Page 78 of Her Dark Promise

“Not again.” Then he looked around. “Why are we outside?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. I won’t be attempting this again.”

“No?” Soren questioned and then smiled, knowing that Bastian’s grand escape was thwarted.

“Nope. Looks like your mysterious queen is a master manipulator and will be getting exactly what she wants. What the queen wants the queen gets, right?”

I narrowed my eyes at him as Bastian helped his brother stand, and he barked out in protest at all the abuse his body was getting that night. Bastian put an arm around his waist and walked slowly with him back to the castle.

I stood there watching their forms slowly slip away and into the darkness until I let out a breath. Bastian was affecting me the more I was around him. My body reacted to him whenever he came into view or whenever I thought about him. It was starting to become a damned nuisance.

Chapter fourteen

The next few weeks had gone by smoothly enough. Emilia barely came out of her room, feigning illness. Bastian refused to talk to me, let alone look at me. Callum was beginning to worry not only for Emilia but for Bastian, which was a surprise. Soren was begging me to make another deal with him, but I couldn’t dive back into his memories. As much as I wanted to see more, it hurt too much knowing that I would never see them for myself.

I had spent the time reviewing the books on curses just to see if I missed anything. The curse was meticulously worded, and no matter how hard I tried, nothing worked. I spent years doing everything I could until the loneliness and insanity started to weave its way into me. Not just breaking down my will, but beating it out of me.

You’ll never rid yourself of me. You would miss me too much. I am your oldest friend, after all.

“I don’t have friends. Even if I did, you definitely would not be one of them.”

There’s no need to be nasty.

I ignored that comment, knowing full well that I could be nastier if I wanted to. It was quiet long enough that I thought she went away when she hummed with pride.

My curse really is a work of art.

“That’s one way to put it.” I knew that talking to myself always put everyone else in a state of unease, but she was all I had. No matter how much I didn’t want to admit it. As much as I hated her, I needed her.

My mind created her, of all people, to not leave me completely lonely in this isolated world that my ancestors created. A tomb of their own making. Deep enough into the Forbidden Forest that one would get lost if they didn’t know the path. A labyrinth of trees that would turn you around, the environment killing you before any creatures had a chance to rip you to shreds.

I am your constant.

I didn’t know why that comment made me pause because it was true. She would be with me forever, but today, the knowledge broke something within me. I had been walking back into the castle to find Soren in the library, but I hadn’t wanted to see him, knowing that he would continue his assault of questions. Instead, I diverted my path to the cellar.

The door to the underground tunnels and rooms was down a long, narrow corridor that led to a dead end, or so it would make you believe. There were heavy drapes at the end and behind that was a secret door with a corridor so long that you couldn’t see where it led. There was a torch sitting in its metal hatch to the right of me.

I lit the torch and began my descent. The path curved around various twists and turns at least a few floors down until I finally stepped off the stairs onto soil. No one had ever bothered to bring enough stone to cover the floor. The narrow stairwell opened into a large circular room with even more corridors leading to different parts of the castle. Some went another floordown meant for prisoners who would never see the light of day again.

I took the corridor directly to my right, which led to a wooden door, and opened it to find a large room full of alcohol of all kinds imported from across the world.

We had a wine cellar, but these were the bottles that were used for only the most elite guests. There were so many that even after all the time I had been here, I had yet to go through half of them. Of course, I only used them for special occasions: when my emotions started to become a little too much, and I wasn’t ready to use myvenin.

I slid my fingers over the dusty bottles and sang one of my mother’s favorite songs under my breath. As the song ended, I stopped and picked up the bottle my finger landed on. I uncorked it, took a long drink, and hissed at the taste.Aloxinum. It was so strong that it made me want to spit the contents all over the ground. I had never tasted it without first mixing it with something else.

I took another swig, and it burned some more. Good enough.

I went out of the room, shut the door, and began to ascend the winding steps. I was almost to the top when I heard a roar off in the distance, loud enough to reach me down here. I groaned, not wanting to find out exactly what trouble they had found themselves in now.

I thought it would be fun having them here to play with, but it had become the complete opposite. I reached the door and took a deep breath in. One. Two. Three. Deep breath out. One. Two. Three. Then, I opened the door in time to hear another roar, but this time, I knew exactly who it belonged to.

Callum.

Surprise and intrigue wrapped around me, so I followed the roar. To my surprise, the roaring erupted into laughter at the same moment I found Emilia staring at something in disbelief.

Bastian and Callum were standing in the middle of one of the walkways of the parapet. There was a large piece of wood leaning against the parapet with circles drawn on it. Something for target practice.

They were concentrating so hard that neither one of them saw us. Bastian held a goblet of what I could assume was his desired choice of drink. He held the cup in one hand and his dagger in the other. He bit down on his bottom lip as he swayed slightly, brought his hand back, and sent the dagger flying through the air. They both cheered as the dagger found its mark on the red dot in the middle of the wood. Even in his drunken state, he was an excellent shot.

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