Page 55 of Unraveled (A Kingdom of Beasts and Ruins #1)

“Your sister broke Nera’s curse,” Finley says.

I hide again as pain weighs down my heart.

I’m close to the castle. I could run back to Naheli, wherever she is. I could try to get the conscious lunargyres somewhere safe before they get inside. My skin glows as I lose control of my emotions.

“Where is she? Where is Mia?” The clicking of a gun being loaded echoes in the forest silence, and even the creepy crawlies seem to wait with bated breath.

The scent of magic wafts around as Finley’s aura comes through to protect him from the threat of gunpowder and lead.

“She’s alive. I kept the promise I made when we met in Hedrum. You weren’t supposed to come here and shouldn’t have hidden in my wagon. There’s a spirit in there that will tear you all apart.”

Except I don’t know if Naheli is even here. Perhaps Ash is too injured, and so she can’t remain in this realm.

I may faint.

“If you think for a second I wouldn’t come here for her, you’re delusional.” Irene’s voice is bitter and calculating. I almost leave my hiding spot to stop this madness. “She better be alive, Finley. I don’t care what blood contract you signed with Skylar, I’ll end you.”

“Irene...” another voice cautions, one I don’t recognize.

I glance at the shadows, and everything around me deepens. When I came out here, I never expected to find this . I was prepared for something horrible, an injured Ash, but not this... betrayal.

“I won’t calm down. A beast took her almost a month and a half ago. She better be unharmed and?—?”

“I didn’t think the curse could be broken,” Finley interrupts her with a tone torn by shame. “But she did it. There’s no need to go through with this. If she’s able to break the curse, there won’t be any more lunargyres coming into Penumbra. Be sensible.”

“We don’t care about the curse,” the man who spoke before says, disbelief tainting his words.

I feel this third person is a strix. Here to murder fae and nothing else.

“This has nothing to do with the beasts. The curse is just a way for all of us to see what the fae really are. We won’t let them take over the world again, take humans to be their servants, or push the hybrids out of society.

Hunt us down like dogs. We’re done with them, and the king of the unseelie is just a message for the rest of them. ”

I watch as Irene’s eyes widen just a fraction, but to an untrained eye, she keeps her expression mostly neutral. She knows about the hybrids, about this war between them. Yet, she never told me.

The bald-headed man laughs, showing teeth stained with tobacco. “And the king thought we would let the princess go. Someone once told me the fae were cunning. What a bunch of bullcrap.”

Finley takes a step back, shapes of bright green magic swirling around him. I don’t know how effective a protective spell from a skilled sorcerer is against a bullet. I shouldn’t care... But my stomach sinks at the thought of him getting hurt. I can’t let them kill him.

“Why did Mia stay here if she is well, Finley? Do you have her locked in the dungeons?” Irene’s voice shakes with anger.

Like she cares. I hold a scoff behind tight lips.

Finley doesn’t answer.

Irene cocks her pistol. “If I have to ask again, you will have a bullet in your leg. And if you don’t answer after that, Rick will put one in every other limb. You won’t be able to walk or ride back to your precious niece, and the beasts will have a feast in a couple of days.”

I don’t even recognize my sister. She was so sweet when we were young.

It seems likely now, I’ll have to fight them. What are my odds against three people with guns? I have little control over my magic, and every time I use it, the curse takes more of me. And I can’t trust Finley to help, not when we’re in this mess because of him.

I don’t know what feels worse, that Irene was a strix all along or that Finley, someone who I grew to care about as a friend, betrayed everyone. I take a deep breath and know that, no matter what, I won’t put my morals in question again.

I reach for my blade’s pommel, tightening my grip on it as I allow a dose of power to trickle past the binds that keep it locked in place.

The curse stirs, and I feel a trace of pain reach through my body as I release my magic.

Enough so the curse feeds from it, but I have some left to use.

There’s a good side to this parasitic curse in me.

It dulls my power, preventing me from exploding.

The bad side is that my arm is all charred skin.

“I’m done with this fool,” the strix says, and everything slows as he pulls the gun from his holster and shoots Finley. My entire being narrows to the brass bullet as it cuts through his body and lodges in the tree behind, sending blood, pulp, and bark flying everywhere.

A spell blasts out of Finley’s hand as he falls to the ground, but it narrowly misses the bastard who shot him. Magical green flames catch on a large specimen of cedar, consuming it quickly and sending black smoke into the treetops.

Finley screams, holding his stomach. Abandoning my hiding place, I raise my hand toward the man and cast the revealing spell, trying to blind them all and buy myself time to reach Finley. My curse, who feasts on my emotions, eats the light of my power before it comes out.

Sweat pours down my forehead, and I close my eyes and feel for traces of the slimy texture of the curse. If I can unravel spells, this is no different, even if it’s scary and painful. I pull at its threads, making it uncomfortable.

When I finally get the revealing spell to leave my hands, it has the desired effect.

All the scientists shield their eyes from the brightness that blankets the forest. My heart drums in my ears, but my little win over the curse is short-lived.

It doesn’t take long for the shadow monster to push back, trying to take control of my magic again.

Its voice is deep and high at the same time as it whispers in the same odd language I heard before. You’re angry , it coos inside my head. Make them stone .

Darkness bursts out of my fingers in waves, and I have no control of how my spell’s intentions shift. My vision turns white. Distantly, I hear muffled screeching. Then a loud thump shakes the ground.

I stumble back as my eyes find the man who shot Finley, who is now on the ground, unmoving, and made of pale marble. A statue, like the curse wanted. The bark of a tree digs into the palm of my hand as I barely catch myself before falling to the ground.

Irene shouts, and the second man trains his pistol on me. A flash of panic rushes through my veins, but I’m too exhausted to do much. This may be how I die, and I keep my eyes on him as he cocks his head.

“Who’s this bitch?” His eyes narrow before my sister brings the butt of her pistol down on his head with all her strength, and he collapses, blood trailing from his temple.

“Y-you’re here...” Irene stares at me with wide eyes as the dust settles around us, and only we remain standing.

My stomach churns at the sight.

The corner of her lips lower into a grimace as she studies her teammates, now mostly dead on the ground. “I thought this would be different, and I didn’t expect you to be... free.”

She takes a step forward and I take one back. My eyes train on the brass gun she still holds in her gloved hand. I wonder how many lunargyres like myself she’s shot down. Will she use it on me once she learns I’m not on her side? Once she learns what I’ve become?

“What you did just now—no one has to know. I’ll tell Skylar I found you chained in the castle, and that Finley killed Rick and Alan. We can go back to living normal lives,” she says with a wild expression.

Funny how she only mentions what I did, not the fact that she cracked her colleague’s skull with her gun. But I keep those thoughts to myself.

Instead, I repeat the words she used the night I met Ash.

“Tell me, Irene, did the princess, Nerala, look like the beast that killed Father? Or is that just something you tell yourself to justify the horrors you commit so you can sleep at night?” I narrow my eyes at her as I remember how she played on my grief so I’d use my magic.

I can deal with Finley’s betrayal, but Irene’s... I don’t think I can ever forgive her for this.

As she looks at me, her eyes widen, and she realizes I’m not supporting her in this. The power that’s always present under my skin strains inside me, and the curse seems to have taken a step back.

“But... they’re monsters .” Irene holsters her weapon, lets her arms hang to her sides, and takes another step closer to me.

“I understand you’re upset with me. I should’ve told you what we were doing, but Father thought it was better to keep you away.

He wanted to shelter you from everything.

It was a way to keep you happy, because he knew you felt too deeply. ”

She glances back to the scientists sprawled out on the dirt and leaves, and her brows furrow. She sighs deeply. “I told him it was better to tell you about the machine and the fae and how much we needed to keep our city safe from them. And when the monster took you, I?—?”

“He isn’t the monster, Irene. You and all those bastards in that scientist building are. Every time you hunt a cursed beast to feed the machine, you murder an innocent fae.”

“Us?” Her voice pitches high. “Have you forgotten all the people they’ve killed?”

“Oh, I haven’t forgotten. At first, I was trying to get back to you so I could help you with that, and then I realized the truth.

It’s hardly their fault when they are cursed to be mindless.

” I pull the sleeves of my cloak down, hoping to hide the corrupted flesh of my arm.

“Did Father tell you about the hybrids?”

“The what—?” She looks confused. “Alan just mentioned hybrids, too, but I don’t understand it.”