I did this.
I failed them.
I’m not the Briar family hero.
I’m their doom.
My grief is too vast, too unbearable. I summon my fury instead, funneling it toward Thorne.He’sresponsible for this. Planting my hands on my hips, I lift my chin and meet his gaze without falter. “What are you going to do to me? What will you order me to do next? In what other ways do you intend to ruin me?”
His shoulders sink and he averts his gaze, eyes distant. “I have no more demands for you. All that’s left is the cruelest thing I could do. I’m going to leave you alone.”
Alone.
Alone.
Alone.
My bravado fails as Thorne spreads his leathery wings. I sink to my knees, eyes glazed with tears.
“If you seek your turn at revenge, you’re welcome to face me. I won’t hide. Goodbye, Briony Rose.”
I don’t watch as he departs, whether it’s through a window or a door. Instead, I stare at my tears pooling on the dining room floor beneath me, mingling with the blood that had dripped from Thorne’s chin.
I don’t know how long I stay like that, whether it’s minutes or hours, but eventually, footsteps rouse me from my grief. They begin at the far end of the dining room and approach ever closer, each step in sync with the thud of my grief-laced heart. A fire sparks inside me as I expect it to be Thorne. Did he never leave? Or did he change his mind and return? Of course he wouldn’t be able to resist hurting me more. Commanding me. Bidding me as his weapon. My sorrow melts away beneath a far more welcome emotion: anger. I’d rather fight than cry. I’d rather face my enemy than be alone.
But as I pull myself to my feet, it isn’t Thorne who approaches.
It’s a slender female fae with short silver hair, skintight black trousers, and a white dress shirt, unbuttoned to the center of her chest, resulting in a style that is both sensually feminine and strikingly masculine at once.
Recognition dawns through the haze of my rage, sparking surprise next. I know who this person is. I’ve seen her portrait in my history books. Read about her legendary past.
She’s Nyxia, former Unseelie Queen of Lunar, sister to the court’s current unseelie monarch, Franco.
More than that, I know of her affiliation with my current situation. She’s the fae who punished the two rival families with the sleeping spell all those years ago.
Nyxia crosses her arms over her chest and burns me with a withering stare. “For the love of the night, I’m retired. Let’s get this over with.”
17
BRIONY
Idon’t know if hope is the right word for the emotion that blooms inside me, for hope has no place in my current condition. Yet something like it lightens my heart, like a storm cloud parting to reveal a sliver of gray sky. Now that I have my memories back, I remember everything Thorne told me. About the curse and its origins. Nyxia is the cursemaker responsible for the sleeping spell. Does that mean she can reverse it too? Is that why she’s here?
“Ah, good,” Nyxia says, casting an unflustered glance at the bodies littered about the table. “It appears most of the Briars have gathered in one place. That makes things easier for me. You must be the initiator of the curse. Are you…the youngest Briar? The iron-cursed?”
Iron-cursed. I suppose that is me.
“Yes, I’m Bri—” I almost state the name I grew up with, but this isn’t the time or place to deny my true identity. Training my features so as not to grimace, I say, “I’m Princess Rosaline Briar.”
“I don’t suppose you know which of your family members might be absent from this little feast?”
“No, I…all I know is that everyone here is close family.”
She taps a slender finger to her chin and speaks in a muttered tone. “The clever ones have found ways to evade inclusion in the curse, but the prideful would have chosen to maintain such a high-ranking family affiliation over safety. I’ll have to rely on reports of spontaneously dead bodies.”
“But they aren’t dead,” I rush to say. My heart slams against my ribs. “Right?”
She looks me over with a furrowed brow as if suddenly recalling my presence. Then, with a sigh, she says, “Close, but no. They’ll be sleeping for the next hundred years, though, so they can’t stay here.”
