Page 25 of Between These Broken Hearts (Cursed Stars #2)

Coming back into myself is like crawling to the surface from the deepest, darkest depths of soupy water. Like there’s a vortex

pulling me back with every inch of progress I make.

Don’t you dare give up now. Fherna? My mother? Abriella? I don’t know who the words are coming from, but I listen.

I push. I crawl and fight, and the moment I shove Mordeus’s consciousness away and take control over my own body, I see it:

Abriella with her hand clutched to her stomach, blood gushing through her fingers. There’s a bloody dagger at my feet, and

Finn’s screaming for a healer, one hand stretched out as if he’s casting magic in my direction.

My wrists hurt, my hands trapped behind me, held immobile—Finn’s shadows, I realize, pinning them there. Because I was the

one with the knife? Because I did that to Brie?

Someone’s holding me by the shoulders, saying my name, and I blink up to see Kendrick.

“Don’t you dare give up now,” he’s saying. “Come back to me, Slayer. You’re stronger than him.”

“What did I do?” Frantic, I look back and forth between Brie and Kendrick. Exhaustion hangs on every inch of my skin, willing me to close my eyes. To rest.

Kendrick’s grip tightens, like this alone can keep me in my body. “She’s back.”

“How do you know?” Finn asks. “It could be a trick.”

“I know ,” Kendrick roars, the rage so heavy in his voice it rattles the windows.

One hand still clutched to her stomach, Brie reaches toward me with a smooth stone the size of her palm. “It has to be her,”

she says. “This magic is tied to her life. She has to be the one to use the stone.”

“Release her,” Kendrick tells Finn. “She can’t try the spell herself with her hands pinned behind her back.”

“No.” I shake my head, trembling all over as I meet Finn’s silver eyes. They’re so much like Mordeus’s that I always avoid

them, but I can’t risk that now. “ Don’t release me,” I say. “We don’t know if he’ll be back.”

Finn’s eyes glaze over, and I realize the Enchanting Lady has her hold on him. He won’t disobey me.

“Thank you,” I whisper. Even words are hard. Whatever magic was in the wolpertinger’s blood, it’s gone now.

Kendrick shakes me gently, but I can’t take my eyes off my sister or the blood coating her hands. “Listen to me, Jas,” he

says. “This is the Stone of Disenchantment. If you don’t want Mordeus to take over your body again, you have to get this ring

off. It strengthens the connection between you and Mordeus and makes it easier for him to control you.”

I blink back up to him. Do I understand what he’s saying? That I could be rid of this ring? That I could be remembered again? That I could stop sleeping away the little that’s left of my life? “How?” Keeping myself upright is harder than ever.

You almost died, and this ring is holding you at death’s door.

“You have to ask Finn to free your hands so you can take the stone,” Kendrick says.

“Have you already tried this?” I look back and forth between him and Brie, ignoring Finn’s adoring, starry-eyed gaze, but

I can see the answer in my sister’s desperate stare. “If it didn’t work for you, how do you know it will work for me?”

Kendrick strokes a thumb across my cheek, the touch so gentle it nearly brings tears to my eyes. “You have to try.”

“You have to want to be rid of the ring,” Abriella says, wincing as she takes one labored step toward me and then another. “You hold the stone

and you ask it to free you of the magic.”

“I don’t want to hurt any of you.”

“Then it’s time to take off the ring,” Abriella says. She takes one more step, holding the stone before me.

“Finn,” I say, my voice cracking as I take in my sister’s bonded partner. “Pick up that dagger and toss it in the hall, then

close the door.” He obeys. He’s fighting the ring’s magic, but I have him in my thrall. “In a few seconds, I’m going to ask

you to release your hold on me. If I do anything to try to hurt Abriella, restrain me immediately .”

“If that’s what you want.”

“It is,” I promise. Tears prick the back of my nose.

Finn is one of the strongest, most noble males I’ve had the honor of meeting.

There should be no magic that takes away his will like this.

I should never have sought out such a power, should never have given that witch what she needed to create it.

“You ready?” Kendrick asks.

What if it doesn’t work? What if Mordeus is in my mind, waiting for the right moment to strike again?

What if this is my only chance?

I give a jerky nod. “Release me, Finn.”

My wrists and hands fall free at my sides, and I reach for the stone. It’s slippery with her blood, but that only strengthens

my resolve.

All eyes are on me as I grip it hard, feeling it pinch against the ring. “Free me of this ring.”

I can’t explain it, but I feel the moment it happens. I feel the magic loosen its grip—still there but more in my control

than it has been in months.

I fumble to pull the ring from my finger and the stone slides from my hand and hits the floor with a thump.

When I pull the ring from my finger, it’s like being released from a tether. As if it was both reining me in and holding me

up. I collapse.

When I open my eyes again, it doesn’t take the effort it did before. I’m back in my bedroom at the Midnight Palace. The curtains

are drawn but a candle burns at my bedside and scatters flickering light across the room and onto Abriella’s face. She’s lounging

in a chair in the corner, a book open against her chest as she stares out to the night sky.

“Abriella? You’re okay?”

“Jas.” She sits up and moves her book to the side. “How are you feeling?”

“Me?” I look her over, searching for signs of injury. “ You were bleeding last time I saw you.”

“My healers do good work. And being fae...” She shrugs.

“You saved me,” I whisper. “If you and Kendrick hadn’t found me when you did...”

Her eyes well. “I hope you know by now that I’ll always come for you. No matter how long it takes.”

A soft knock sounds at the door. “It’s me,” Kendrick calls.

Brie swipes at her cheeks before standing. “Come in.”

The door opens and when Kendrick steps into the room, my breath catches. He still fills a space with his presence, still grabs

ahold of my lovesick heart with both hands. Even when I know I’ve brought nothing but heartache into his life. Even when I

know I have to let him go.

I don’t have much time left and Elora needs him.

His broad chest expands as he looks me over. “You’re better. Thank the gods.”

I shove aside the conflicting tangle of emotions. “Where was I when you found me?” I remember the ash, the charred beams.

Brie cocks her head to the side. “You don’t know?”

I shake my head. “I wanted to go back to the cottage where I’d been staying but the sword didn’t work right.”

“The Sword of Fire? You found it?” The hope in Kendrick’s voice crushes something inside me.

“I did.”

“What do you mean it didn’t work right?” he asks. “It’s supposed to take you anywhere you desire.”

I blow out a breath. This is the easy part. “I mean I don’t know where it sent me.”

“You were lying in the charred remains of our old house in Elora,” Brie says.

“Because that’s where I wanted to be,” I whisper. I may have been trying to think of Fherna’s house, but the moment Erith

made my childhood bedroom appear, I wanted to be there more than anywhere else.

“So it did work,” Kendrick says, a bit sadly, and I nod.

Brie sighs. “We had to heal you in Elora—at least enough that the goblins would agree to bring you back here. We worked on

disenchanting the ring the moment we arrived at the palace, but it turns out we needed you to do it yourself.”

I stare at my bare finger, waiting for relief that doesn’t come. Getting the ring off my finger doesn’t change anything. I

can’t undo the deal I made. I can’t bring back those I killed in my futile search for vengeance.

“What did Natan say about the ring itself?” Brie asks Kendrick, and I realize they’ve been busy finding answers while I was

sleeping.

Kendrick bows his head. “The ring’s magic remains. The only thing the stone nullified was whatever spell was holding it on

Jas.”

“I don’t understand,” Brie says. “Do you think maybe the magic of the ring is too strong?”

“It’s certainly more powerful than any magical artifact I’ve seen before.”

“Do you have to have all of the magical items for the stone to work?” I ask.

Brie’s brow wrinkles. “What do you mean?”

Kendrick curses softly and drags a hand over his face. “The ring was one of a pair. We couldn’t nullify its magic because we only had half.”

“You’re sure there’s another?” my sister asks.

“I saw the other ring on Mordeus’s finger.”

Brie draws in a sharp breath. “You saw Mordeus. He’s resurrected? It’s real?”

“He’s a rotting corpse,” I say, breathing through the revulsion that shivers through me at the memory.

“For now,” Brie murmurs.

Kendrick looks to Brie and then back to me. “May the princess and I talk? Alone?”

I bite my bottom lip.

“It’s up to you, sister,” Brie says. “I can stay while you talk or I can go. Or I can kick him out, though if I get a vote

I think you should listen to what he has to say.”

She’s giving me the most patient and understanding smile, and all I can think is that I don’t deserve that from her. I’ve

let her down so many times and in so many ways. But now Kendrick is on the list of people I’ve let down, and I need to tell

him what happened with Erith and the sword.

“You can go,” I say.

“I’ll be right outside if you need me.” She pads to the door and closes it gently behind herself.

I push my blankets aside and climb out of bed, surprised to realize my injuries are gone. Magical healing is incredible. But

even more miraculous than the absence of lingering pain is the absence of that ever-present weakness I felt when the ring

was stuck.

Though I haven’t found the courage to meet his eyes, I feel Kendrick’s gaze on me with every move I make. I pull the curtains wide, desperate for any moonlight I can get.