Sky’s Divine, she has no idea how fucking badly I want to break this curse. “Alright, fine.” I concede. “One of the parameters of the curse is that I only get a certain number of chances to break it before it becomes permanent. Every time you figure out the curse before I can break it, it restarts. We only have two chances left now, and that old crone has been visiting to remind me of this.” Admitting this out loud makes me realize just how much I’m running out of time. “Although, if we’re being honest, I think there’s another reason she keeps stopping by.”
“What do you mean?” Azalea prods. I’m partially stunned at how well she’s taking everything I’m throwing at her, but I know I shouldn’t be. Azalea has never been one to back down from a challenge.
“Things have been different with the curse. Certain parameters seem to be weakening, and I think she’s trying to check up on her magic. I’m not sure what could be causing this, but I have a theory that the magic itself is weakening, and she wants to see if I’ve noticed.”
Azalea frowns, thoughtfully tapping her chin with a rounded nail.
“There’s more.” I blow out a breath as Azalea sits up straighter. “As far as I know, she’s able to change the parameters of the curse however she sees fit whenever she would like. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the best head space when I agreed to it, and she took advantage of me. There are a lot of loopholes and gaps in the wording of the curse that work to her benefit, and that’s one of them.”
“Is she threatening to change it?”
“No. But that doesn’t mean she won’t. I think if she realizes I’ve noticed her weakening magic, she might try to do something to make things harder for me. So, I’ve been trying to be discreet in my research.”
“And what happens if you don’t break the curse in time?”
“Your memories disappear completely, so you won’t ever be able to remember me or anything about us. And to make it that much more horrendous for me, you heart will also harden toward me. So that no matter what I do, you could never love me again.”
“And we’d stay trapped in the castle.”
I nod, and Azalea’s breath shakes as she blows it through her barely parted lips. She’s quiet as she processes my words.
“So currently, there is a way to break the curse?”
“There’s one small loophole on my side, yes. But believe me, I’ve tried and it’s impossible.”
“Well, what is it?”
I snort and shake my head. “I’m telling you it’s a useless effort.”
She rolls her eyes and huffs. “Braxton, what is it?”
“You have to fall in love with me.”
30
Azalea
“Wait,soyourcurseis to get me to fall in love with you without me discovering the truth of the curse?” I know this is the fourth or fifth variation of me asking the same question, but I somehow still can’t wrap my head around it.
“That’s it.” Braxton slumps in his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“And I’ll forget all of this when I fall asleep?” I can already feel the wariness seeping into my bones as I pace back and forth in Braxton’s room. I couldn’t sit on his ridiculously comfortable bed anymore, as I felt my eyes begging me to let them close if only for a moment.
“Correct, and you will think it’s your first day in the castle again, as will the entirety of the staff.” Braxton huffs.
“The staff is under the same spell?” My head feels like it’s going to explode from trying to take in too much information at once.
“That’s what I said,” he grumbles.
I glare at him. “Well, did you ever consider being nice to me?” I bellow, throwing my hands in the air.
“No,” Braxton scoffs. “Shockingly, that thought never occurred to me.” His words are soaked in sarcasm.
“You could’ve fooled me,” I snark, curling my lip.
I watch a muscle twitch in his jaw, and I can tell he is actively clamping down on saying whatever retort popped into his mind. I ask the next question gnawing at me before he has time to change the subject or piss me off enough that I storm away.
“So the castle, this castle, it was our home?” I have the faintest memories of exploring the castle with him when I first visited the land. In all of my memories, it looks the same yet so different.
