A Vow So Bold and Deadly (Cursebreakers, #3)(18)

“No, he gave you sixty days—”

“To prepare for war.” I drain the glass and pour another. “His letter was quite clear.”

“He said, do not make me do this.”

“I’ve made him do nothing. He can stay there and I can stay here and we can all be at peace.” I drain this glass, too, especially because I know this is not true. Syhl Shallow was struggling, desperate for resources and trade, before the curse was ever broken. My father had been paying a tithe to keep Grey’s birthright a secret, but once I was cursed and my father was dead, the tithe stopped being paid. Five years of silver stayed in my coffers—and Syhl Shallow went lacking.

It’s why Karis Luran sent soldiers into my lands, and it’s why Grey is promising to do the same thing if I do not ally with Lia Mara.

Harper appears at my side and takes the glass away. “If Lilith is around, the last thing you need to be is drunk.”

That’s debatable, but I push the cork back in. I haven’t been drunk in months. Not since the night Grey returned Harper to Washington, DC. Before we knew anything about his birthright. Before the curse was broken.

You are incorrigible. I have no idea how I put up with you for so long.

Grey’s words. The only time I’ve ever seen him drunk. Probably the truest words he ever said to me.

He stood with me on the castle parapets before I turned into a monster the final time. I sought to sacrifice myself. I was going to jump. I was terrified.

He stepped up and took my hand.

My throat tightens. I yank the cork free and drink right from the bottle.

“Wow,” says Harper.

“Indeed.” My voice is husky.

She takes the bottle this time. I drop into the chair in front of the fire and run my hands across my face.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she says quietly.

“Because I cannot lose you again,” I say. “I couldn’t put you at risk.”

She’s quiet for a while, and I don’t have the courage to look at her. Weeks of anger were bad enough. I have no desire to see disappointment or censure in her expression.

Her fingers drift along my shoulder then, and she curls into the chair with me, her skirts falling across my lap, her head tucking into the hollow beneath my chin. She is warm and solid and sure against me.

She doesn’t hate me, and I nearly shudder from the relief of it.

“That’s why you were putting on such a show for the Grand Marshals,” she says. “Because you need to put on a good show for Lilith.”

“It needs to be more than a show if we’re going to stand a chance against Syhl Shallow.” I pause. “But yes.”

“I wish I’d worn the dress now.”

“I have never seen you as a pawn,” I say, and mean it. “Wear what you like.”

She falls quiet for a while, breathing along my neck for so long that my thoughts begin to scatter and drift, either from exhaustion or the wine. Or both.

“You used to take Lilith’s torments so she wouldn’t hurt Grey,” Harper whispers.

I remember the endless misery the enchantress would visit upon us both. Some days it was boredom, while others it seemed to be vindictive, or a punishment for crimes only she could fathom. Nothing she did would kill us, not when the curse was in effect, but the pain was very real.

I would draw her attention off Grey when I could. He did not earn the curse, I did. He should have fled during the first season, when I first changed.

Sometimes I wish he had.

“It was all I could do,” I say to Harper. “Only his loyalty kept him by my side. No one deserves an eternity of torture for that.”

“Grey once told me it was his duty to bleed so you would not.”

I know. I heard him say the words.

I thought of them when I watched a whip split open the skin of his back.

I long for that wine bottle again.

“You didn’t have to take it all on yourself,” Harper says. “And you don’t have to now.”

“I do not know how to defeat her—”

“Together,” she says. “The way we did before.”

She sounds so sure.

“Yes, my lady,” I whisper, and I drop a kiss along her temple.

I wish I felt the same.



“Your Highness.”

My eyelids flicker. The room is cold and dark, and my left arm has gone numb. Harper’s weight is heavy with sleep, her breath slow and light against my skin. The fire has burned down to embers.

“Shh,” the voice says. “Do not wake your princess.”

I blink slowly, my eyes seeking a face in the shadows. It’s unusual for a servant to enter my chambers after I’ve retired for the night.

Then Lilith’s fine features snap into clarity, and I jerk in alarm.

“Shh,” Lilith says again. “I’d hate for her to wake and force me to take her back to Disi.”

My heart has leapt into a panicked race, pounding so hard that I’m sure it’ll wake Harper. “Leave me,” I whisper. “Please, Lilith.”

“You told her the truth,” she says.

She makes it sound like a weakness, and I clench my jaw. “I will not hide your crimes any longer.”

“I commit no crimes.” She leans closer, until her lips are a breath away from mine. Her eyes glitter in the darkness.