Page 37 of Hexual Healing
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A couple of hours later, back at the cabin, I lay in bed unable to sleep.Not surprising with everything going on, of course, but a girl can hope.
The house had finally fixed the door.Sort of.It was more of a beaded curtain made of little glass skulls, but it somehow kept the wind out.The last time I’d seen Baz, he was wearing a shirt.I was a little disappointed, having grown used to the sight of him half-naked.And, I had to admit that I quite liked it.
I must have dozed off eventually, because suddenly, I was somewhere else.
Not physically.This was deeper.The place behind dreams where curses liked to live.
The landscape was a twisted version of the cabin.With walls that breathed, floors that bled, and windows that showed bad memories instead of the outside world.And in the center of it all, sitting in a throne made of crystallized heartbreak, was the curse itself.
Of course, it looked like me.Or rather, like what I'd look like if I'd been carved from ice and bitterness.Its eyes were the gold-green of Illanya's dragon form.
“Finally,” it said, voice layered with echoes of every fight Illanya and I had ever had.“I was wondering when you'd visit.”
“I didn't mean to.”
“You nevermeanto do anything.That's half your problem.”It stood, and I realized it was taller than me, stretched thin, misshapen like a shadow at sunset.“You stumble through life leaving destruction in your wake, then act surprised when it follows you home.”
“That's not…” I stopped.
“True?Look around you.”It gestured to the windows.Each one showed a different memory.There were my apartments on fire, Illanya crying, me running away again and again.“You destroy everything you touch.”
“That's the curse talking.”
“I AM the curse, you idiot.And I'm trying to save you.”
That stopped me cold.“What?”
The curse sighed, sounding exactly like Illanya when she was disappointed in me.“Do you know what happens when you mate with him?Really mate?”
“The curse kills him?”
“Eventually.”It moved closer, and frost spread from its footsteps.“Dragon curses don't tend to let one take the easy way out.”
My blood went cold.“Baz.”I shook my head, “No, he’s strong.Too strong.”
The first stage is denial.
“Your bear is strong, yes.But strength isn't enough.The curse will eat him alive from the inside.Slower than it's eating you, but it’s inevitable.”It smiled, and the expression was pure Illanya.“Is that what you want?To watch him die by inches?To know you killed him slowly with your love?”
“You're lying,” I said weakly as a wave of nausea hit me.I thanked the goddess this wasn’t real.I’d never puked in a dream before.
“I'm the most honest thing in your life.I'm every mistake you've ever made, given form and purpose.”It reached out and touched my chest, right where the curse lived in the real world.“I'm trying to protect you.Both of you.”
Pain lanced through me, but with it came visions.
Baz, aged beyond his years, magic eating at him from within.The town, burned to ash because I couldn't choose.Illanya, dead by my hand, her last words asking why I couldn't just love her back.
And worse, a future where Baz and I were mated, happy for exactly three days before the curse activated in full and started its slow murder.
“Stop,” I gasped.
“This is mercy,” the curse said.“I'm showing you the truth.Go back to her.Let her remove me.Live a long, boring, safe life in a gilded cage.It's better than watching what you love die.”
“There has to be another way.”
“There is.”The curse smiled wider.“Die before the bond completes.I'll die with you.Everyone lives except us.”