Page 53 of Unraveled (A Kingdom of Beasts and Ruins #1)

In my dreams, the curse laments. Its shadows grip me tight, and the ache in my chest festers. It doesn’t let go.

A loud moan pierces the early-morning quiet, pulling me from the depths of sleep with a jolt.

Sitting up in bed, I breathe through the heavy nausea coursing through my body, focusing on the light spilling through the gauzy curtains.

Even the sunlight does little to bring back the warmth that mournful cry leeched away.

There’s a crease in the sheets where Ash lay the night before, and golden droplets glimmer on the pillowcase. Why are there golden drops on the sheets?

I rush out of bed and struggle to find my balance on wobbly legs.

Through the window, I see Naheli sitting in the courtyard with her head tilted to the sky, howling nonstop. Even the lunargyres who aren’t statues stand around her, like the sound has paralyzed them as well.

Ignoring the protest of my sore limbs, I quickly make my way out of Ash’s chambers. My feet pound through the halls and down the wide steps. I’ve been in this place long enough to know where to go.

It takes longer than it should to notice the roses changing appearance. Ever since I accidentally touched them, they’ve been red. But now they’re all withering away, their petals scattered across the steps. Like a river of blood.

Holding onto the wall for balance, I run down to the second floor, following Naheli’s call.

I stop when I hear Finley down the hallway. “You can’t possibly think it’s a good idea to go on your own. It’ll be better if I come with you.”

I was on my way to the courtyard, but instead I follow Finley’s voice to the main floor and a part of the castle I’ve never been

The far wall is all windows, giving the space the appearance of a solarium. One that’s the size of an entire building.

Outside, nature overtakes the east garden.

White bodies made of stone line the place.

Not statues, but lunargyres, frozen in time, the weather chipping away at them while they forever slumber in their magical prisons.

Life blooms from grayish stems of trees and bushes.

Early spring creeps in, taking away some of the bite of our mild winter.

My lungs burn as I try to catch my breath, and I move into a room covered from floor to ceiling in weapons.

Swords are arranged neatly on the walls, their mounts made of fine wood and carefully fashioned to cradle each weapon.

Some blades curve, others are straight and narrow.

Some glow with the magical markings of spells etched into their sides.

Others are affixed to bone handles. And they all hang one above another, going up until I can’t distinguish their shapes anymore.

Ash secures a belt around his waist and reaches for a couple of daggers arranged on the small table by his side. I stumble into the light, and before I can take another step, Ash crosses the room with the aid of his wings, and grasps me by my elbow.

He wears all-black leather armor, and the small feathers that come up his neck blend seamlessly with his coat. But it’s not his strange outfit that stands out the most, but the golden tears streaming down his face, like the day we met.

“Are you leaving?” I blink, and the face of the curse flashes under my eyelids. Hovering underneath my skin, pulled like a magnet to Ash’s much larger fragment of it.

He places a hand gently on my waist. “You should be resting.”

“Naheli’s howling woke me up.” I frown. Why didn’t he answer my question? “Is there something wrong?”

As if summoned, Naheli’s moans travel the long halls to echo through the room, raising the hairs on the back of my skull. I reach for Ash’s face and trace my thumb over his cheek, but the line of tears doesn’t smear. It flows undeterred by my touch.

He covers my hand with his own, and when he touches his skin, the liquid gold clings to his fingers. “Every time a scientist in Penumbra takes a lunargyre, I cry their blood. It’s a burden only I can bear.” He takes a ragged breath and returns to securing the second dagger to his belt.

“What’s happening?”

“Nera is gone.” Finley’s voice wavers. He isn’t meeting my gaze, but he sets his shoulders like he’s readying himself for a fight. “We’ve looked everywhere, but since Ash is crying blood, he’s going out to the forest to make sure she’s alright.”

A stone sinks in my gut and I reach for the weaponry table, leaning against it as the ground moves underneath me. “You suspect the scientists took her?”

Ash’s brows furrow as he holds me by my elbows, steadying me. “It’s unlikely they’ll be this close to Aphelion so far from the blood moon. Are you feeling well, Monster?”

I nod, not wanting him to worry about me when something might be happening to Nera. “Why did she leave the castle?”

“She sleepwalks when she has dreams of her soulmate,” Finley says, his nose wrinkling. “It’s been five years since Nera had an episode, so we weren’t prepared.”

I think back to what Ash told me the night before, about the things fated mates share. Dreams, visions. “Why did she stop having them?”

“We don’t know,” Ash says as he finishes strapping on a shoulder guard. “I suspect it had to do with her shifting to stone, that it disrupted their bond.” His jaw ticks. “You look very pale.”

Who cares?

Nera is missing. She walked into a forest full of raging beasts, and scientists are hunting the fae again... “So what happens if they actually took her? Are you bringing Naheli?”

Surely, he isn’t thinking about going alone. I know he’s powerful, he almost took out the whole scientist quarters on his own, but if they’re coming all the way here, I bet they have something up their sleeves.

“No. Naheli has to stay in the castle to maintain the wards against—?” The words die in his mouth, and his frustration is clear in his expression.

“Morla?”

He nods. “Just in case she gets any new ideas.” Ash’s eyes look past me, over my head to where Finley stands. “And Finley needs to stay to make sure your condition remains stable.”

My cheeks warm, and I hear Finley groaning behind me. I can’t blame him. Why would he want to stay behind to babysit me, and the consequences of my own actions, when his friends’ lives are in danger?

I reach for Ash’s arm and squeeze tightly. “I doubt Finley can do much for me, unless he’s come up with the cure for the curse and hasn’t told you anything about it?”

“Exactly,” Finley says. “If this wasn’t something to worry about, you wouldn’t have sent Naheli to warn everyone who still has consciousness and bring them inside the wards.

You think something’s wrong and are marching to your own death.

Willingly.” I hear something metallic crashing against the table, and Finley’s face has gone completely red with fury.

.. and something else I can’t place. “You’ve given up. ”

I whirl toward Ash and try to see if what Finley says it’s true. What I find is a broken monarch who’s determined to not let any more of his people die.

Why would someone who’s given up fight an entire group of hybrids and try to destroy their death machine? Why take the grimoires from the Hedrum house and alert everyone he was there? Why protect the castle from a scorned friend who cursed him?

Ash slams his hand on the table, and every blade shakes. Some even tumble to the ground. “I have told you many times I haven’t given up. While you may have lost your faith in your king, I happen to still have mine.”

“Then I beg you, take the spirit with you.” I could be imagining things, but I swear I see a flash of guilt in Finley’s eyes. “Mia and I will be fine. I doubt Morla will come for us.”

“And leave Mia unprotected when she just absorbed Nera’s curse?”

“Don’t leave Naheli here because of me.” As if on cue, a wave of nausea rolls through me. I press my hand over my mouth, breathing in and out in long draws, hoping to stave it off for just a few more minutes. Ash reaches for my hand, and I hope he can’t feel how cold and clammy it is.

Naheli’s howls come again, a sound pained and haunted.

Ash doesn’t look away from me as he says, “I need to go alone because even though the hybrids from Penumbra rarely come to Aphelion, they may be here now. Nera is powerful, but after she shares a connection with Sylas, she’s in a trancelike state for a few hours, which makes her easy prey.”

Finley reaches for a blade on the back wall. “I’m coming, with a tracking charm. I’ll follow right behind you on horseback. If you’re right, and Nera is safe, I’ll return as soon as I see you’re on your way back.”

I meet Ash’s gaze with a plea in my own. “Let him. Please. You never know what kind of weapon they may have.”

“Like a hybrid who wields fae magic she doesn’t understand?” he says. “I think there is only one of you, Monster.”

Monster . When he began calling me that, he said it with such disdain... Now, the way his voice shifts with a touch of adoration makes my stomach flutter.

“They have guns,” I say.

“Alright, Finley. You may use your tracking charm and follow behind, but I won’t wait for you.” Ash presses a kiss to my forehead and remains by my side for a long time, longer than normal. I glance over his shoulder and watch as Finley leaves the room to get ready to accompany him.

“Do you remember what we thought about the grimoires and my suspicions?”

I nod, and he pulls back but hovers a breath away from my skin, leaning just a little over my cheek. “No one can know that having the grimoires helps them control an ancient spirit tied to a soul weaver, not even Finley. A spirit like Naheli can cause destruction in the hands of the wrong person.”

Ash hasn’t told anyone about why he truly thinks the hybrids are stealing the books. Not even his friend.

“I should come with you . . .”

“You know you can’t, not like this.”

“Well... if trouble were to arise, how would I come to help you?”

He hesitates, his jaw working. “Would it make a difference if I asked you not to?”

“No.”

He sighs, but a shadow of a smile appears on his lips. “If I don’t return, Naheli can bring you to me. She can’t go into Penumbra, for the reason I stated before, which means you shouldn’t come unless you’re sure I’m gone and you aren’t cursed anymore.”

“I’m not waiting until you’re dead, and if you’re afraid that’ll be the case, then maybe don’t go?”

As soon as the words leave my lips, I know they’re the wrong ones. Of course he has to go. Anger and fear blend in a horrible cocktail of emotions that worsen my nausea. I open my mouth to tell him... something, but he’s already pulling away from my weak grip.

He pauses right under the archway that leads to the massive solarium and turns to look into my eyes. “Stay out of trouble, Monster. I’ll see you at nightfall.”

Ice travels through my veins. His expression says so much more than words ever could. He knows something I don’t, and it’s clear in his eyes. I hear his voice in my mind like I’m listening to a conversation through a wall. Don’t trust anyone but Naheli.

It’s then that I notice three things.

One, Naheli has stopped howling.

Two, that felt a lot like a goodbye.

Three, even though he wasn’t sure the night before, he just spoke inside my thoughts. A magical connection.

Ash is my mate .