Page 28 of A Curse of Breath and Blood

“I’ll just lay here…” He pointed to a spot near me. “If you need anything… wake me up.” He sat down, motioning for me to do the same.

I laid down and pulled the cloak over my mouth so that only my eyes showed, inhaling his intoxicating scent.

“Goodnight, Aelia,” Caiden said as we lay back-to-back.

“Goodnight, Caiden,” I replied.

The embers in the fire still glowed as I tried to find sleep.

“Aelia?” Caiden said, his voice heavy with sleep.

“Yes?” I answered.

“I don’t hate you.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I hate myself enough for the both of us.”

10AELIA

The rideto Ruska would take weeks.

I heaved myself onto Arion’s back. My body still recovering from being thrown off a building.

“You okay back there, Springborn?” Roderick said, giving me a radiant white smile.

Amolie handed me some more charcoal to settle my stomach.

“Never better.” My heartbeat pounded in my ears.

“We will follow the river for most of the trip. Be alert. Sirens have taken refuge in the Court of Sorrows,” Caiden announced as we moved out.

With my head and body feeling the way it did, it would be merciful for a siren to take me below the waves.

Ruska, a port on the banks of the Atruskan River, lay across from a solitary island, the Tower of Fate. Home to Clotho, Decuma, and Morta, the Three Fates.The Trinity’s divine presence in the world.

I shivered at the thought of being so close to them.

When we stopped for the night, I offered to catch fish for our dinner. I needed something to quiet my mind as it begged for the high I’d been feeding it for five years. Lucius accompanied me.

“You know, you should take it easy on him,” he said, not bothering to look at me while we weaved a trap from reeds as we sat on the river’s shore. “He’s been through a lot.”

“Yeah, well, he got to keep his home and marry the woman he loved, so forgive me if I’m not sympathetic.” I tossed a trap into the water.

“It is more complicated. The fight you two had before you disappeared… it broke him.”

I never loved you. You are nothing to me. I never want to see you again.

I stared across the river. I knew I hurt Caiden. Hurt him in a way only a lover can. Deep and personal. I made sure it hit all the sensitive spots—the places where the hurt would fester.

“I wanted someone to hurt the way I did. I couldn’t let him come after me.”I rubbed my arm awkwardly as if I could wipe the shame.

“I always appreciated that.” Lucius tugged on the trap, hoping to attract fish. “You never led him on afterward.”

I ran a nervous hand through my hair.

“I was a mess, Lucius. Every emotion was like touching an open nerve. I couldn’t stand to exist.”

“I know. But you must understand, he has suffered too.” He pulled a trap filled with fish from the river. “Look, it’s not my place to tell the personal details of his life. I just think you should cut him some slack. He is here now, Aelia.”

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