harper. Her voice is thick with tears, too. “Or change me. Make me the monster, Grey. Make me the monster.”

“No,” I whisper.

Something flickers in Lilith’s eyes. The wind in the room picks up. “I will not wait for your oath, Prince Grey.”

“Do it!” shouts Harper. “Grey, do it! Let me kill her!”

“No,” I say again. Dread is choking me. I know what my monster did. “Grey. No.”

Lilith leans down. “Remember when you tried to kill me?” she says to Grey. “Let me show you how to make a death last.”

The dagger pierces my skin. “Curse me!” I cry, and my voice is nearly lost in the wind. I dig my nails into the floor, trying to lift my head. “Grey, curse me. Whatever I have, it’s yours. Bind me with magic, make me something that will—”

My voice is swallowed up. The room gets smaller. The wind dies. Lilith shrieks.

And then I lose all sense of myself and become the monster once more.





CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

HARPER

I’ve seen Rhen like this before, but it’s still terrifying and beautiful all at once. This time, his eye is missing in this form, too, the scars mottled streaks of blue and purple that make him seem both more monstrous and more radiant.