My jaw tensed. “I…was not pleased about my sister’s marriage.”
“So,” she said, chuckling, “what was the roof’s transgression?”
I couldn’t brood beside her the entire time, and talking with her felt…nice. “My only experience with Bronwyn’s suitor was on the other side of a battlefield. At the time, I wasn’t convinced he deserved her.” I exhaled slowly. “But she wanted him. Now we’re allies, and I’m to be an uncle in the next few months.”
Isca grinned. “A happy ending for your family. Less so for the roof.”
“Yes, well, I couldn’t see Bronwyn’s side of it then. I was still fresh from war. And the curse… It had grown used to being fed regularly.”
She stopped walking. “I’ve heard a little of this, but I’m still not certain I understand how that works.”
“It means that if I unleash it from time to time, it’s easier to control. Temporarily. That’s why I disappeared for years before Bronwyn married. I was learning to manage it. With the Assembly’s blessing, of course.” It was hard to keep the sneer out of my voice while talking about those lazy mages.
A serious expression settled on her face as her eyes searched mine. “You mean it’s happy when you kill?”
“It is,” I said. “As for me…”
“Emrys.” Isca touched my arm, suddenly energized in the same way I’d seen from her when we first looked at the castle plans together. “We have to find another way to unleash or subdue it. One that doesn’t involve killing. I’ve been reading everything I can on the history of this area, trying to find even a single clue about the ring you found, but… I’ve only found that the runes probably date back to when Fae had alliances with human kingdoms.”
I’d considered that as well, but the corrupt arbiters of all magical knowledge from that far back in history weren’t exactly forthcoming about it with me anymore.
Damn Assembly.
I looked down at her hand. Her touch was warm through the fabric. It carried the same sense of stillness as the times she’d touched me before. The shock almost made me lose my balance. “I’ve tried to find other ways to feed it.”
She hesitated, dropped her hand, then asked, “Why were you in that section of the castle when it happened? When you damaged the roof?”
I resumed walking, boots crunching over gravel and grass. “That’s where the servants’ quarters are. I was speaking with your Catrin about Bronwyn. She knew my sister better than I did, as I’d been gone for years. The damage is limited to just one room, so don’t worry. We haven’t left our servants to suffer the elements. I was aiming for a window. I missed. I was…in a hurry to release what was building.”
Her tone was hushed. “So you know when it’s going to get bad. Hence the doors.”
A bitter smile tugged at my mouth. “Hence the doors… Destroying something helps. Destroying nothing makes it worse.”
She turned contemplative. “Could that outburst have damaged the ground here too?” She asked it so casually. Like my bestial behavior was nothing to be concerned about.
I glanced at the eroded slope. “Maybe. I was too focused on getting Catrin and the others out to notice.”
We reached a spot where the grass thinned. The eroded dirt had revealed an unnatural arrangement of uniformly spaced stones poking out. Isca bent down, brushing a clump of mud aside from the top of one.
“Prince Emrys,” she said, breath hitching. “Look.”
My heart slowed. Etched on the stone were runes similar to the ones that had ruined my life. Whatever she’d found had to be older than the Assembly’s founding. As old as the curse that had taken root in my soul.
Taking a few steps back, I could make out the vague shape of a buried structure. It was in the shape of a ring, similar to one we’d explored when I was sixteen. Where the artifact that had cursed me to live as half-man, half-monster had waited for me.
No one had explored this section of the grounds besides sheep. Why would they? It was barren grass and far too steep to serve as a place for a casual stroll.
Curiosity pulled us both forward when I should’ve pulled her back.
Isca stepped lightly between stones, clearly intent on seeing what else she could discover about the ruins. I followed, barely aware of the wind, the increasing cold, or the distant cry of gulls. We were nearly at the edge of a crumbling section when a deep, grinding groan echoed through the ground.
“What was that?” Isca whispered.
A terrible crack split the air before I could answer. It happened so fast that I couldn’t summon my magic before the danger struck. The ground gave way beneath Isca. As she cried out, I used a burst of magic to propel myself forward.
There was no way I could safely move us both out of the hole in time. My body hit hers, and we fell.
I twisted so that my back struck the earth first.
