Page 105 of Her Dark Promise

“Shut up!” I needed to get away from him, but I was curious how Emilia knew about what it was he was looking at. “Emilia, what did you mean just now?”

“What do you mean?” She looked shocked that I would ask.

“You said that he is getting into things that he has business getting into. How do you know what he is getting into?”

“Well, these are obviously your books, and I didn’t think that you would want him snooping in your private rooms.” Her words sounded off, too proper.

I opened my mouth to question her further, but Soren pleaded again, “I think I’m getting closer to understanding how curses, in general, work. Specifically, the rules.”

Emilia and I whipped our faces over to him as he stood, head lifted, as if he were declaring something ordinary like the weather.

“I don’t remember asking for your assistance.”

He looked exhausted and it dawned on me that this had been consuming him—this research. Me.

“I can read some of the books in that room that are in other languages, even some of the dead ones.” He walked over to the table. “I have studied over thirteen different languages and thank god I did because I can be of use to you.”

“I don’t need your help,” I repeated, quieter. I was mildly curious, but feared letting that curiosity turn to hope.

“I know you don’t want to be stuck here for the rest of your life.”

“I don’t have a life, Soren. I exist. That’s it.”

“You could be so much more. Have so much more.”

Don’t let him get your hopes up.

Go away! Go away! Go away!

My heart beat grew erratically, I felt it beating in my chest, shaking my rib cage. “There is no way around the curse, and if you think that helping me break it will free you and your brother then you are mistaken.”

“That’s not why I’m doing this.” He clenched his hands together, frustrated that his words weren’t coming out the way they were intended. He obviously wanted to do more research before bringing his findings to me. “From all of the research that I have gathered, even from a few fairytales, curses can be broken. It is merely finding out the true meaning of the phrase that was used. What exactly did the witch say?”

I had heard enough.

I walked up to him as he backed up and hit his back against the wall. “Go into that room again without my permission and I will torture you until an inch of your life, heal you, and do it all over again. I’ll even make your brother watch.”

“Just think about what I said.” He was still trying to plead his case—Gods, he was relentless when he set his mind to something.

“Why should I?”

“You want out. I know you do. Or else you wouldn’t have looked into my memories, specifically the ones about my travels. I know that you once planned to travel the world with your sister.”

The blood drained from my face. “You read my diary?”

It only took him a moment to realize his mistake. A moment to know that he had ruined anything that could have ever been between us.

“No—wait.”

I felt betrayed. Violated. If I didn’t leave now, I would kill him. I tried to walk past him, but he blocked my path.

“Soren, what are you doing? Get out of her way,” Emilia hissed. “She needs space.”

“Get out of my way, scholar,” I sneered. “All I want to do is hurt you.”

“Because someone hurt you,” he reminded me, his voice cold. “You are right—I am a second son with privileges, and those privileges have granted me knowledge. The kind of knowledge that is going to help you. I shouldn’t have read your diary, but I needed to understand the horrors you have faced… I needed to understand everything. Now, I do.”

“You don’t understand anything,” I ground out in defense. I wanted him to shut up, to stop speaking the truth. “You’re just a child.”

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