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23. Rules of the Curse

"The first rule of the curse: we never take off our masks." Two's scoff resonates in my ears, dripping with contempt.

"Second rule: we avoid unnecessary contact with the High Fae—and the hunters. We never allow any of them to see our eyes.

"Third rule: we don't keep secrets from each other."The fucker takes a dramatic pause."You really fucked up, One."

Shame burns my insides, but I still wish I could claw off his stupid smirk. "I know."

Two rubs his face down. "Why did you enchant her, though? That part confuses me."

I can remember the exact, wretched moment when I figured out I'd enchanted Nell. I could see my secrets slowly coming into focus in her eyes, almost like she was taming a wild beast from the depths of my subconscious. Drawing it closer. And closer…

And my magic reacted instinctively, putting her under a spell so she wouldn't get to the truth.

"Seriously. Why did you enchant her?" he asks again, impatient.

I grimace, knowing the truth will alarm him more than the rest of my mistakes combined. "I didn't mean to enchant her, it was pure instinct. My body reacted on its own."

"Thank Morpheus that it did, or we would be out of options."

He's right, but I hate it. I hate it so much. "She's different. The realm's magic feels smoother when she's around, and she healed me from the Dreamcatcher's cut."

He paces the room back and forth, hands linked behind his back. "Let's say she's different… If she is, then it was a mistake to treat her like a normal seed. We should make her life miserable enough for her to flee so we can win the bet and claim her magic now. Win-win."

"No. With her magic being as powerful as it is, we have no reason to doubt she'll pass the other two trials, and when she does, her powers will grow. What if taking her magic beforehand strengthens the curse?"

Two shakes his head. "I say we bring the experiment to an end. When we have Demeter, we can easily find a few dried seedlings to compensate for the loss of one sprout."

"No," I repeat, desperately trying to keep my emotions in check.

"It's a tie. Three?" Two tosses Three a glance over his shoulder.

The weaver of fantasies bites his bottom lip. Being mute, he's not much of a talker, and though he can speak telepathically, he almost never does. Still…I see the hunger on his face. He wants his turn with Nell, so for now, he's on my side.

I envy him. Must be nice to have so much clarity as to what you are and what you want.

He whistles a soft tune as he leaves, leaving Two and me to squabble.

"Okay. If we keep her, then she's a seed. She might have smooth magic"—he snickers, making fun of my earlier claim—"and a different schedule, but that's all she is. A seed." His eyes narrow, his glare almost hateful. "And you will treat her as such."

I grit my teeth. "Alright."

"No distractions. No exceptions. The kingdom needs us now more than ever, and the stunt you pulled put us in jeopardy."

I hate being chastised, most of all by him, and my patience for his power trip is growing thin. "It won't happen again."

"Your pet doesn't have a magical vagina?—"

"Careful."

"It's not as though you could fuck her, anyway."

I flatten the bastard to the wall.

His tongue darts out, a mix between a grimace and a wicked smile. "You need a clear gesture to make her understand that you're not her dark knight from some romantic fairytale… Unless you want her to be the sacrifice for the Foghar festival."

"Foghar is already figured out," I clip. "Don't play with me."

"Still… I bet Three would agree. Maybe I ought to convince him to take Nell, instead."

I ram his big head into the wall again. "Is that really what you want to focus on after Morrigan sent a dreamcatcher to New York? Not here, not into the Dreaming where it would have wreaked havoc. No, she sent it to the nice lady who waters my plants. Do you know why?"

He shrugs like he's above such things as riddles—and decency. "Because she's a cruel bitch?"

"She's sending a message. No one is safe. If she could spare a dreamcatcher for such a menial task, it means she has others. Plural. She's saying she can hit us at any moment, probably hoping to scare us into doing something stupid."

Blood drains from his face, and he finally sobers up long enough to really listen. "If she had an army of them, she'd just attack. An army of dreamcatchers crawling into the Dreaming…it would suck what's left of our magic dry."

"Exactly. She's fucking with our minds because she's not sure of her victory. She needs us to make the first move, and a bad one at that."

"What should we do, then?" Doubt washes away his vile grin, and he rubs his forehead in a nervous manner. I've managed to get through to him.

I relax my hold on his shoulders. "We wait. We stop spreading ourselves thin and concentrate on the seeds. We concentrate on Nell. If she sprouts, Morrigan will have to fall back."

His brows furrow. "How are you so sure of that?"

"I just am."

I'm not sure at all, but otherwise, we're doomed. I keep that part to myself.

"Morheim is weeks away. If we manage to hold Morrigan off until the ritual, we'll get the chalice's magic and enough strength to last until spring. That'll give us plenty of time. We just need to be smart about it," I add.

If I spell out exactly how fucked we are, with only three seeds and an army of dreamcatchers on the loose, he's going to lash out, and I can't afford for him to spiral out of control.

"And you will cut ties with Nell and let me train her as I see fit? For the King?" his voice cracks, and I nod in spite of the roil in my stomach.

"For the King."

The air blowsout of my lungs as the last hint of dusk drains from the night sky. A clear gesture to cut ties with Nell. Here goes.

The gym is empty but for her, the bane of my existence. Ever since the bet was made, that woman has been haunting my heart. First as a mere symbol of better days to come, second as an impossible puzzle, and now as the ultimate forbidden fruit.

I never expected her to take my world in strides, and now that she has, I can't stop looking at her. I cross my arms out of habit and lean against the wall, catching a smile from surfacing on my face as I watch her sink bolt after bolt into the hay mannequin at the very back of the room.

The swirly black scar she drew over its heart makes it clear that she's in fact hunting me, and I'm both delighted and terrified by the implications.

A long braid hangs at her back, knotted in the same fashion as the night I unraveled it. I close my eyes to rid myself of the memory and clear my throat to get her attention. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you want to become a huntress."

She doesn't stop, a hint of sweat shining on her forehead. "But I can't, not without losing the bet, right?"

I push off the wall and thread deeper into the room. "Would you want to, if things were different?"

"I'm training, aren't I?"

She is training, and seriously, too. But giving her pointers on how to reload faster is not why I'm here. "That's not an answer."

She cranks up the string with the lever without sparring me a glance. "You're one to talk. You've been avoiding me, and I've been struggling to get a complete sentence out of you. I figured, since you're too childish to acknowledge my existence, I should just do this."

I almost dismiss her claim and build upon her insecurities that she's nothing to me, but I can't lie, and I'm not sure she'd believe me if I tried. She's so sexy in her huntress uniform, calling me out for being the fucked-up coward that I am.

A huge part of me wants to hold her in my arms again, no matter the consequences, and the reasons for my visit scatter like ashes in the wind.

"I'm here now. I can handle a few complete sentences."

She finally lets the crossbow fall at her side. "How good of you." She hangs the weapon back on the wall and throws me a glance over her shoulder. "Why do you keep the mask on? It's only us here, and I've already seen your eyes."

"Eyes are mirrors of the soul. If I let you see them again, you could steal it away," I answer playfully.

"What about my soul? Have you stolen it away?" she dead-pans.

You're supposed to pick a fight with her, not flirt.

I clear my throat and force some ice back into my voice. "Don't fool yourself, kitten. This isn't some romantic fairytale. I'm the villain of your story."

"You've yet to do anything villainous."

She's got that treacherous look on her face, the one that makes me feel like I'm no longer dead inside.

That look is fucking dangerous. It does more damage than an army of dreamcatchers or the most gruesome nightmare ever could, because it's filled with false hope. But I can't let her—or myself—believe there's a chance to become whole again, because there isn't.

So I stretch the truth as far as it can be stretched. "I'd kill you if I had to, but that's not what the king wants."

She glowers at the threat. "You're lying."

"I can't lie."

A hiccup quakes her ribcage, and she looks down at her feet for a fleeting moment. "Unless you're not really Fae."

Not really Fae?

I loosen my hold on my powers and allow for a hint of the old me to pierce through. Shadows wisp over my skin, and the room darkens. Tendrils of darkness lick Nell's shoulders, reaching for her and hugging her curves in every way that I can't. By the spindle…the girl looks good in black.

"Look at me." I cup her face to angle her chin up. "I swear to you, kitten. I'm Fae through and through."

She shivers at the dark, uneven pulse of magic. "I believe you."

I have to remind myself of why she's here, where she comes from, and what she believes in. I have to remind myself every minute of every day not to give in.

I spin around, putting at least four feet of empty space between us. "I'm no good for you. Letting this attraction grow will only make us miserable."

"Attraction, eh?" She observes me from behind her long lashes. "Did she die? Your fiancée?"

The words worm their way inside my foggy brain, and my blood stops cold. "What?"

She scurries over to me and plays with the zipper of my jacket, sliding it up and down. "Did the king kill her? Is that why you're scared to feel something?"

"What did Two tell you?" I say, the words barely audible. The mask isn't enough to protect myself from her gaze anymore, and my fingers tremble.

"I know you were engaged to her. Morrigan."

I cover her mouth with my palm out of pure instinct. "Don't say her name."

No mortal should say her name out loud, or she might hear it… After New York, I wouldn't put it past her to try and kill my seeds. I can't bear the thought of her and Nell in the same realm, let alone the same room.

Nell thinks that Morrigan was my long lost love, and that I'm still grieving her, and that's just so…wrong. I can't let her think that, no matter how convenient it'd be to use it as an excuse.

"I didn't love her," I say as I remove my hand.

Her brows arch in question, her cheeks warm. "You got engaged to a woman you didn't love?"

"It's complicated."

She leans into me, her open gaze flicking up to mine like she can see through my mask. "Tell me."

The pull between us has grown beyond anything I can control. I can't explain it. It's annoying as fuck.

I grip her upper arms and hold her back, feeling like I'm standing on the edge of a dark, bottomless hole. "If you don't stop now, I'll do something we'll both regret."

"Like kiss me again?"

I clench my jaw, summoning the most wicked parts of me to the surface. "I could do a lot worse. I would gladly tie you to my bed and make you forget all about your home, your family, and your beliefs."

She blinks a few too many times, a deep red flush branding her chest and cheeks.

"You think I'm angry when I'm with you. I'm not angry. I'm hungry for you. I'm meant to lure mortals into the shadow realm and feed on their dreams and fantasies…meant to seduce them into coming back every night, and yet not so much that they don't wake up."

The truth burns, finally unleashed. For weeks now, I've been thinking about Nell's white blonde hair, her perfectly smooth skin, and her bright smiles… But not in the way she envisions.

I've been daydreaming about wrapping her braid around my fist as I thrust into her, about kissing the valley between her breasts after I'm done, and drinking in the shape of her lips as she begs for more.

I stroke the back of her ear with my thumb. "But not you. You, I'd keep for myself. If things were different, I would steal you away from your puritan of a father and worship your body until you belonged to me forever. You'd never be allowed to leave." I pull her forward until our lips are a hair apart. "But I can't."

"Because I belong to the king," she breathes softly, and her nails scratch a tantalizing path down my chest. "Well… the king isn't here. And I promise not to tell if you don't."

My face falls at her certainty. If only.

At the last second, I take a giant leap back and turn my back to her. "You're not hearing me. We're done."

Morpheus be damned.I said all those things to scare her senseless, to make her understand exactly how dark my soul is. We could never be friends, not the way my body has been howling for her.

Why did she look like she was about to consent to whatever scenario my dirty mind came up with? She was raised in a world where the very mention of sex is frowned-upon. Where women who give in to any pleasure are vilified. How did this happen?

Truth be told, I'm ready to break all the rules for her. Fuck the curse! I'm tempted to throw away my mask and spill all my secrets.

If I haven't been struck by one of Devi's arrows, it means I have no excuse for my behavior. It means I'm dangerously close to betraying my promises—my very self—for a woman I vowed to destroy. For a stupid crush I never asked for. For pleasures I can no longer enjoy, broken as I am.

Luckily, I can still win the bet without Two finding out about this disaster. I can still save the realm, but not without breaking Nell—and what's left of my soul—beyond repair.

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