Page 69 of Fate’s Sweetest Curse (Mirrors of Fate #2)

Cure

Hattie

A s the potion mingled with the blood welling on Noble’s arm, his body went slack, and he slumped over my lap, pinning me against the soiled ground.

Then Mariana was there, rolling him off me with a groan.

I went to him, cupping his blood-splattered face in my palm, running my thumb over the sharp lines of his cheekbones.

“Noble?” I murmured. “Noble?”

Tears streaked my face. My arm hurt, my skin stung, my muscles ached—but it was my heart that felt like it was tearing in half.

I slapped lightly at his cheek. “Noble? Noble! Wake up!”

Silence filled the clearing.

A warm hand touched my back. “Hattie, maybe we should—”

“No.” I shrugged off Mariana’s touch. “ No . I’m not leaving him.”

Footsteps squelched away from me. I was distantly aware of the whispers and murmurs of the remaining soldiers, looking on from the edge of the circle of destroyed tents. I heard Mariana say something, someone’s sharp retort, then she was returning to my side with a set of keys.

She unlocked the cuff around Noble’s neck. His throat was ringed red from the pinch of metal, black veins spider webbing under the surface of his skin. His eyes remained closed, his mouth slack, his body…monstrous.

Mariana felt for a pulse, frowning.

“Noble,” I begged, frantic with dread. I shook his shoulder, pounded a weak fist on his sternum. “Wake up . ”

But he remained limp.

Mariana removed her hand from his neck and shook her head, mouth pressed into a grim line.

A low wail pealed out of me, and I dropped my forehead to Noble’s bare chest, ignoring the sting of his cursed blood against my skin. The world was collapsing around me, burying me in rubble. My lungs convulsed with dry sobs, heaving for air that wasn’t there. Without Noble, I couldn’t breathe .

“Hattie?” Mariana prompted.

“Leave me alone,” I said, curling against Noble’s lifeless chest.

“No, Hattie ,” Mariana urged.

I looked up at her through tearful eyes. “What?”

She inclined her head in Noble’s direction.

I looked down at him, searching for the remnants of the man I knew. Long lashes fanned out over a gaunt face. Gnarled antlers protruded from the soft waves of his hair. The smooth skin of his neck was streaked with thin black veins.

Only…the veins weren’t just black. They were flickering with gold, flashing like lightning beneath the surface of his skin, as if his blood were… changing .

I sat up a little taller, watching the scintillating light travel through his veins.

Mariana reached forward again, finding his pulse point, and she flinched when she found it.

I watched as his skin gradually cleared of the black webbing entirely, his sickly gray pallor returning to his usual warm brown coloring.

“That’s it,” I encouraged, voice breaking. “That’s it, Noble, come back. Come back to me.”

A startling crack had me jumping to my feet, stumbling backward, colliding with Mariana.

She gripped me by the middle, holding me upright as I watched Noble’s body begin to transform in reverse: antlers breaking off and crumbling into dust, legs shrinking down to their normal size with a series of sickening snaps, claws dulling to form regular nails again, wounds healing at a rapid pace.

The Oath tattoo around his neck faded and disappeared.

Each new change in Noble’s appearance was like the pierce of a needle, a timid, anticipatory relief stitching my heart back together. Breathing became a little easier. I leaned into Mariana, allowing her to take my weight as I watched Noble turn back into himself.

As silence filled the clearing once more, I heard Brendan stirring over by his tent.

“Fucking bastard,” he growled.

Mariana released me. I didn’t follow her path toward Brendan; I kept my eyes trained on Noble, watching as his chest jerked with a breath. Then another. When his breathing leveled out, I sank to my knees beside him again and placed my palm over his heart.

It thudded against my hand in a steady rhythm.

He hadn’t opened his eyes yet, and his breaths were shallow, but his body…his body was his again. Familiar, perfect, human .

I let out another sob, this one of pure, unbridled relief.

It worked—not just containment, but a cure .

I had solved the curse.

A strangled, “ Hey! ” punctured the quiet, followed by a swift smack and a thud. A quick glance over my shoulder showed Mariana standing over Brendan’s unconscious body, shaking out her fist.

She smirked at me.

I huffed a laugh.

Then my gaze caught on the horizon behind her.

Dawn was approaching, a soft paling in the east; washes of light blue and apricot swept across the sky, dimming the stars .

And there, on the hillside, were the silhouettes of countless horses and riders. Their armor glinted gold; bannermen brandished the Maronan flag.

General Kalden Asheren’s regiment.