“The curse wasn’t for you. It was revenge on my sisters, who were your godmothers. I wanted to humiliate them.”
The simplicity of the truth struck Amelia. She was surprised, at first, to find out her godmothers were related to Malicine. Then something else burrowed beneath the initial shock. A hint of a tear crackled her cheekbone, the glass crumbling.
The curse had nothing to do with her after all.
For so long, she’d wanted to sleep forever. Her mind was stuck in fog of perpetual apathy for life. She thought an answer would dissipate the mist and bring clarity. There had always been a shadow following her, whispering wishes for her life to end. Now she knew where these shadows came from.
“It was never you.”
Her words died into a whisper as she caught a glass tear in her palm. The teardrop burst into shards so small they disappeared into her hand, becoming part of her once more, a never-ending cycle.
“There is no reason for the darkness,” she murmured. “It is just who I am.”
Her gaze fixed into the distance where the fog showed no future ahead of them. She was an empty glass with no reflection. Perhaps that was why she was made of it.
She hadn’t wanted to cross to the Otherworld because she was brave. It was not adventure she desired, but escape. Her tears continued to fall, collecting into broken shards around her feet.
Without saying a word, Malicine climbed into the boat with her, Talon joining their side. The demon sat in the back and placed a palm on the water’s surface. Ash swirled under their skin, thick like tar. Then a white substance bubbled from the water, a sliver of air.Their fingers twirled in a circle over the water to build momentum. They extended their arm and let the energy release itself.
A gust of wind struck the boat and propelled them forward. The jet of solid wind made the ancient wood creak, nearly tipping over. Talon landed in Amelia’s lap while she gripped onto the ledge. When she readjusted her balance, she turned back to the demon. “Thank you.”
“It was only to stop your crying.”
Malicine left trails in the boat’s wake, a rippling chop shooting across the black sea and swelling the waves behind them. Their power was like a streak of moonlight that ripped across a dark sky. Amelia could only hope the journey wasn’t aimless. That it could still lead to something on the other side. Somehow, she knew Malicine felt the same way.
She dipped her hand in the water. The murky surface broke apart under her touch. Her fingers created a trail as the boat drifted forward, the smallest ripples radiating from the tips of her skin. Ash clung onto her hand in wet layers, yet she didn’t recoil back in disgust. Instead, her eyes drifted over the patterns in the water, the expanding ring over the black sea.
“Maybe you’ve granted me a favor with this curse,” she mused. “If I live any longer, I would waste a perfectly good life.”
She let out a half-hearted laugh, but Malicine didn’t join her. The demon’s lips turned downward into a scowl, wrinkles deepening between their brows. She had said something wrong.
The demon stood up abruptly. The boat shook under the sudden imbalance of weight and , causing Amelia had to cling onto the ledge again. Malicine towered over her, and the weight of their glare was enough to make her sink lower in her seat. Their eyes flashed poisonous green, and she realized this was somethingdeeper than annoyance. For the first time, she felt hatred radiating from Malicine.
“We are not friends, princess. Do not expect me to feel sorry when you were born in a world that already bows to your feet. You are nothing more than a tool to me. Once I find the Demon King, you would be so lucky if I choose to abandon you rather than kill you.”
Amelia fell silent as Malicine’s wrath simmered beneath their skin. She couldn’t help but notice it was the same energy that thrummed between them at their first meeting. Surely, that was the fuel that propelled them to join her in this strange place. Behind Malicine’s barbed words and hardened expressions, she sensed something deeper, sadder. She thought of Malicine being born in their world, neither human nor fae, ostracized by a society that made no shape for them to fit inside. How utterly, irrevocably alone they must have felt to live in such a place.
Talon cut the tense silence with a shrill croak. A warning for the crash that came next.
The waves turned vicious and knocked the boat against a jagged rock. Mist cloaked an unfamiliar shore as they crashed into a boulder. Amelia’s weight lifted off the boat and fell into the sea stack. She hit something hard and, in the next moment, felt her body shatter.
CHAPTER 25
THE CRASHING WAVES of a waterfall rang in Corin’s ears like shattered glass. The sunflowers had carried Elly and her to the top of the mountain, where the higher atmosphere turned the air crisp and granted her a view of several miles of landscape. Petals unfurled over her eyes to reveal soft hues washing over the beach, its sands earthen and muted like flour on bread. She allowed the sunset to warm her skin, watching the body of brine transform into tinted sepia, the ocean into dark waves, the skies into marigold.
Briar and Malicine had also reached the summit, reuniting with the sisters. Corin stepped onto a jagged rock and let fresh air kiss her cheeks while a waterfall sprouted from the cliffside ahead of them. Her heart beat against the necklace resting on her chest. She thought about their new future, just within their reach, as she would finally find her treasure.
Black rocks shone around the crest of the waterfall where the stream began. A rectangular wooden box was submerged underwater, snagged by a stray branch. Corin hadn’t spotted the box until Briar pointed out its location. Of course the treasure chest wouldlook nondescript, hidden at the highest peak of the mountain and covered by running streams and shrubbery.
Corin’s hands held two things. In her left, Elly’s palm. In her right, the necklace tucked beneath her shirt. She let both go so she could approach the waterfall, careful to balance atop the pathway of rocks. Her palms scooped the box and felt the smooth wooden surface. The treasure was lighter than she expected, but her fingers started trembling, and suddenly the chest felt heavy with the knowledge that its contents would change her future.
She held more gold than she ever carried in her life. This was the sort of wealth people fought wars and betrayed lovers for. Corin stole a glance at the others waiting near the plateau. She could not read the expressions on Briar and Malicine, but Elly, she could always recognize. The pinch between her brows, the worried teeth mark on her bottom lip. Corin wanted to reassure her that she didn’t need to be nervous. For the first time, they were going to be okay. Corin would be the one to prove it.
Her fingers pried open the hinge, a slow yawning of the box for the grand reveal. Yet contained inside velvet lining was not a necklace glittering in gold, a long-lost crown jewel made of hundreds of carats, or any item belonging to royalty at all.
Instead there was a canvas, flat and old and barely bigger than her hand. Splatters of paint created a familiar scene: tangerine skies, puffy clouds, rolling green hills separated by a river. This painting looked like Summerland, except Corin recognized in the picture the rows of rooftops from Gyldan, the chimney smoke wafting in the air, the bundle of wildflowers in the foreground. She remembered how shaky her hand recognized in the picture the from painting every tiny petal. How the sunset looked beautiful as she’d followed her mother down the cliff, turning their skin a darker shade of brown.
How much she had loved that ordinary day.
