Distantly, I heard Nox call my name.
But all I could see was Katrine.
Inch by inch, painstakingly slowly, the color returned to her skin. Cracks filled in on her flesh, no longer flaking but smooth and vibrant once more. I watched as it spread from where I touched her face, all the way down to her exposed leg.
She opened her eyes with a shuddering gasp. “Your Majesty?” she croaked, her gaze unfocused and brow furrowed.
“Emperor’s tits,” I murmured. Without thinking, I leaned down to pull her into a hug. “You scared me, Katrine.”
“Wh—What happened?” she asked.
“Yes, I’d like to know the answer to that as well,” Nox said.
“You fainted, that’s all,” I assured her as I helped her sit against the log. Nox glanced at me but didn’t argue.
“What in the ever-loving Fates just happened?” Daelan Zeloria hissed. He and his brother approached as Nox and I stood, their once friendly stares now suspicious.
“Was anyone else around to witness it?” I asked urgently.
Daelan hesitated, then shook his head. “Most people had already gone home at that point. I saw him talking with the girl by the fire, but the flames were dwindling. It was too dark to make out much.”
Good, I thought to myself. “She fainted,” I repeated, more firmly this time. “My maid has a tendency to get woozy when she hasn’t had enough to eat.”
“What?” Katrine croaked. “Your Majesty, I?—”
I shot her a look, and thank the Fates, she shut her mouth and swallowed. “Perhaps I—I was feeling a little lightheaded,” she confessed.
Daelan narrowed his eyes. “But your skin. I saw it?—”
“You heard the empress,” Thorne said as he appeared next to me. His towering frame shadowed the brothers. “She fainted. Clarissa revived her, and now she needs to rest.”
The few islanders remaining dispersed once they saw that Katrine was alert, brushing off the incident and going back to their night. Daelan looked over my shoulder to where I knew Galen still slumped against the tree, barely visible to onlookers.
“Thorne, what’s going on?” Daelan tried again.
“Not right now, Daelan. Please,” Thorne said in a low voice. “Just get your people home. The girl will be fine.”
A beat passed. Finally, Daelan nodded, and the tension in Thorne’s shoulders released. Daelan and Hector backed away to help the rest of the islanders pack up their things.
“Are you going to try and convince me shejust faintedas well?” Nox asked at my side, his head turned away from Katrine so she wouldn’t hear.
Rose and Leo joined us, the former crouching to the forest floor to check on Katrine. I licked my lips and faced Nox. “In the week you’ve been here, have you noticed anything strange? Areas of the forest rotted and blackened, fish in the water or birds in the sky dropping dead out of nowhere?”
He scratched the back of his neck. “You mean the blight? Yes, I’ve heard whispers. People have been talking about how it’s getting worse.”
“Well, it’s not just a blight. It’s a curse. Theking’scurse.” As quickly as I could, I summarized the story of the Fates cursing the Grimaldi line and how Galen’s rotting power fell onto his shoulders several months ago, as well as how a marriage between our two lands would break the curse once and for all.
“Nobody knows about it except us and a few of those closest to him,” I whispered. “But that’s why Galen insisted on marrying me. It’s the only way to end his curse and stop it from carrying onto his descendants.”
Nox exhaled and ran a hand through his wavy locks, his dark rings glittering in the faint firelight. I could see him processing the information behind those keen navy eyes. “If I’d known that’s all it took to marry you, darling, I would have made up some curse long ago,” he quipped, but his tone fell flat.
I rolled my eyes and snorted. “Oh, shut up.” This man would flirt with a brick wall. “That’s not all.”
“Good, it was getting rather boring.”
“Veridians are immune to the curse.”
Thatgot his attention. His forehead creased as his spine straightened.
