Page 44 of Hexual Healing

The curse-chain flickered, weakening.My magic swirled around it, not attacking but examining.Learning.

“Tansy,” Gary urged gently, “whatever you're doing, keep doing it.”

“I'm not doing anything!”

“Exactly!Your magic is showing the truth.Her dragon curse was built on lies.The lies that love is possession, that pain is passion.Your magic can't lie.It's making the curse reveal itself.”

The chain throbbed one more time, then did something unexpected.

It spoke.

Not in words, but in feelings.All the pain, all the rage, all the desperate loneliness that had gone into its creation.But underneath that, something else.

Regret.

The curse regretted existing.

`”It wants to die,” I said, stunned.“It wants to be broken.At any cost.”

“That's impossible,” Illanya said, but hope flickered in her eyes.“Curses can't?—”

“Dragon curses can't break themselves,” Zelda interrupted, stepping forward.“But they can choose to release.If both parties agree.”

“Both parties?”

“The caster and the cursed.You're both bound by it.You can both release it.”

“Would you?Even after everything?”Illanya asked.

I thought about saying yes immediately.The heroic thing.The right thing.But my magic didn't let me lie, not even to myself.

“I don't forgive you,” I said honestly.“Not yet.Maybe not ever.But I don't want either of us to hurt anymore.”

She nodded, tears still streaming.I thought she might say something tender and sweet, but the venom dripping from her voice was low and viscous.“I willneverrelease you.I'd rather see you suffer and both of us die than see you happy with someone else.”

The words hung in the air like poison.The crowd gasped.Even the chicken-witch stopped clucking.

And the curse-chain?It went bonkers.

The visible manifestation of the curse writhed between us, momentum building until it was nothing more than a vibration.It was pure, unadulterated rage.But not at me.At her.The curse was ready for release, but Illanya denied it.

“What's happening?”Illanya gasped as the chain turned white hot and burned her more than her own fire.The flesh where it connected was consumed with flames, burning down to the bone.Pretty impressive to burn a dragon.Everyone within fifty feet took several steps back.

“You betrayed it,” Gary said, his voice filled with awe.“Dragon curses are about balance, and you broke that balance.”

The chain whipped back toward Illanya like a striking snake.She screamed as it hit her chest right over her heart, not entering but…rejecting.Pushing away.The connection between us stretched, thinned, then snapped with a sound like breaking bones.

Illanya flew backward, slamming into a tree hard enough to crack the trunk.The curse was still there.Felt it in my own chest, heavier than ever, but the link to her was severed.

“No!”She struggled to her feet, blood trickling from her mouth.“It's mine!You're mine!”

She tried to reach for the curse again, but it recoiled from her touch.Recoiled, like she was something so repulsive, so disgusting, it couldn’t even bear the thought of her.

“It doesn't recognize you anymore,” Zelda said softly.“You orphaned it.A dragon curse without a master is…”

“Dangerous,” Baz finished, stepping forward.His eyes were pure gold now, and something about his presence made everyone, including Illanya, hesitate.“But not unclaimable.”

“Don't you dare,” Illanya hissed.