The king slapped a hand against her father’s shoulder with a squeeze. “Good of you to come, Jack. I think we’ve culled the last of them for the time being. Your tips were most appreciated, as always.”
The men continued to speak, but Elysia’s eyes drifted to the lanky boy with electric green eyes standing off to the side of the king. Her breath caught. She hadn’t seen the prince in over a year. He traveled kingdom to kingdom with his tutors, preparing for his role. A wide jaw and lifted cheekbones brought an untamed feeling to the boy in spite of the fact that he was dressed head to toe in formal finery. She almost laughed at the look of pure boredom upon his face. He stuck his fingers through the tufts of his hair and a loud sigh hung heavy on his lips as his eyes wandered.
The king turned in irritation.
“Is there somewhere else you’d rather be?” A warning. Elysia was familiar with the sound.
The boy transformed. Intelligence shot through his green eyes and he suddenly somehow looked perfectly kempt, even though not one hair on his head had been subdued.
Topp Blatz, Crown Prince of Kava, let his face twist. “Nothing is more important than this work. Our kingdom is better off now.”
His look of disgust narrowed on the bodies, and Elysia’s stomach sank. The bodies that were cursed just like hers.
Her vision faltered, the terror rising back up with a vengeance. Black spots danced within her line of sight and heat rushed her body. Suddenly, it washerup there. She could see it. Her face shoved down against a blood-soaked stump and a sword plummeting down to excise her from this land.
She wondered how long she could possibly last—how long she could possibly hide her secret. She wondered if her mother would cry—if her sister would scream. She swallowed. She didn’t have time for such thoughts.
Elysia smiled prettily at the prince, imagining she had razors for teeth. The look in his eyes said he knew all about smiles hiding weapons like a sheath.
Resting a hand on her father’s forearm, she thanked the gods who did not hear that this boy was almost never in Relaclave. The cunning in him would have her strung up by next week. His smile widened, as if he could hear her thoughts.
This is what it was to be cursed by the undead gods—to always think twice and to never trust. Yes, this is what it was to be cursed, she thought.
Her curse led her to traipse far and wide through Relaclave, as if she were walking a tight line between her and the other cursed souls of her city.
She found them. Her father dropped a tip on them. And the king killed them.
But really, she could find anything. The truth tucked in your pocket. The lie beneath your tongue. The room long bricked shut within home or soul.
Her father wanted her to know just how precarious, how fragile her life really was as a cursed daughter of the Crown. He wanted her to wield this curse and control it.
If not? There were always the gallows.
Chapter 1
Present Day
Elysia was falling.Her arms shot out to brace herself, and her knees cracked against the floor like dusty bricks. Pitch black and hours before dawn, she couldn’t see shit. She swore silently at the oversized muddy leather boot lying on the floor that had done its best to take her out. Never mind the pain flashing through her kneecaps, the damn thing was trying to get her caught.
Ever so quietly, she stood and carefully picked her way to the curved wooden door. Heart racing, she ignored the little thrill soaring through her. One hand on the iron handle, the other holding her shoes, she glanced over her shoulder at the prince.
A novice mistake, really, but she couldn’t help but steal one last look before she went. Blanket loose around his bare chest and one muscled arm pulled in close to his body, every single cell of her being wanted to crawl right back to his bed where it was warm and smelled like a woodland storm.
It really was too bad she had to run out like this all the time now.
She pressed down on the door handle.
The ear-splitting shriek of iron grinding against iron shattered the middle of the night silence like a bucket of water tothe head. The prince shot up, his hand immediately grasping for the blade on the table beside him.
Elysia closed her eyes, head falling back in irritation. Spinning around, she kept her voice soft. “Go back to sleep. It’s just me.”
His chest deflated, one large hand rubbing his face while the other tossed the knife aside.
“By the gods, Elysia, you scared the shit out of me. What are you doing out of bed?” Topp’s eyes tracked her hand on the door, his brow pinching. His low voice caught on a rasp as he called her out. “Is this how early you’ve been leaving? All those mornings I wake up and you’re gone, and you make some excuse about meetings or work with your father?”
The sound of his sleep-laden voice did something to her that was entirely unhelpful right now. Ignoring the flush of heat begging her to forget her senses, she coughed lightly. “If you really want to know, you snore terribly and I’ve been leaving so that I can actually get some decent sleep.”
She crossed her arms and leaned against the door. The lies fell from her mouth with practiced ease even as the acrid taste of guilt was familiar on her tongue.
