A Vow So Bold and Deadly (Cursebreakers, #3)(97)

My hands are trembling. My armor is heavy. Or maybe I’m weak.

I promised Harper I would try for peace.

This is not peace.

As always, there is no solution here. No way out. No way to win. No matter what path I try, fate always places Lilith at the end of it. I will have to fight, and one of us will fall.

I try to find the cold edges of my thoughts. She’s taken everything from me. This should not matter. Grey would not hesitate to kill me. It’s proof enough that he’s here.

This man is your brother.

The memory of Harper’s words steals my breath, and I stop short in the hallway, gasping. I have to put my hand on the wall.

Lilith hasn’t taken everything.

I hear a whisper of sound from somewhere distant in the castle. A scrape, followed by a creak of wood. I freeze. My limbs straighten, almost of their own will. My hand finds the hilt of my sword.

I nearly cannot hear over the pounding of my heart.

I count to ten, to twenty, trying to slow my breathing. In all the years we were trapped by the curse, I never feared invasion, I never feared anyone. I always had Grey by my side.

Now I’m alone.

Another scrape, maybe a footstep. Closer.

I stop breathing altogether. Every heartbeat pulses with agony. With fear. As always, there is no way out. No way to win.

A whisper carries on the air. Maybe a word. A hushed order. The sound of movement.

They’re in the castle. A team of soldiers, perhaps. Dozens. Hundreds.

It doesn’t matter. My heart is in my throat. I stride forward to meet them, turning the corner for the grand staircase with my hand on the hilt of my sword.

I nearly walk straight into Grey.

My thoughts stumble and panic. He’s just there, his hand on the hilt of his own sword. His free hand is up behind him, telling soldiers to wait, possibly. He looks a bit travel-worn and road-weary, and his eyes are cool and dark, but he’s here. He’s here. Weapons at the ready, clad in the green and black of Syhl Shallow. A tiny gold crown is embedded in the armor, right over his heart.

He’s here to kill you.

Just as she said.

Grey sees me and stops short. The world seems to shrink down to this moment, all the seasons of the curse narrowing down to him and me in an empty castle. Time and again, I told him to kill me. To save my people. To spare them. To end this. Time and again, he refused. My breathing is a loud rush in my ears, barely drowning the pounding of my heart.

There is no path to victory here.

Well, maybe one. I draw my sword.

Grey’s gaze sharpens in alarm, but he’s always been quick and deadly, and today is no different. His blade is drawn and aiming for mine before I can blink.

I step back, out of reach, and he cuts a path through the air.

He comes after me, but I drop my sword. It clatters to the marble, the steel ringing through the empty hall.

I follow it, dropping to my knees on the cold floor. Raising my hands.

“I yield.” My voice breaks. “Grey, I yield. Forgive me. I beg of you. Please. Kill me. Please.” I’m babbling, but his eyes are so dark, burning with emotion. He hasn’t moved. “Please, Grey. You must. End it. She killed—” My voice breaks again. “Harper. She’s gone. Lilith can’t—she can’t— Please, kill me.”

He takes a step forward, and I gasp. Grey was never one to hesitate.

But his free hand reaches out and grasps mine. His grip is tight, and it’s startling that I remember it, that it’s familiar: from a thousand different sparring matches that ended with me in the dirt, from the times I would tumble from a horse, from the times Lilith would leave me in a tortured heap and Grey would drag me to my feet.

From the time, the last time, when I stood on the castle parapets, terrified to jump.

When Grey reached out and took my hand.

His breathing is as fast as mine.

“You’re a prince of Emberfall,” he says, and his voice is rough. “You kneel to no one.”

I stare up at him.

And then, without preamble or explanation, Harper appears around the corner, curls tumbling loose from her plaits. She’s speaking in a rushed whisper. “I told Tycho I am not—”

Her gaze falls on me, and her face begins to crumple. “Rhen. Oh, Rhen.”

I must be dead. Or dreaming. This is a new way for Lilith to torture me. Surely.

I look between her and Grey. His hand is still tight on mine.

“You’re alive,” I whisper.

“I’m alive.” She has to brush away a tear. “I got away. I went for help.”

I look back at Grey. My thoughts cannot process all of this emotion. “You have to get her out of here. Lilith is here. She will kill us all.”

“Maybe not.” He gives my hand a tug. “Get off your knees, Brother. There’s a battle to be won.”





CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

LIA MARA

I’ve never led an army. The armor feels stiff and unfamiliar, but I don’t mind the weight if it means I am protected. I ride with the generals at the back, and we join with my regiment on the other side of the mountain pass. Rhen has stationed his own soldiers here, as promised, but rumors fly about the confrontation with the Magesmith Prince, how he defeated an ambush but left the soldiers from Emberfall alive.

I remember the first time Grey and I rode together through these valleys, when we offered Rhen his sixty days. The people of Emberfall were eager to greet him, even with me at his side. There are many stories of the lives Grey saved in Blind Hollow, how he stood against the Royal Guard to protect the people. My generals want to attack the waiting regiment, but I wonder if there is a better way.