Page 169 of Cursed Evermore

Wolfe

“The Sound Beneath the Silence.”

Isearched the air, desperate for answers.

My heart willed the Nyzith strands to return, or for some gods-damned thing to happen. Anything but the vague nothingness before us.

But all Elariya and I faced as we stood side by side on the stone balcony was an invisible wall of obscurity, our fates fraying at the edges.

The Nyzith strands were gone with no trace, no reason. Just silence and more uncertainty.

Though, something lingered in the air. A haunting whisper. A pull that throbbed in my blood like a distant hum, low and wrong, beckoning me toward the caves where my dragons lived.

Elariya felt it, too—the thrum in the air, the tension that had nothing to do with the gusting wind. The recognition pulsed in her through the bond of the shackles and the tremble of her small hand in mine.

Apart from my dragons, whom Elariya was never going to see, I couldn’t think of anything that was in the caves.Nothing that could help me find the ring or break our curses. Nevertheless, I’d learned long ago that magic never whispered without a purpose.

And silence? Silence was just the pause before fate screamed.

So, if we were being directed to the caves, something was there.

Everything was a message. Everything we’d seen so far.

Arielle spoke true. No one had seen Nyzith strands for decades. Yet I’d seen them twice.

There was also Elariya’s dream, whichwasn’texactly a dream. Mages didn’t have dreams about destiny. The same way they were able to tap into the Fray’s magic, they shared a connection with destiny that allowed them to receive messages.

When destiny wanted to intervene, it sent guidance. In her case, it probably worked through her family’s attempts to find her.

Destiny would never interfere with a curse bound by blood, but it would certainly help where it could, where it was supposed to set you back on the right path.

Since Elariya was my tracker, everything happening around her—in her dreams and reality, destiny related or not—was a sign, a guide back to the ring.

A fucking map. But I was too blind to read it.

Even with the helping hand from destiny, I didn’t know what the fuck any of it meant or how to start deciphering the clues. All I’d been left with was a botched-up spell that hadn’t worked and more questions that needed answers.

Why were Elariya and I the only ones who could see the Nyzith strands?

Why had they appeared to us?

What was I supposed to do now?

The only thing I could do was check the caves for anything new and take it from there.

Elariya was still staring at the jagged line of caves now shrouded in mist.

I watched her. She looked like she’d been marked by the strands. Touched by something holy or cursed. Maybe both.

My mage.

The words still echoed in my mind, venomous and unbidden.

Fuck.I’d lost my shit with Garrick and let too much slip.

I couldn’t stand him touching her, and his concern enraged me. I could have killed him. Garrick, one of my oldest friends, my Bloodsworn.

I'd picked him to guard Elariya because of the four of us, he was the most civil—nice. Yet I'd acted like a hellhound when he tended to her.