The words weren’t a reassurance, they were a prophecy. And I wasn’t so sure she was speaking of herself anymore.
When she pulled her hand away, the cuff of her sleeve slipped back, showing ink marked along the thin skin of her wrist. A black crescent moon, split down its center with a single line.
Though, it wasn’t ink alone.
The mark seemed to breathe, and for the briefest heartbeat, it glowed. A symbol of the most unbreakable bond in existence.
A reminder. A devotion. Or maybe a curse of her own.
My palm rose to my heart. “You found your mate?”
A light broke through in the opal of her eyes, but the smile she pulled together was not from bliss. Her thumb traced the mark, her fingers curling against her palm as though she could still feel his hand in that space between moments.
“I did.”
To be bound like that, it wasn’t just your hearts, it waseverything. Your souls. Your power. All intertwining, becoming one. Once the bond was accepted, it wasn’t just a tether, but a law.
Thoughts, feelings, even pain, shared until the end.
And if that end came, if you lost the other half of your soul, the agony was eternal.
I reached for my cup, drinking deep, the sweep of the tea soothing more than just my throat. A soft heat claimed space into my bones, impossible to refuse, not only easing the tension in my body, but stirring up something else.
My heart beat stronger. My thoughts sharpened. A boldness pushed from the dark and woke in my chest.
Mae’s smirk turned up, catching the shift, her thumb dragging slowly across her palm, tracing invisible lines.
I should have caught it.I should have known.“Starflower.”
It was subtle, always subtle. My nerves quieted, calm coaxed where there was none earlier.
“My secret to ambition, my sweet girl,” she said, eyes clouding as she reached for my hands again. I surrendered them both to her. “Now, ask me.”
The skin of my hands blanched as she squeezed harder, the Viper surged within me, rattling my bones, crawling up my spine.
The pupils of her eyes were gone, vanished, turned to frosted pearls, like a swarm of opal and smoke.
“Ask me,” she dared.
The words tore from me, firm, inevitable, like they’d been waiting centuries to be spoken. “What is my purpose?”
Her head tilted. “Yours, or the curse?”
“Do I even have my own at this point?”
Right before she closed her eyes, they shifted. “Is it the Viper who protects the princess?” Frost formed on the surface of our cups. “Who reaches for her freedom?”
“I just want to know,” my voice broke, “that I’m on the right path. That all of this isn’t just for Selvarra to end in collapse anyway.”
Mae’s eyes shot open, the shadow behind her moving a heartbeat slower than her body. “It will be wise for you to remember that when the monster hiding amongst your mind comes knocking, you will have only two choices.”
More frost formed along the mug, splintering out along the table. I lurched back, nearly toppling off the chair, but her hands held me steady.
“You can lock the door. Keep it caged. But know this...” She looked at me, past me, beyond where my future lay. “Sooner or later, it will break free. And when it does, it will not simply destroy the door. It will crush you beneath it. Or,” her lips moved into the promise of a smile, “you can open the door yourself, look your monster in the eye, and show it fangs of your own.”
My hands remained glamoured, but unease blew through every polished line. Some part of me wondered if she saw through the glamour anyway, if she already knew.
Was she telling me to fight back against the curse? Or to embrace it?
