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“We have kissed plenty of times, and none of them have broken your curse.” I shake my head playfully.

“Ah,” he says and I hear the smile in his voice even without looking. “So, you do love me.”

I freeze, my hand halfway to a book. My heart is suddenly thunderous. The dust from the bookshelves lodges itself in my throat and I choke on it.

“I…I…” I splutter.

Theo laughs and leans forward to kiss my temple.

“I jest,” he says before nodding to the bookshelf. “You believe one of these will give us the answer?”

I cough awkwardly and take the opportunity he gives me to change the conversation.

“Y-Yes,” I stammer. “I believe so. If we can break the curse—”

“We can leave,” Theo finishes for me. “Together.”

I smile.

“Together.”

When I decide we have enough books to start with, we make our way to one of the tables, and Theo drops them heavily. Many of the books are in the common tongue, but several are written in dragon text. The only exception is the purple book of au’mana.

“The answer is in here somewhere,” I mutter. “It must be.”

I briefly consider sending for Aunt Meena—if anyone knows anything about dragons, it will be her. But it would be too dangerous, both for her and for Theo and myself. If anyone discovered we wereactuallytrying to break this curse, my head would be on a spike by the morning.

I leave Theo to trawl the other books while I wade through the dragon text. I am not as fluent as I used to be and some of the words I cannot understand, but I try to piece it togetherwith context. I find a section detailing dragon curses, but none of the descriptions match what happens to Theo. And they all emphasise how rare they are, only being used once every thousand years by some anomaly of a dragon.

Frustrated, I slam the book shut and pull over another.

“Nothing, I assume?” Theo asks, licking his finger to turn a page. I am temporarily distracted by the sight of his tongue and have to internally scold myself—this is clearly not the time.

“Nothing,” I reply with a heavy sigh. “I do not understand. Dragon curses are rare because of the sheer intensity of emotion required to transfer their internal power to another. Dragons use meditation to draw on their faeth, which requires peace of mind rather than high emotions. It often takes decades to master. It just does not make sense how you were cursed.”

I put my head in my hands, elbows propped on the table.

“What about witch curses?” Theo asks, glancing at the purple book.

“Well, witch curses areslightlyless rare because our au’mana is drawn from powerful emotions,” I say. Theo perks up, but I shake my head. “But they can only enchant or curse inanimate objects, not living things. Even plants are immune. Besides, we already know your mother was a dragon, not a witch.”

Theo slumps back.

“So, we have reached an impasse,” he says.

“No,” I reply firmly. “No. There is something that will help us. We…we just need to keep looking.”

Desperation slips into my voice—I notice it, and Theo looks at me, noticing it as well. He pauses before sitting forward again.

“Then we will keep looking,” he says and opens another book.

We read and find more books and read and find more books until the castle falls silent and the night sky takes over. The candles burn low, casting a dim glow, which makes it difficult to read.

“I think we will need to finish for the night,” I eventually say, breaking the silence. I raise my arms above me and stretch them, ridding myself of the ache in my joints from being sedentary for too long. My ophid protests—I have never gone this long without using it, and I know the strength in it is waning. Theo looks as tired as me, with dark circles under his eyes.

“We will try again tomorrow,” he says with an encouraging smile despite his fatigued features.

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