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“I meditated on his future for days,” Ambrose argued. “If he were up to something I’d know.”

Lonnie glowered. “Maybe he’s blocking you somehow. You told me your visions weren’t coming as easily.”

I straightened, turning to glare pointedly at Ambrose. “What the fuck does that mean?”

He sighed in exasperation, looking annoyed–likely that Lonnie had revealed this shred of information in front of me. “No one is blocking me…at least, not intentionally. All I’m focused on right now is this:” He gestured vaguely in the air as if to indicate the present moment. “There’s nothing worth seeing except the future as it relates to the curse.”

That made absolutely no fucking sense.

If he was focused on the curse then why couldn’t he tell us how to break it? I narrowed my eyes at him, watching intently. There was something I was missing here–something important–and I didn’t like feeling in the dark.

“Here, look at this!” Ambrose said, as if desperate to change the subject. “I finally found a mention of the curse. Or, at least of the crown.”

“When?” I barked. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“It’s a bit hard to get a word in when you’re constantly yelling.” He reached for the book he’d been reading, and flipped open to a dog-eared page in the middle, before holding it up for us to see.

I stared nonplussed for a long moment before looking up. “I don’t see anything.”

Ambrose sighed and pointed to the middle of the page. I leaned closer and noticed that between some other random scribblings was a small drawing of a crown with three jewels set into the points.

Frowning, I pulled back, more annoyed than ever. “That’s not the same crown. That one has jewels, the obsidian crown is plain.”

“I know,” Ambrose snapped. “But look at this.”

He pointed again at what I’d first taken to be a random scribble. I leaned closer and squinted. In fact, it was a tiny note drawn beneath the crown in Grandmother Celia’s familiar loopy scrawl.

The uniter of the realms

“Aisling was called the Uniter,” Ambrose said, seemingly for Lonnie’s benefit. “Because she was the reason that Elsewhere became a single country rather than four independent kingdoms. I’m sure this is relevant.”

Lonnie looked unconvinced. “If you say so, but if that’s all there is I don’t see how we’re going to decipher it. I was really hoping Queen Celia might have written an entire book of instructions on how to break the curse, not just some vague mentions of Aisling here or there.”

“I know,” Ambrose agreed. “She still may have. There are more books to check.”

Lonnie sighed and stood up again, moving toward the door. “Let’s hope, because I’m starting to feel like we’re fighting that many headed sea monster again. Every time we answer one question, two more appear in its place.”

I laughed darkly.

I knew exactly what she meant. The more I thought about the curse, the bleaker everything felt. No one had been able to break it for thousands of years. Maybe it couldn’t be done. Maybe we were simply meant to die miserable.

“I’m going to check on Bael.” Lonnie’s gaze flicked to Ambrose for half a second before returning to me. “Did you want to come with me?”

I ran a frustrated hand through my hair. “I’ll join you shortly. We’re not done here.”

Lonnie glanced from me to Ambrose and nodded looking almost hopeful. For some reason, she clearly wanted us to get along and for the life of me I couldn’t understand why.

Lonnie stood on her toes to kiss me lightly on the corner of my mouth, turned on her heel and marched toward the door, her crimson braid coming more unraveled with every step until half her hair was fanning out behind her like a cloak. At the last moment, she seemed to remember she didn’t have to waste time running down corridors anymore if she didn’t choose to. The air around her shimmered, and she walked straight into nothingness disappearing from sight in the blink of an eye.

I closed my eyes and tilted my head back, groaning. I could feel the exact point where her lips had touched me burn, and it was a steady reminder that I could be spending my time with her, and instead I was trapped in here day after day with my traitorous brother. Life was cruel.

I turned back to Ambrose, intending to pick up my interrogation precisely where we’d left off. Instead, I came to an abrupt halt, staring. I opened my mouth, then quickly closed it again. I was suddenly at a loss for words.

By the fucking Source.

Ambrose wasn’t paying any attention to me–in fact, he seemed to have forgotten I was there. He stood with his arms slack at his sides, the book he’d been so emphatically brandishing a momentbefore hanging limply from his hand. He was staring at the spot where Lonnie had disappeared with a hauntingly familiar expression on his face.

“By the Source, I’m so fucking stupid.” I blurted out. “You want her.”