Gwen shook her head so slowly, like the rise and fall of a wave. ‘You killed Simon. My Simon.’
Her hand, still glistening with sea water, pressed to Laure’s cheek, like a caress, and Laure’s eyes went wide at first with wonder, and then with panic.
She dropped like a stone to the cave floor.
Rafael yelled her name and started forward, but as he moved, Ari fell to her knees, her hands balling to fists as she gasped out in agony. Torn between them both, he froze, helpless, for a moment. But when Ari cried out again, the spell broke and he dropped down beside her, trying to cradle her, to comfort her, to do something to help.
Gwen continued towards the carving, looked up at it briefly, and then turned around, seating herself on the throne like a queen. Her watery robe spread out around her and she looked regal, lit by candlelight. Part of him wanted to fall at her feet.
But the rest of him…the rest of him only knew that Ari was in pain, that she was suffering because of him.
‘Help her, Gwen, please.’
Gwen studied the two of them, her expression remote and alien, so different from the woman he thought he knew, the girl he had known growing up. Or thought he did.
‘There’s nothing I can do, Rafael,’ she said. ‘She put on my mask. She made the choice.’
‘Only to stop me. So Laure wouldn’t make me do it. Ari did it for me.’
Gwen smiled, a cold hard smile. ‘Have you thought to ask her why?’
‘Because she…because…’ He had no idea. Not really. They’d slept together. He wanted so much more from her than she was ready to give yet. But she might be. One day. For the first time in his life, he had dared to dream he could have a relationship that might go somewhere. If they broke the curse, that was. And part of him dared to hope she wanted the same from him.
She wanted to save him? She loved him? Is that what this was? Love? How could she love him enough to sacrifice herself this way? They’d barely known each other a week.
But he had dreamed of her saving him.
Not like this. Dear God, not like this.
‘You made it,’ he tried again. ‘You have to be able to control it.’
‘No. It is a far older magic than mine. Ankou’s parting gift to me. He said it would keep me safe, let me test my lovers to be sure they were true. And if they were not…well…you know the rest.’
‘You killed them?’ Rafael asked, bitterness souring his voice. ‘All of them?’
Gwen laughed, as if he was a fool or a child. ‘No. The mask did.’
But he wasn’t finished. The surge of anger inside him broke out, all the resentment, all the betrayal. ‘You killed my father?’
‘I haven’t killed a du Lac in over a hundred years.’ She smiled, an expression tinged with mockery. ‘Really? Is that what you think of me? And here I thought we were friends.’
Friends… He’d thought they were friends, him and Gwen. And all this time…
‘I think…I think you’re ageless, if you really are Dahut. That’s the curse, your curse. It trapped you as well, made you agroac’h, a water witch. I knew you when I was a child…’
‘Sainte Sirène is my home and it has been forever. I told you. It was called Ker-Gwagenn, the home of the wave. Or Ker-ar-Groac’h, which is less flattering. I appear as I must, that’s part of the magic.’
‘The curse.’
She shrugged, dismissing that. ‘The curse is broken. It has been for almost eighty years. Fabien du Lac and Tristan Poullain protected this place, saved it. They proved themselves to me, proved their love. For me, for Ys, for each other. The mask couldn’t take them. Their love was true.’
Rafael took this news with dismay. ‘Then how—?’
‘I didn’t kill your father, Rafael. Nor did I murder Simon, or Thierry. You must look closer to home for that.’
Laure. She had to mean Laure. Rafael’s face fell and his gaze slid towards the prone form of his sister. Well, she had already admitted it, hadn’t she? He could try to deny it all he wanted, but he’d heard the truth of it from her own lips. Laure and his mother…
‘I loved Simon,’ Gwen continued. ‘Isn’t that strange? I know men are drawn to me. That’s my curse, the one Ankou left me with and gave me the mask to guard against. Drawn to my power, my beauty, my magic. They cannot help it. I thought he was the same, but he wasn’t. He was torn between Ari and me. And I tried to tell him there was no future for us, that he’d only ruin his life, but he wouldn’t listen. When did he ever listen? Ari had left him and he could feel her drifting away. He couldn’t leave our home…wouldn’t…’ She shook her head and closed her eyes as if driving back tears. ‘Perhaps he already guessed his fate. I thought maybe he took his own life. I thought the worst.’
