Elliot scrambles to stand, rising on his single leg. As soon as he’s righted, he opens his hand, and his wooden staff appears as if from thin air. He props it beneath his arm, then takes a forbidding step toward the fae. “Nyxia,” he growls, “what the freezing hell are you—”
“Ah, so your memories have returned.” Nyxia smiles at him, revealing a flash of pointed canines. Then she glances at his staff. “Your magic too, it would seem.”
Elliot pauses, confusion tugging at his features. Slowly, I rise to my feet and make my way to his side. As I reach him, he throws his free arm out before me, eyes locked on the other fae. “Stay back, Gemma,” he whispers.
Nyxia crosses her arms and pops her hip to the side, a look of contrived innocence on her face. “Why so tense?”
“I remember now,” Elliot says. “You’re the one who cursed me.”
She shrugs. “I did. And, as the curse maker, I felt its end and came to pay my regards.” She turns her gaze to me, assessing. “You must be the one who broke the curse.”
Elliot spins toward me. “Gemma, what did you sacrifice?”
I open my mouth, but I’m still too stunned to speak. Too confused.
Nyxia speaks before I do. “She didn’t sacrifice anything, Flauvis.”
I furrow my brow. Flauvis? Is that Elliot’s real name? But that’s not important right now. I face the fae woman, summoning my words from the oceans-deep shock that thrashes inside me. “You’re wrong. I plucked the rose and sacrificed my greatest treasure…but why didn’t it work? How did the curse break if…if nothing happened to me yet?” A flash of panic washes over me. Will my sacrifice be slow, like Elliot’s loss of memories was over the course of the curse?
Nyxia throws her head back with a musical laugh. “The sacrifice worked, pretty human. You were willing and of your own volition to sacrifice your greatest treasure, just like my terms stated.”
I stare at her with a blank look, waiting for her to elaborate.
She rolls her eyes. “The curse only required a human bewillingto make the sacrifice. It said nothing about actually having to make it. It was right there in the wording all along.”
“What?” I shout, indignation heating my blood.
A low growl reverberates deep in Elliot’s chest. “You turned my curse into a riddle?”
She assesses her fingernails for a moment, completely unperturbed by Elliot’s anger. “I may be devious, Flauvis, but I’m not cruel. Why make a human suffer more than they should on your behalf? It’s torture as it is that one must spend enough time with you that they come to hold you in any kind of regard. It would be pure evil to make them actually have to sacrifice their greatest treasure for you. You, of course, would have had to make a true sacrifice, should you have decided to break your curse yourself.” She says the last part with a delighted grin, as if she’s amused by her own words.
Elliot’s chest heaves with rage. “This little riddle of yours could have been the death of me.”
She pins him with a withering glare. “Trust me, that’s a risk the Alpha Council was eager to take.”
I bristle at that, feeling heat rise to my cheeks. I expect Elliot to lash out, and for a moment it seems like he will. Then he lowers his head and grumbles a string of curses under his breath.
“Can you blame us?” Nyxia asks.
He rubs the back of his neck and mutters, “Not entirely.” He flashes me an embarrassed glance, then looks back at Nyxia. “We weren’t on great terms, were we?”
She quirks a brow. “Are you talking about just you and me? Or you and everyone ever? Because the latter would be an affirmative.”
“Freezing fae,” he bites out. “I get it, all right? Now will you get off my damn property?”
Her mouth falls open in mock surprise. “Oh, so you mean, now that the curse is broken, you still consider the manor your property? Does that mean you’ve come tolikehuman dwellings?”
“How long are you going to rub it in? Do you want a round of applause? A hug?”
She scoffs, then flips open a strange silver compact. “Bye,” she says with a delicate wave of her fingers. The same glowing light from before bursts from the compact. In the blink of an eye, it takes the fae with it.
We stand staring at the place Nyxia just was for a few silent moments. Then slowly, I turn to face Elliot. My pulse races, mind whirling after everything I just learned and experienced. At the forefront of my mind is a flicker of trepidation, which only increases when I see the rigidity of Elliot’s posture. I lift my eyes to his, finding uncertainty in his expression.
With the curse broken, have things changed between us? Elliot has his magic, his immortality, his memories. Even the ability to return to his unseelie form. Do I still mean as much to him as I did when he was cursed? Or is this where everything goes wrong again? Like it always—
No. I will not expect the worst. Not this time. If it comes to pass, so be it. But I will not fall victim to my doubts.
I open my mouth, but he speaks first. “Gemma, I don’t even know what to say.”
