But it wasn’t working. It wasn’t like the last times—I couldn’t feel anything. No magic coursing through me. No sudden jolt of power. The curse wasn’t leaving him.
What washappening?
“Galen, come on!” I shook his face, cradling him in my lap as heslumped over. “It’s not working!” I yelled when Thorne knelt at my side.
My heart hammered in my chest as I ripped Galen’s gloves off to get access to more of his skin, only to let out a gasp at his decayed hand. It was gray and cracked, bits of his fingers already breaking off and crumbling.
Bile crept up my throat. Thorne grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me away as guards stormed the altar, but my eyes never left Galen’s body.
I watched in horror as the curse overtook him.
His frozen gaze was fixed on mine until his lids finally shut and his body crumpled into dust.
58
Thorne
He couldn’t be…dead. My best friend wasn’t dead. Ourkingwasn’t dead.
But there he was, his body rotted and turned to dust by his own Fates-forsaken curse.
Clarissa clung to me, but I could barely feel her over the pandemonium of the palace. People screamed and clambered from their seats. The priest fell over in alarm. And Isabella…
Galen’s mother threw herself from her wheelchair, clawing at the ground as she tried to crawl her way to her son. A coughing fit overtook her, blood splattering the floor and her blue gown.
I didn’t think I would ever forget the sound of her choked wails as she watched her son die.
My vision homed in on the dust, still in the shape of his body, and all sounds of chaos from the wedding faded. Until a voice split the air.
“Seize her!”
A knot twisted in my stomach.
It was mymother’svoice.
My neck snapped to find her pointing a wrinkled finger at the woman in my arms. The King’s Guard immediately surged forward.
“What?” I snarled, forcing Clarissa behind me. “No! Stand down. Empress Ar—Queen Grimaldihad nothing to do with this.” The title made me wince, but it was the truth. And it might be the only thing that could save her now.
The guards faltered and glanced at my mother as she stormed the raised platform, the cane she had to use since her injury on the island tapping viciously against the wood floor.
“Back away, Thorne. She has murdered your king and must answer for her crimes,” she said in a low voice of warning. She nodded again toward the guards, and they plowed behind me to grab Clarissa. I gripped one of them by the forearm and swung my fist into their jaw with a satisfyingcrunch.
“Stay away from her,” I seethed, keeping my hold on Clarissa’s wrist. The other guard reached for his sword, but I was faster. I unsheathed mine and held the point to his throat.
“Thorne, please,” Clarissa whispered at my side. “Don’t make this worse for you.”
“I’m not going to let them touch you,” I snapped.
“I raised you to be smarter than this,” my mother said, gathering her thick skirt in one hand. “We have all witnessed the assassination of King Grimaldi atherhands. Justice must be upheld.”
“Lady Reaux, you know I didn’t do this,” Clarissa said. Her eyes flicked between the rest of the crowd and my mother, knowing she couldn’t say the full truth in front of everyone—why would she kill him when she was trying to break his curse?
“Mother, what are youdoing?” I urged.
She ignored me. “Do you deny that you’ve been working against him? Against ourkingdom?” she asked Clarissa. “My son heard you utter the very words for himself. That your people wouldrip our kind to shreds. That Galen Grimaldi should not be King of Mysthelm. That sounds dangerously close to treason,Your Majesty.”
It was like a bucket of ice water had been thrown over me. Those were the same words Clarissa said to me the night before the Hunt. How could Mother have possibly known?
