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CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

LARK

The golden threads beneath my skin pulse with every heartbeat, quickening at Zin's proximity. I trace the metallic veins spreading across my wrists, an indelible reminder of the twisted bond she has forged between us.

She's here. Just beyond the enchantment that protects me.

“Where is she?” Rook asks.

“Outside the mist,” I say. “Waiting for me.”

He grips the hilt of his sword. "I won’t let her hurt you."

"No." I catch my brother by the wrist, stopping him from charging into battle against my enemy. "You can't come with me.”

"After what she did to you?" His eyes smolder with anger.

"That’s why I need to do this alone.” The aellurium pulses beneath my skin, urging me toward the door. Toward her. “If you hurt her, you hurt me.”

Rook grimaces. “Don’t trust her.”

"I never did." My broken horn aches with phantom pain as I’m forced to remember my time in the Forgotten Tower. "Stay here. Both of you.”

"Are you certain?"

"Yes." My hand lingers on the door handle. "Whatever game Zin's playing, she can't kill me without killing herself. That's the nature of our curse."

“What if that’s what she wants?” Pyrah asks.

“Knowing Zin?” I exhale hard. “That’s not impossible.”

My brother nods grimly. "Be careful."

"I'll try."

I step outside into the cold mist. Rain falls hard and fast.

I lift my hands, unweaving the protective spell with a twist of my wrist. The mist swirls away, revealing Zin standing in the meadow. She's empty-handed, though of course a sorceress is never unarmed with the magic in her veins.

The aellurium sings in my blood, pulling me toward my enemy like iron to a lodestone. Golden threads beneath my skin shimmer brighter as I walk closer to the motionless sorceress.

"Zin," I say. "Why are you here?"

Her eyes look blacker than black. Unreadable. The connection between us hums with conflicting emotions—her determination wrestling with something that feels remarkably like regret. The golden threads under her skin glow in reaction to mine. Two cursed hearts beating in rhythm.

"I—" Zin chokes on her own words. "I'm here to surrender."

I hold my breath as she drops to her knees, her skirt pooling around her in the wet grass. Her gown is dark with rain. She must be soaked to her skin. How far did she walk to find me? How long was she waiting for me to come outside?

Through our curse, I feel her resignation wash over me like a wave. "Kill me if you want." Zin's voice cracks, though that could be a performance. "Lock me in your own tower. It makes no difference now."

"What are you talking about?" The golden threads beneath my skin light up in response to her turmoil.

"I helped your brother escape." She laughs, hollow and broken.

I take a step closer, unable to resist her raw anguish. "Why?"

"Because I couldn't—" Zin bows her head, her hair curtaining her face. "I couldn't let the queen kill him before—" She cuts herself off, but I already know the truth.

"You needed him," I say, "to find me."

"The queen will execute me for treason when she discovers what I have done." Zin lifts her chin, meeting my eyes, though I still can’t read her gaze. "So do what you will with me. I'm already dead."

The golden threads pulse between us, and I taste the bitter tang of her despair on my tongue. After everything she's done to me, I should want her to suffer. But the curse shows me the truth beneath her mask, and I find myself frozen, caught between vengeance and something far more dangerous.

"You're lying," I say, but the words ring hollow.

The aellurium curse pulses between us, exposing the raw truth of her emotions. Every beat of her heart echoes through our connection, making deception impossible.

"You know I'm not." Zin remains on her knees, her dark eyes locked on mine. "The curse won't let me lie to you."

She's right. The golden threads beneath my skin burn with the authenticity of her confession. I feel everything—her fear of the queen's retribution, her conflict over betraying her ruler, and deeper still, the reason she helped Rook escape.

She wants me badly enough to risk everything.

"Why now?" My claws scratch at the curse marking my arms. "After everything you did to me?"

Golden lines shimmer across her skin, matching my own. The aellurium shows every crack in her walls of arrogance, every emotion she tried to bury beneath cruelty and duty.

"Because I—" The curse flares between us as she struggles to put her feelings into words. "Because watching you suffer was easier when I couldn't feel it myself."

I bite the inside of my cheek, focusing on the pain rather than letting myself cry. "You're a fool," I say, though my words lack true malice.

"And now I'm here, offering you what you've wanted since the Forgotten Tower—revenge."

But we both know revenge isn't what I truly want. The curse makes that truth impossible to deny. These golden threads are tangled with far more than simply hate.

"I should kill you," I say. "But I can't."

Rain streaks Zin's cheeks like false tears, though I have never seen her cry before. "Not without killing yourself."

"That's why you did this, isn't it? Why you bound us together?"

"No."

Her trembling fingers reach into the pocket of her skirt, withdrawing something that gleams in the rain. My breath catches as I recognize the deep purple crystal, the color richer than any twilight—my mother's soulstone.

"I took it from the royal chambers." Zin holds out the precious gem. "The queen...she keeps it on a chain around her neck while she sleeps. But I couldn't let her—" She shudders and hugs herself. "She was going to use it against you."

The aellurium threads beneath my skin pulse with her fear. Through our connection, I feel the truth of her words, sense the terror coursing through her veins at what she's done.

Zin's hand shakes as she offers it to me. "I can do one thing right."

When I reach for the soulstone, my fingertips glance against hers. The contact shivers through my skin in a way that I can't entirely blame upon the curse.

"Why?" I cradle the precious crystal between both of my hands. "Why would you risk everything?"

"Because I—" Zin's emotions flood through our bond—guilt, desperation, and something deeper that makes my heart stutter. "Because of you."

Her answer is everything and yet nothing at all.

"Get up," I command.

She obeys. "Do what you must."

My hands curl into fists. I battle to keep the emotions from my face, from my voice. "I must break this curse.”

"You can't," she murmurs.

"I refuse to believe you."

Zin surrenders to us without a fight, not even struggling or protesting as Rook binds her to a chair with ropes. Grimacing, he checks the knots twice. Zin won't stop staring at me, no emotion glinting in the abyss of her dark eyes.

Through the curse, though, I can feel everything. And it hurts so badly.

"You imprisoned my sister." Rook paces the cottage floor, restless with anger. "She rotted in the Forgotten Tower for seven weeks."

“That was the queen.” Zin keeps her head bowed, staring at her bound wrists. “That was never my choice.”

“Your choice?” Rook snarls the words. “You never fought back. Not once.”

“I couldn’t.”

The curse shimmers like spidersilk across Zin’s skin. Through our connection, I feel her shame, her regret, and her overwhelming sense of dread. She risked everything to free Rook, to find me.

I stare at the gem in my hand. “She brought us the soulstone.”

“Why?” Rook fires back. “Bribery?”

“No,” Zin says, and her words from before echo in my mind. She was going to use it against you. What did the queen want?

“Tell the truth,” Rook says. “If you even have the ability to do so.”

I hold up my hand to silence him. “Zin can’t lie.” I kneel before our prisoner, bringing myself to her level. “Not to me.”

Zin says nothing. She can’t lie, but she can refuse to speak.

“Why did Queen Dulcamara want the soulstone?” I say, speaking in a dangerous murmur, never looking away from Zin’s eyes.

Zin’s throat works as she swallows hard. She’s still marked by the bruises of my brother’s fingers, though they have faded with time. The aellurium curse isn’t a truth serum, but I can sense her fear through our connection.

"The queen," Zin finally says, her voice barely above a whisper, "believes the soulstone can be wielded against demons."

Rook goes rigid beside me, every muscle tight with tension.

"How?" I demand, clutching the gemstone tighter.

"I don't know." Zin's dark eyes meet mine, unblinking. "But I believe she was speaking the truth."

The curse confirms her words—she truly doesn't know the specifics, but she believes what she's telling us. The golden threads beneath my skin burn with the weight of her confession.

"Tell me everything," I say.

Zin takes a shuddering breath. "Queen Dulcamara loathes demons. She wants you—all of you—erased from the Overworld."

"That’s no secret," Rook mutters.

"No," Zin agrees, "but her obsession has grown. She speaks of demons as an infection from the Underworld, sent to corrupt the Overworld."

None of this surprises me. I narrow my eyes. "Where is the Demongate?"

"Beneath Netherhaven Castle." Zin’s pulse spikes with fear, which intrigues me. "Below the deepest dungeon where they kept your brother. The door between worlds still stands, sealed but not destroyed."

Rook jerks his head in a nod. “That’s why the stones had ancient Umbric runes. Built from the ruins of King Aurius's gatehouse.”

“King Aurius tried to cage the Demongate,” Zin says, speaking in a hollow voice. “Profit from a portal to hell.”

“Dulcamara tried to destroy it,” I say, “but she couldn’t.”

“She wants to destroy you . Both of you.”

Rook bares his teeth. “She can try.”

Curiously, Zin ignores my brother and looks at me instead. “Lark, you can’t go to the Underworld alone.”

When I jerk away from her, the golden threads of our curse pull taut between us. “I never said I was.”

“Why else would you ask about the Demongate?”

I refuse to acknowledge her, to give her speculation any weight.

“You can't go to the Underworld without me,” Zin continues. “The curse won’t let us be so far apart. It would kill us both.”

Horror smothers me like a hand over my mouth. I stare at her in silence, my mind racing through the implications. The aellurium binds us together, forcing us to stay close, to share each other's pain and death.

"Then maybe I should." The words slip out before I can stop them.

"You would die, too.”

"Better dead than bound to you forever." But even as I say it, the curse reveals my lie. We both feel the falsehood burning through our connection.

"You don't mean that,” Zin says, with a broken little smile.

I turn my back on her before I succumb to the urge to scream. Unspent magic crackles between my fingertips. I need some air. Trembling, I flee from Zin and slam through the door of my cottage.

Rook follows me into the rain. “Lark.”

I stare into the enchanted mist until my eyes swim. “I hate this. Hate her .”

“I know.” Rook shakes his head. "Fuck."

I fling my head back and stare at the clouds. There’s still frustration trapped inside my chest. I fill my lungs before letting out a primal scream. The raw sound tears through my throat.

When my voice finally gives out, I'm left panting, tears mixing with the rain on my face. I don't feel relief. Not even a little. The aellurium curse still binds us together, unbreakable and unyielding.

"Feel better?" Rook asks, gruff yet gentle.

"No," I admit, wiping my face with the back of my hand. "I'm still bound to her. Nothing's changed."

The golden threads of the curse pulse beneath my skin like living veins. I can feel Zin's presence inside the cottage—her fear, her hope, her twisted affection for me. It makes me sick to think I will never be free of her, that her emotions will always be tangled with mine.

"I can't do this," I say, more to myself than to Rook.

"We will find a way to break the curse."

"She says it can't be broken."

"And you believe her?" Rook raises an eyebrow.

I hesitate. Through the curse, I felt Zin's certainty when she claimed the bond was permanent. But certainty isn't the same as truth. She could be wrong. She has been wrong about so many things.

"I don't know what to believe anymore." My hand clenches around the soulstone until the facets dig into my skin. I hold it out to my brother. "Take this. The soulstone belongs to you."

Confusion furrows his brow. "It belongs to both of us."

"I have no need for a soulstone." I soften my words. "Besides, I know you want to find kelrial with Pyrah."

His eyes widen. "How did you know?"

"She told me." I smile. "Besides, I'm your twin. I can read you like a book."

Rook's fingers close around the soulstone. "Thank you, Lark." His voice is rough with emotion. "Truly."

The sincerity in his words warms something inside me that even the curse can't touch. For a moment, it's like we are back at Netherhaven Castle, children again, before we had bounties on our heads.

"I will help you," he says. "With Zin, with the curse. Any way I can."

I shake my head. "You have enough problems of your own."

"Don't worry about me."

"Neither of us knows the ritual for kelrial ."

Rook looks down at the soulstone, turning it between his fingers. "Perhaps the Underworld is the answer."

The rain seems to pause between us as I consider his words. "For both of us."

"What do you mean?"

"In the Underworld, we can learn the ritual for kelrial . You can find equilibrium with Pyrah." My heart beats harder as I continue speaking. "And I can find a way to break this curse."