33. Chapter 33

Chapter thirty-three

“ T hea! Come on, fight, dammit!” I felt someone pressing hard on my chest and then someone breathing air into my lungs. “You are so fucking stubborn, and now you decide to just give up?”

I sucked in a huge gulp of air as my eyes looked around wildly. My body ached all over, and I tried to sit up, but pain radiated through me. Every small movement caused me to wince.

“Pick her up! We need to move!” I heard Soren command.

I didn’t have time to ask why we had to move. How long was I gone for? Where was Emilia? Was everyone alright?

The questions caught in my throat as I looked around at the crumbling castle walls, debris falling through the air, a huge block of stone not far from where I was laying. My world was literally falling apart.

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t know. I am so sorry.” Emilia was bent over the side of me, sobbing, fisting her hand and circling it around the middle of her chest over and over again. She looked to where Callum’s body was and back at me, sobbing even harder.

Bastian lifted me in his arms and ran toward a shattered window. “Emilia! Run ahead of me! Be careful!”

She continued crying, but did as she was told. I couldn’t focus on anything she was saying right now.

I looked behind Bastian and saw Soren hesitate.

“Soren?” Bastian stopped right at the window. What was he doing? “Soren!”

“Go! I’ll be right there!” Then he took off back through the room. He disappeared into the smoke and debris, it was so bad that I couldn’t see him.

“Ren!” Bastian called, cursed under his breath, and hurried out the window. “I am going to beat his ass if he gets himself killed.”

Emilia and Bastian ran as far away as they could from the castle, all the way to the treeline. Bastian set me down. I sat in shock as I watched the top of the tower fall over and come crashing to the ground. Bastian moved his body over the top of Emilia and me as a gust of wind from the impact shot toward us.

I tried to look past Bastian to see where Soren was, but there was too much smoke to move through, let alone see through.

Then there was silence. Bastian kept his arms around us for a few more moments, then stood and looked around. Emilia stayed and sat next to me, but we were both waving our hands in front of us, coughing, trying to get the dust out of our faces to see.

“Ren!” Panic laced his voice.

I tried to stand, to run back into the castle and search for him, but my legs gave out.

Emilia turned to me and whispered, her voice strained, “Don’t move, your majesty.”

I ignored her and tried to stand again, and this time, my legs held. I lifted my hands and pulled for my magic, but there was nothing there. That wasn’t right. I pulled for it again, and there was nothing.

“The blade,” Emilia interjected.

I wasn’t sure if my powers were gone because of the blade or if they…were just gone. I growled at how irritated I was for not being able to search for Soren.

I coughed and cupped my hands around my mouth, “Soren!”

I started to move forward when Bastian stopped me. “Wait here. I’ll go find him.”

I pushed his hand away and took slow steps forward, calling his name. I could hear Bastian curse under his breath, and then he ordered Emilia to stay by me as he ran toward the castle. Emilia wrapped an arm around my shoulders to help stabilize me when I almost tripped over a piece of stone.

We walked back toward the ballroom to see if he was trapped somewhere or unconscious. At that thought, I hurried my steps and continued calling out for him. Emilia even tried to yell as loudly as she could.

We heard someone coughing over to our left near the greenhouse, and out came Soren, holding something in his hands.

“Soren!” I screamed. “Bastian, Soren’s here!” I broke free from Emilia, and ran toward him, tripping over my feet as I tried to sprint. He sighed a breath of relief as he set down whatever was in his hands and spread his arms wide for me. I jumped onto him, flinging my arms around his neck. He tightened his embrace around me, one hand around the back of my head and the other around my lower back.

After a moment, he pulled me back at arm's length and looked over every inch of me. “I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not. There is no scientifically sound reason on how you could be alive right now.”

“Everything is alright.” I tried my best to reassure him.

“You died !” He said incredulously, and I flinched at the truth in his words. He was right; I had died.

I didn’t have time to think more about it when Bastian came running from wherever he was and barreled into Soren, knocking them both to the ground. “What the hell were you thinking?”

The breath was knocked out of him, so he pointed behind him to the item on the ground. I walked over to get a better look and saw what he carefully placed on the ground. I gasped, as the realization of everything that had transpired tonight seeped in. It was all real.

My portrait from Callum. Soren risked his life to save this.

I was kneeling next to it, too nervous to touch it. I looked over to Soren sitting on the grass next to Bastian. He ran a hand through his hair, “I tried to save him. I tried to get Callum out, but…” A hollow look entered his eyes. “I was too late. I was about to leave, but then that caught my eye, and I thought—I just thought you would want something to remember him.”

I blinked back the tears and nodded.

The weight of all that happened had finally broken the piece of me that had been holding everything together. And I, like my home, crumbled. I sat on the ground and wailed into the night. Crying for the loss of such a sweet soul. Crying for the loss of my home. Crying for my past. Crying for a future without Callum.

Mourning my loved ones and the people of my kingdom. To be the sacrifice to spark my curse—the torment and loneliness that I had endured over the past centuries. I let it all out. I didn’t care that they were watching. I knew they were grieving just as hard as I was.

When the tears had dried and my body had stopped shaking, Emilia said, “It is all my fault. I didn’t know. I just—I didn’t know.”

I looked up at her and saw that her eyes were rimmed in red, and she was shaking, her arms wrapped around her middle. Her head was bowed, hair falling in front of her face. She was filled with shame, that much was evident.

I stood up, walked to Emilia, and fell to my knees, wrapping my arms around her in a tight embrace. She was shaking her head back and forth and trying to pull away from me. I just held her tighter.

“You did nothing wrong. Do. You. Hear. Me. You did nothing wrong.”

We were both deceived by Circe, and it almost destroyed us. I wouldn’t allow Circe to tear us apart any longer.

When her tears had subsided, I took a breath and sat back, needing to know what happened. Nothing made sense. Soren was right; I shouldn’t be here right now.

“Tell me everything.” I looked at all of them expectantly.

They all looked at each other, and I waited for them to collect their thoughts.

Soren sighed and said, “You stabbed yourself, and a blast of energy shot out of you. It was powerful and threw everyone across the room. You fell to the ground and…died.” He looked away as if he were collecting himself. “I did everything I could think of to revive you, but…you stabbed yourself in the chest!” Soren’s voice kept getting louder the more he talked.

Bastian snapped, “Ren.”

“Right.” Soren paused. “Not a minute after you died, the castle started falling apart. Maybe it was attached to the curse, and when that broke, it brought down the castle. Or that blast of energy that shot out of you caused the very foundation to quake, becoming unstable. Either way, I was wrong.”

I looked at him, confused.

“I thought the key to breaking the curse was love, but I mistranslated it. I mean, in a way it was a type of love. A love for others that went beyond your innate desire to survive. The both of you were connected through the curse, so when you stabbed yourself it killed her."

It looked as though Soren was going to continue when Bastian slapped his back and shook his head.

I sat there, allowing everything to sink in. My voice cracked as I asked, “Did I really break it?”

“There’s only one way to find out.”

Bastian stood and reached his hand out for me to take. I placed my hand in his as he gently helped me up, despite my body protesting the movement. I turned back to the only home I had ever known. Where Callum’s body would forever be. It was hard seeing it in this state. I tried to imagine the grandeur that it once possessed.

Now, it was rubble.

I couldn’t find it in myself to cry any more tears, but the sadness was so strong I had to rub my chest to try and take the pain away. I wondered if it would ever end, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

They all gave me the space I needed, and then I turned around and walked away from my home for the last time. I vowed to never come back. To only look ahead from now on. So long as the curse was broken.

We walked around the side of the castle, past the rose garden, over the bridge, and past the overgrown lined trees. My steps slowed once the front gates came into view, and then I stopped completely when I was only a few feet from it. They had all stepped on the other side and turned to me.

“Come on, Rose.”

I shook my head at them, and I took a step backward. This was all happening so fast, I wasn’t ready. I thought I was, but…

I looked back toward the crumbled castle. Maybe I could stay a little longer and work myself up to this.

“Thea,” Bastian said, grabbing my attention once more. He gave me a small smile. “It’s time to go.”

“The world is so different, Bastian. What if it’s too different? What if I cannot fit in?” I couldn’t help but share my worries with them.

“This is what we have worked so hard for. Your freedom.” Soren pleaded.

Bastian instead asked, “Would you care to make a wager?”

My eyes found Bastian’s. “What would we wager?”

He crossed his broad arms over his chest. “Walk through the barrier. If it is still up, we will all stay with you and make this a home. But…”

He left the word hanging, and Soren finished, “...if the curse is broken, then you come with us. Make a life with us. Live .”

My breathing increased rapidly, and I took a couple of hesitant steps forward until I was directly in front of the barrier.

Deep breath in. One. Two. Three. Deep breath out. One. Two. Three.

I held my breath and took a step, tensing as I waited for the barrier to shoot me back, but nothing happened. I was panting as I opened my eyes and saw everyone smiling at me.

The curse was broken. I could hardly believe it. The night had begun to lighten, specks of light peaked through the trees. I had never felt this light before, this free. Anything and everything was possible.

“What now?” I asked, breathless, uncertain.

“Where do you want to go?” Emilia asked.

I turned and gave Soren a small smile. “The ocean.”

He nodded at me. “What the queen wants, the queen gets.”

I stopped them. “No. No more titles, no more bowing, no more anything. I am just a girl, traveling with her family.”

They all smiled at me, and I smiled at them. Now was the time to begin my life. My human life.

I wrapped my hands in the crook of Emilia’s arm. With Bastian to my right and Soren to my left, we began to walk forward. I had little idea what was next, but now that I had such little time—I couldn’t possibly waste a moment of it.