Page 12 of Between These Broken Hearts (Cursed Stars #2)

The cottage is empty when Gommid brings me back. I’m already feeling weak in a way I can no longer blame on the long night,

but I can’t bring myself to hunt the creature Fherna showed me.

I wish she were here so I could warn her away. I don’t know what will happen and I don’t want to endanger her if she returns

while I attempt to tap into Mordeus’s consciousness. Unfortunately, waiting isn’t an option when I don’t know if she’ll be

back in minutes or days.

Unwilling to waste more time, I settle right in to my conscious dreaming efforts—lighting a candle, pulling the curtains to

block out the midday sun, and making a comfortable place for myself to sit in the middle of the small cottage living room.

The truth is, I was never very good at conscious dreaming. The two times the instructor successfully pulled me down into that

state of consciousness, I clawed my way back out. I didn’t like what was lurking in my head. The shadows. The darkness. The

pain. The rage and the fear.

Both my emotions and Mordeus’s, I understand now.

But today is different. Today I’m searching for something. Today I have a purpose and, if I’m successful, an escape from years of terror.

I cross my legs and let my eyes float closed, focusing on my breathing to remove my mind from my physical surroundings and

turn it inward.

Here, you can visit memories you thought were long forgotten , the instructor told me. But I only found memories of wicked silver eyes and blood and pain.

This time, when those silver eyes appear in my mind, I focus on them, connect to them, remind myself of all the dreams I’ve

had from those eyes and shift my consciousness into the other side of them.

The rage here whips around with such abandon, I nearly lose my grip on my own mind, but I hold tight, focusing a thread of

my consciousness on myself, the smell of the candle in this room, the feel of the cushion under me, and I send the rest of

myself slithering toward his darkness and rage, wrapping around it like a snake.

I see the Throne of Shadows, see my sister sitting on it, crave the feeling of taking it from her. Of ending her for stealing

everything that I worked so hard for.

Seeing the world from these eyes, feeling Mordeus’s greed for power crawling beneath my skin, it makes me want to abandon my mission. But I can’t. I need the Sword of Fire.

The moment I lock my thoughts onto it, the images shift, and I’m standing outside a blacksmith’s hut just beyond the edge

of the forest. It’s overgrown by bushes and trees and time, a relic of Oberon’s kingdom that was never rebuilt.

I take in all the details I can. The shape of the dilapidated building, the curve in the gravel road beneath my feet, the view of the palace in the distance.

My palace.

She doesn’t belong on that throne. She is a disgrace to the Unseelie Court—practically a human and residing over shadow fae .

Everyone who bows to her will lose their head when I take back what’s mine.

Maybe I’ll kill her slowly. I wonder if the sounds of her pleas for mercy will be as sweet as her sister’s were.

I jerk awake with a start, and a blade clangs to the floor at my feet.

“Jasalyn?”

Abriella sits up in bed and blinks at me, then at the blade on the floor.

How did I get here? Why was I carrying a knife?

“Jas, where have you been?” She throws back the covers with shaking hands, her gaze dropping to the floor before shooting

back to me. I backpedal, trying to get away from her. Trying to get Mordeus away from her.

Every muscle in my body aches, the ring reminding me I’m cheating death. This pain is the cost of the power I craved when

I made that bargain with the Eloran witch.

“What are you doing with my dagger?” Brie asks. She’s moving slowly, like I’m a timid, wild creature she doesn’t want to scare

away.

I shake my head, taking another step back. Then another.

The room is dark except for the starlight coming in from the windows overhead, but despite her caution, there’s nothing but trust in her eyes as she pads toward me. Barefoot, half asleep, vulnerable. “Brie,” I whisper. I’m shaking. Trembling. “I don’t know how I got here.”

She reaches for me, dropping her hand before it can touch my shoulder. “What do you mean? Are you okay? We’ve been looking

for you. Let me call the healer to look you over.”

What was I doing in my sister’s chambers with an iron blade? “Where’s Finn? Shouldn’t he be here to protect you?” Please tell me I didn’t hurt him. Please tell me he’s okay.

“He’s in the Court of the Sun. Sebastian needed help and since I didn’t want to leave...” She looks me over. “You’re sick.

It’s the ring, right? Kendrick says it makes you sick.”

I was holding a knife over my sleeping sister. She needs to be hard with me. Not gentle.

“I’m fine.” I take another step back. “Brie, you need to have wards that keep me out.”

She shivers and wraps her arms around herself. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re not safe around me. You need to set up wards to protect yourself against me—against anyone who might be... using

me.”

The confusion falls off her face. “You mean Mordeus.” She holds my gaze and sighs softly. “I know everything—even about the

connection between the faceless plague and your blackouts.”

Shame washes over me—hot and heavy. The faceless plague. That’s what they called all the unexplained deaths throughout the

court. It had been going on for months, and we had no idea that Mordeus was the one responsible. That I was the one responsible.

“I’m going to make it right,” I promise. “I know where to find the Sword of Fire, and I’m going to use it to get to Mordeus

and kill him. For good.”

“How will you do that?” Brie asks, and the pity in her eyes makes me curl my nails into my palms.

I steel myself against the surge of emotion flowing through me. “It won’t bring all those people back, but I won’t let him

take any more lives through me. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

“Whatever it takes?” She ducks her head to catch my eyes. “Like trade everything for a magical ring that gives you death’s

kiss?” The rage in her voice sends a chill up my spine. Brie doesn’t talk to me like that.

“I’m sorry. When she asked for the Grimoricon, I thought it would be worth it, but I know it wasn’t mine to take. I’ll get

your book back too.”

“You think I’m upset about the book? You cut your life short for that ring!”

She really does know everything. I wish she didn’t. I didn’t want her to be burdened with the truth.

I’ve made so many mistakes.

But I don’t dare say it now. I don’t want her sympathy. Not when it could make me crumble. “It doesn’t matter. I only need

to live long enough to kill him.”

Abriella’s nostrils flare and she shakes her head. “No. You need to live much, much longer than that.”

“I traded it all away,” I admit, but the truth is I’m only brave enough to say the words because she already knows. “It’s

too late.”

“You are a child of Mab. There is no ring, no witch, no promise big enough to take away the magic that will feed your immortal years if you choose to live.”

She’s wrong. “It’s done, Brie.”

“Where have you been? We’ve been so worried. We’ve looked everywhere, but...” Her gaze drops to my ring.

But they wouldn’t remember even if they had found me.

“Stop looking. There’s nothing you can do for me. Just...” My chest aches. I miss her so much. I wish I could stay. “Protect

yourself.”

I look down at my feet. My boots are caked in mud. I don’t know how I got here. I don’t know where I’ve been. I need to think, but my mind is too foggy, as if I’m still half trapped in the dream where I am the wicked king, and I want

nothing more than to destroy the human girl who stole my life and then my throne. “When I leave, you’ll forget this,” I tell

my sister. “We need to find a way to make you remember. You aren’t safe around me.” I could write a note, but would she take

it seriously? I need to leave a warning she’ll remember. I can’t risk her ignoring it.

“I’m strong enough to protect myself,” Brie says. “And besides, your magic ring doesn’t work on me like it does on the others.

Kendrick and I talked about it.”

I squeeze my eyes shut. The ring doesn’t enchant Brie or Kendrick because of how they feel about me, but their memories are

still affected. “Even if you can resist my commands, that doesn’t mean you aren’t vulnerable—especially when you’re sleeping.

And it doesn’t mean you’ll remember this.” I bite my bottom lip. “We need to leave you a message for after I’m gone.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t want you to leave.” But I can see that what I’m saying is finally registering, and she knows I’m right.

My mind races, trying to find the best way to get the message through to her once I’m gone. “It needs to be in blood. Your

blood.” Finn won’t ignore a message written in Brie’s blood. Her bonded partner would do anything to protect her—even from

me.

“Jas...”

“Please? Do this for me?” I’ve fed her so many lies in the last few years, what’s one more? “Just until I figure out a way

to fix it?”

She gives a shaky nod, then pulls a small blade from beneath her sleeping gown. “I will ward my chambers against you but not

the palace. We’re working on something that could help you. Promise me you’ll return, promise you’ll check in with me.”

I can’t promise her that, but does it matter? If she won’t remember this anyway? “So long as you ward anywhere you rest.”

She slices into her palm without so much as a grimace. I use my finger as the quill and her blood as the ink, then I paint

the words on her bedroom wall.

WARD AGAINST JAS. MORDEUS IS USING HER.