Rhoden gives me a pointed look, her forest eyes speaking a thousand words.
“Don’t answer that,” I bleat, dropping my chin in my hand.
Rhoden scoots next to me on the bed and drops her head on my shoulder.
“Do you want me to brush your hair and get you ready for bed?”
“It depends. Do you think if I instead have you chop all of my hair off, it would piss Braxton off?”
With an exasperated shake of her head, Rhoden bounds to her feet, grasping my wrist in the process.
She hauls me over to the cozy chair in front of my vanity and pushes me to sit down in it. To be honest, both the chair and vanity are highly impractical in this room. The chair is so large that I could lie across it, and my feet would only slightly dangle off the edge. It’s far too big for its purpose, and it makes it frustratingly annoying for Rhoden to do my hair. It’s also furnished with a white velvet fabric that is practically begging to be stained, and particularly impossible to keep looking immaculate.
My vanity is equally as over-the-top, and littered with more drawers than I could ever fill. It has a mirror so large I swear I could spot my reflection in it from the window across the castle. However, as impractical as they are, I could never part with them. Mostly because I demanded Braxton provide me with a space for Rhoden to help get me ready, and his payback for me throwing a fit was having this set up in my room. It’s like he somehow knew I would find it unnecessary and gaudy, especially when I pretended to love it. He couldn’t hide his paling shock at my reaction as I gushed over the intricacies of both pieces of furniture. I feel like if I tell him how bothersome it is now, it will be like admitting defeat.
I relax further into the soft cushion of the chair as Rhoden begins pulling the brush through my curls, no doubt ruining them, but I can’t bring myself to care right now when this feels so good.
After a moment of silence, Rhoden finally speaks, asking, “Do you really want your entire existence to revolve around trying to piss him off?”
“I have a theory that his misery could actually bring me great joy,” I joke, placing my hand over my heart. Rhoden playfully tugs on my hair. “Ow!” I blindly slap at her, but she continues with her task unperturbed.
“Seriously. What peace do you think it will bring you to fight with him all the time?” Her eyes meet mine in the reflection of the mirror, all joking removed from her expression.
“I don’t think Braxton really had any peaceful intentions in mind when heimprisoned me here.” I throw a heavy amount of emphasis on the last three words as I speak.
Rhoden finishes tying my hair up and sits on the corner of my vanity. “Well, I don’t know much, but I’m fairly confident a life of unrelenting anger is only going to contribute to a melancholic existence.”
“Now who’s being dramatic?” I scoff.
Unimpressed with my response, she matches my sass with some of her own, crossing her arms over her chest. Groaning, I roll my eyes and slump back into my chair.
“Are you suggesting that I actually be nice to him?” I grimace as if the mere thought brings me pain.
“Well…” Her word drifts off as she lifts her shoulders in a gentle shrug.
I bark out a laugh. “Oh, good, so you’ve lost your mind.”
“Not exactly.” Rhoden leans in, dropping the volume of her voice to a hushed whisper. “You know how, no matter what the deal or agreement was, magic, at the end of it all, is a binding contract.”
I match her stance, also leaning closer to her. “I guess.” My gaze turns quizzical as Rhoden continues.
“Well, like any binding contract, it can be broken.”
“I already know that,” I huff, slumping back into my chair. “Why do you think I’m spending all my time in the library reading?”
“You’ve been educating yourself on curses in general when what you need to be doing is better understanding the circumstances of your specific curse. You can break the binding and free yourself if you can find out the parameters of your curse and find a violation that you didn’t know of.”
My brows pinch tightly. “First of all, if a violation occurred, wouldn’t the magic unbind itself automatically?”
Rhoden shakes her head excitedly. “The only way it can be broken is if one of the participants demands retribution. That’s why curses are so finicky, and why most mages steer clear of them. There’s too much room for error, loopholes, or violations to occur for them to last very long.”
I skate my tongue over my teeth as I ponder her words. “So, if I can find the contract of mine and Braxton’s curse, I can find a reason to demand retribution and get it broken?”
“Exactly.” Rhoden’s smile widens so much that I’m almost positive I can see all of her teeth. Her level of excitement is mildly unsettling.
“So, what does this have to do with me being nice to Braxton?” I ask, my forehead scrunching with my words. Rhoden’s already impossibly wide grin stretches further, and my stomach drops. “I’m guessing you have an idea.”
“I do indeed.”
