Page 62 of Cursed Evermore

“Arielle—”

“I saw the ring.”

That grabbed my attention.

She stared at me intensely, then looked past me to Elariya, still suspended in the air across from us. I glanced at her, too, then back at Arielle.

Her gaze was shadowed, rimmed with fear and something close to grief. A look that told me her news wasn’t one to rejoice. Whatever she was about to unleash would change everything. And not entirely for the best.

“Where did you see it? Does Elariya have it?” I tried to conceal the emotion in my voice but failed.

Arielle glanced at Bastian, as if checking for his approval to continue. He nodded, looking as eager as I felt to hear what she had to say.

“Elariya’s father had it.” Her voice was whisper soft. No louder than the cautious tone of a scared child. “He was wearing it. I knew from his essence that he’d been in the palace and near your father. He took it from him.”

Rage and confusion flooded me at once, burning through my soul like fire refining steel. I stood, my fist balled, my lungs tight, my heart galloping.

Elariya’s father. The Ambassador of Realms for King Varis.Hehad the ring?

He took it from my father.

And he was wearing it?

Fuck. I was right there in his home. But he wasn’t there. I didn’t sense his essence anywhere. Not even the walls of that manor would tell me where he’d been.

This didn’t make sense. Why did the spell track me to Elariya if her father had the ring?

“Tell me everything. Every fucking detail.” I needed more information, so I tried to control my indignation.

Arielle straightened in Bastian’s arms, then she told me everything else.

I hung on to every single word as she explained what had happened to Elariya’s father, the vortex that appeared and swallowed him, and then the shard of red light that struck Elariya, cursing her.

Cursed. Just like me.

On the night of my father’s death, the same thing happened to me. A spark of red light came out of nowhere as I was training in the courtyard of the palace. It wedged itself in my heart, then burrowed deep inside me. That was the ring’s doing. It marked me that night. Just as it marked her.

I was cursed to ensure I would never stop looking until I found it. But Elariya…

Was she cursed because her father had the ring?

I looked away from Arielle and stared at Elariya, my jaw clenched so tightly it could crack.

Her father was wearing the ring.

And that could only mean one thing. He didn’t just steal it.

He ended the man it belonged to.

I looked back at Arielle. “The ring is fused to my father’s essence. That means

Elariya’s father would’ve had to kill him to take it.”

“Yes,” Arielle answered, her voice quiet again and cautious.

“How was he able to kill King Lysander and take the ring?” Bastian asked, his expression fierce. “That’s impossible for a human.”

“He would have needed one fuck of a powerful spell,” I seethed.