12. Bella

Determined to uncover the truth, I wandered the dusty halls of Lore”s castle, searching for clues about his family and their downfall. If I could find his sister Lara”s diary, it might shed light on the curse that now imprisoned Lore.

I wandered into the east end, where the forgotten room had been the day I”d first arrived. Alysha had warned me not to go there because only ghosts and monsters lurked there. I sighed, finding nothing in the room. I left, the feeling of eyes watching me prickling across my skin, and sought my answers elsewhere.

I followed my instinct further down the hall to what I suspected was Lara”s room. Something forbidden awaited me in the shadows, where the daylight seemed to melt away to the dreary oppression of things hidden.

After searching, I found a hidden door leading to a small room lined with books. This must have been Lara”s secret sanctuary. I quickly located her diary and scanned the pages until I found her description of the curse being enacted.

I scanned the fraying spines until I found a journal titled Lara”s Memoirs. With trembling fingers, I opened it. Lara spoke of love and hope in her early entries, admitting she had fallen in love but not naming the person who had captured her heart. Later, her entries turned to the sting of betrayal and heartbreak. She described her terror when the vampire queen invaded, stealing dragon children. Her words were heavy and dark, as if she refused to believe it was happening. Each entry became darker as the hopeful girl who blossomed with newfound love disappeared. Someone distant, sad, and broken wrote detached words that soon turned into words of pain and anguish that squeezed my heart to read them.

Later entries turned angry, detailing plans of vengeance. The final page was stained with tears—Lara had scratched out a curse directed at the vampires, aiming to give Queen Isabella the same heartbreak and betrayal she felt. There was a confession on the last page.

I loved her. I loved her with everything that I had, and I was. She took that love until I was empty, and she rewarded it with betrayal. She gave me my heart back, and all that was left were broken little pieces of what it once was. It will never be beaten again. Because it was only ever meant to win for her. Though she confessed her own love and tore her heart out to show it beat for me, in the same breath, she told me a queen could not love another. Love was a weakness. As she handed me her heart, she admitted she would never love another. She betrayed me. Here I am without her, and I am nothing. So I will become nothing. If anyone ever finds this letter, know I never meant for any of it to happen.

Darkness is coming. It rides on the wind like a raven in the night, but I won”t be here to see it. Because my sacrifice comes here and now, but there is more I fear coming.

I sank to the floor, mind reeling—thinking of how my grandmother confessed her love to Lore”s sister.

My eyes roamed over the dusty furnishings, lingering on a small wooden chest tucked away on a shelf. Intricate carvings of vines and flowers adorned the sides, framing a heart etched lovingly into the center. I stepped closer, fingers brushing years of cobwebs as they curled around the lid. With a gentle tug, the chest creaked open, revealing a shriveled lump nestled inside. It was small enough to fit in my palm, dried and withered from the passage of centuries. The leathery surface was cracked with age; its former vibrant red faded to a lifeless brown. I pictured my grandmother, young and heartbroken, placing this organ to rest with shaking hands. How many lonely nights had she cried herself to sleep, separated from her love by cruel circumstances? I stroked the fossilized heart with pity, this relic of centuries-old lost romance.

I only hoped they had found peace together. It was clear the actions after Lara”s capture by Queen Isabella prompted the events that led to the curse. Lore and his people had retaliated, and the moon goddess had sided with the vampires, interfering where goddesses should not. As a result, Lore had attacked a witch”s village, killing the moon goddess”s half-mortal daughter. How the moon goddess had retaliated was not mentioned in the journal, as I suspected the aftermath was yet to be enacted when the end of Lara”s tale came to fruition. The curse had likely been created by Lore”s actions against the moon goddess since we all knew she could be a cruel, vindictive deity.

For the first time, an idea came to me. What if this curse was a way to restore my father to the vampire throne. To make up for whatever slight Nyx decided against my family. Perhaps because of my family”s intertwined past was why I was here. Breaking the curse would release Lore and me from this centuries-long curse that, in its own way, was hanging over both of our heads. When my father reclaimed his throne, he”d no longer need me. I could live a life free of him.

I left the hidden room, leaving the journal and the shriveled heart to the dust and the past. My mind was a whirling mess of thoughts and emotions. I needed to find something that spoke of the curse after Lara”s involvement. At least now I understood why Lore”s hatred of me went so deep.

The haunting chill of the east wing faded as I wandered into a warmer, well-lit hall. Rich tapestries and polished wood paneling replaced the cobwebs and dust. My numb fingers tingled as I drew nearer to the crackling fireplace, its flames dancing brightly against the cold stone. Through the towering, mullioned windows, the sun sank below the distant hills in a blaze of color. Fiery orange and fuchsia melted together, deepening to vivid purples as twilight crept in. Wispy clouds floated overhead, stained crimson by the sunset.

I watched, mesmerized, as the inflamed sun dipped lower, bathing the land in its intense golden light. Shadows lengthened as the final loving rays reached out to embrace the earth one last time before reluctantly releasing it to the fast-approaching night. The fading light filled the land with diffused warmth, the grass turning bronze. Shadows stretched and yawned as day yielded to night. Slowly, radiant azure deepened into a seductive navy before darkness descended utterly, taking the last lingering notes of color until morning.

I turned and took in the room, my awe from the setting sun gone as the chill crept in from the night. It was a library—but not just any library—the most glorious one I”d ever seen. Wall-to-wall books seemed to go on forever, several levels high, and I stood glued to the spot in amazement. I pinched myself, stifling a cry, confirming I was not dreaming.

Towering bookshelves made of a cherry wood color stacked with books of every shape and size could be seen in every available area. Occasionally, a few windows broke up the stacks, leaving perfectly cushioned seats as if beckoning the readers to simultaneously stop and enjoy the beauty of two worlds. Both in reality and between the pages.

I moved toward an enormous fireplace that made me nervous, burning so close to so many beautiful books. The fire looked like it needed stoking. The night I”d rushed into the forbidden woods came back to me. I”d been clutching the book in my hands. I”d managed to hold onto it as I ran through the woods, and then I”d lost it.

As I glided into the room on a comfy chair near the fire, the book sat, still stained with blood. The title”s red embossing glowed in the firelight. I picked it up, running my hand over its surface. This book had been the catalyst for all my troubles. My eyes flicked to the fire, and, for a moment, I considered chucking the book into it. I couldn”t bring myself to do it. So I sat it back down. I had a task. Gather intel on the curse, escape this place, and finally be able to live without fear. With a sigh, I assessed the room again, and dread sank in my stomach this time.

The room was impressive, and I loved it, but it also meant it would take me forever to find anything in it. It was huge, and I could spend weeks in it and never even find what I was looking for. I groaned, gently running my hands through my hair and pulling the strands. I could do this. I had nothing but time. So I walked the aisles of books, running my finger down the spines and trying to decipher the catalog system. I soon realized there wasn”t one. Which made my job much harder.

”This is ridiculous!” After hours of studying the titles, I finally said to the crackling fire, a lone candle flickering across each one. I pushed further into the library, where the room became chillier, and found another room in the back. A bed with rumpled sheets and a wardrobe occupied the whole room. It was clearly a man”s room.

Men”s clothing was strewn in a few areas, and masculine touches of dark blues and blacks were adorned everywhere. It had to have been Lore”s. Alastair didn”t strike me as the type to make a bedroom in a library. I suspected he slept near or with Alysha from how they acted around each other. Next to the bed was a shelf full of journals. I stared at the shelf for a long moment, debating whether I wanted to be the kind of person who snooped on someone”s thoughts. I was sure Lore would hate me even more if he found me reading his journals. I needed answers and a way out to break this curse so I could leave.

”I don”t care if the dragon boy likes me,” I said into the shadows of the night. A pang of guilt still struck me as I snatched up the first journal, which appeared older and yellow, the pages brittle and aged.

I gingerly opened it, careful of its delicate nature. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, deep down, I did care. That feeling of heavy lead set deep in my stomach, refusing to go away as I read his inner thoughts.

She”s gone, and Father has sent me to war in her absence. I”ve done unthinkable things on his orders. Things I am ashamed of. Things that will haunt me until the day I die. I have blood on my hands. The blood of innocents. I”ve become a monster.

I stopped reading, feeling this was too private to continue, and scanned the book until the end, looking for something to help me. I found it.

Like a storm cloud, she burst through the front doors during the spring solstice ball. With a flick of her wrist, everyone froze, unable to move. She marched with a deadly purpose. Her gaze was so thick with vengeance and hatred that it clawed its way up my throat as if it were manifested physically. Her pale hair streamed out around her as she stood before the throne, her clawed hands pointing toward the king and queen with malicious intent.

I should have known, and I should have moved faster, but I was too entranced. She was the most beautiful creature I”d ever seen.

”I do not beseech you mortals and your petty wars. When you take one of mine from me, then you must pay.” Pain flashed in the creature”s dark gaze, and her eyes became as pitch black as the night. It was then I realized this was no woman. This was a goddess—and not just any goddess: it was Nyx, the moon goddess.

She twisted her hair, a sadistic smile warping her perfect features. ”Your kingdom will suffer for more years than a person should live, trapped in a state between the living and the dead. As the world outside passes you by, you will all be forgotten,” she sang.

She spun around and danced across the floor as we watched in horror, frozen in place by the celestial power.

She sang in a high-pitched voice that turned soft and mocking before her lips twisted into a wicked grin. ”You took my daughter.” She pointed her finger at me. ”So I”ll take everything from you.”

She looked to the king and queen frozen on their thrones and began to weave the curse that changed everything. ”Every curse needs a way to break it,” she said at the end, ”though you never will. But I like to dangle a little hope above your head while you suffer. To break the curse, the dragon prince must willingly sacrifice his heart.”

The guards rushed forward to stop her, and without even looking at them, she threw them and half the room back with her magic. Like the rest of the castle, she froze the throne room and moved toward the dais. I stood frozen, unable to move, as I watched her finish twisting her dark magic.

”You will be forgotten, even by your sun goddess, my sister, Allora. You will lose everything.” She turned to me. ”Unless he who took what is most dear can take the life of his one true love, or die by her hand.”

Her gaze met mine, and in her starry night eyes, I saw all that was to come: the hopelessness I would feel all those years, the hope that would never come, and the despair I would countless times fall into. How can one even find a way to break a curse such as this? I was alone. No one was coming—not my true love, not anyone. I would die here and my kingdom with it.

A raging storm brewed in my head, screaming for her to stop because we had suffered enough. My sister was dead. The beautiful, deadly creature before me smiled bitterly. ”You will suffer the most, for it was you who took her life from me. You who cannot love. It is you that will spend years living with your pain and regret only to end it with the worst agony ever known. To take the life of the one you hold most dear.”

With a flick of her wrist, everyone vanished, gone from this world. Before she left, she ensured the king and queen would never live again, even if the curse broke. With her magic, she ripped them apart, leaving them in pieces.

I gasped as I slammed the journal shut harder than I had meant to. I shoved it back into place and left, shaking my head as I went. I was truly stuck here then. The only way to break the curse was to kill Lore or for him to kill his one true love. A plan began to formulate. One that would end with my dagger in his heart. Because I wasn”t going to wait around forever. He had to die.

Footsteps outside the door startled me. I blew out my candle and crouched in the shadows, afraid Lore would find and confront me. The steps faded.

In the darkness, I weighed everything I thought I knew. I had blamed Lore, but now doubt gnawed at me. To escape this curse, I would need to betray the man who had saved me from wolves—or be stuck here with the rest of them. The choice seemed impossible. With a heavy heart, I slipped from the room, the books” secrets burning inside me.

I heard the dragon”s roar that night, and my feet pulled me from bed, clad only in my sheer nightgown. I found my way through the dark and haunted halls of the castle as if pulled toward the monster, the beast that waited for me outside. I knew I should be scared—any sane person would be terrified—but my feet refused to listen to my head.

Soon, I stood underneath the moonlight as a crimson dragon soared overhead. Seeing me, it landed, rumbling the ground with its weight. I stood still, unsure if I should move forward. My body wanted to pull me in the direction of the beast. My mind was telling me this was insane. I should be running. Yeah, maybe the dragon liked me and even cared for me in some odd way. It was a beast, and it could decide to make me a tasty snack at any moment.

I didn”t have to decide because soon, the massive dragon made its way to me. His scales glowed like fire in the moonlight. I thought I”d be shivering from the chill, but the closer the beast came, the warmer I felt the heat radiating off his body. The beast—Lore, no doubt—now stood within chomping distance of me as he slowed, then tilted his face down until it was level with my own.

I closed my eyes, not particularly in the mood to watch myself being burned alive and then eaten because I had some dumb notion that this beast and I had a connection.

No, I was crazy and about to be devoured. The dragon just stood there as if waiting.

I opened one eye and gazed into his fiery red eyes. The dragon stood unnaturally still. I realized the castle, its curse, and everything else absolutely bonkers in this world were connecting. I thought I heard a voice in my head calling out my name. Isabella.

”I”m crazy!” I yelled into the night and into the face of the beast standing before me. ”It”s official, I”ve gone insane.” I paused as I heard a deep laugh. The dragon in front of me was shaking in a way that would indicate laughter. At that, I listened, almost wishing I hadn”t.

You are mine,a deep voice said in my head. The dragon, Lore, turned and took to the sky. As his mighty wings lifted him into the air and the wind pushed me back, I thought I heard a softer, forever.

Absolute terror shot through me. I was a prisoner.