It was quick, subtle, barely a scratch. Then the sting built and my body locked as I blinked down at my arm where Reve’s blade had nicked me—the tiniest cut, casual as a sigh.
It burned. Not like fire or poison. Like sinking.
My veins recoiled, shadows shriveling back into my skin. A dizzy haze wrapped around me as my breath hitched, control slipping from my grasp as my heart skipped its pace.
“What…the fuck,” I rasped, clutching at the cut as if I could will it closed.
Reve circled me, polishing his blade from my blood before sheathing it. “Nix doesn’t care how keen the edge is, beastie.”
Before I could lunge for his throat, cold iron slammed around my wrist. My elbows snapped out, blurring in my periphery.
The curse still crouched behind my ribs, wearing my face like a mask so I turned, baring fangs, letting it gleam between my teeth as my free arm lashed out. The guard who had cuffed me lurched back, dropping the remaining chain, barely avoiding the slash.
Obrann’s footsteps thundered closer, surrounded by trembling men leaving stained steps in their wake.
I reached for the shackle clamped on my wrist, but my shoulders sagged as the world tilted, color draining, everything slipping back into its muted hue.
For the first time in too long, I felt fragile.
“My son suffered,” Obrann said, too close to me now. My arm whipped out again, a weak fist in the dark. It never landed. The second restraint snapped over my wrist, and I crumpled to the ground. “But you,” his pause was a knife to my throat, “your torment will not be so brief.”
Hollow. That’s what I was. Hollow and gutted.
“Good.” My cheek ground against the marble. “Pain was never the fear. Do your worst. I can survive it knowing Elva will never be chained to the evil you called a son.”
The weight in my chest crushed me flat, like a boulder lodged between ribs, between lungs. I reached inward for the other, the impulse, the hunger.
Nothing remained. Not even its shadow. Not even the cage that held it.
Jewels clicked in quiet laughter as Obrann crouched low, fingers ghosting across my cheek, down the scar, resting at my throat. My body didn’t flinch, not really. Only my spirit recoiled.
“You think you saved her?” His words brushed the shell of my ear, breath bitter with hate. “The wedding is postponed, Verena. Not canceled.” The black of his eyes swirled, ink devouring ink, until I couldn’t tell where iris ended and pupil began.
Callum said nothing as the guards dragged him up, wrists and ankles shackled, his head hanging in a lull.
“She can’t marry a corpse,” I muttered, lips barely moving.
Obrann wiped his fingers on his knee as if my skin had left a stain there, eyes sliding past me. I didn’t need to follow it to know where it landed, to feel the grin twist across his face.
I forced my chin up anyway, to where Elva stood at the foot of the dais; skin returned to its natural shade; hands knotted in front of her gown. Golden waves spiraled over her shoulders, tears pouring down like rain at dawn.
Fritz still hovered behind her, still refusing to look up.
“We’ll see about that,” Obrann chuckled.
A sound worked its way out of my throat before I could stop it, half sob, half snarl. Breath wouldn’t come. It had abandoned me the moment Gemma fell.
Somewhere near, Callum exhaled, a rough tremor of life. His body stayed slumped, but I knew he had heard every word.
I reached inward one last time for the curse, only to find cold emptiness, like a lock without a key.
Obrann raised a hand, a summons meant for one person. Elva obeyed, her steps tiny as she skirted the pool of blood. When she reached him, he tucked a strand of hair from her collarbone with a lover’s touch and let his fingers drift to the heart-shaped pendant at her throat.
The catch in her breath was imminent.
“The effect of nix metal on an immortal is,” he dropped the pendant, pressing a kiss to her cheek, “fascinating.” My stomach turned. “Even one cursed,” he added, nodding at the guard.
A boot slammed into my ribs, white-hot pain blooming around my core. If I’d had air, I would have laughed.
