Page 23 of Curse the Fae

All with his sight intact. All because of me.

It’s clever. It’s ruthless. It’s very Fae.

If this is my game, what are the rulers of the mountain and forest putting my sisters through?

I’m not bookish like Juniper, but I won’t get far without certain knowledge. “Who cursed you? How did it happen? How do I break the spell?”

“Figure it out,” Elixir invites.

“How do I do that?”

“Figure that out, too.”

“Do you know?”

He stares through me, deadpan. That means yes. This fiend knows, but I’m not going to get it out of him.

The empty threat pops from my mouth before I can stop it. “What if I refuse? If I don’t play, the games are void. It’s a draw across all regions. You can’t touch my sisters, then.”

Elixir rasps, “Are you naïve or merely a coward?”

“A coward?” I snarl. “You’re calling me cowardly? Punishing people is the coward’s way. Freeing them takes courage.” I choke on the rest of my words as the Fae consumes the remaining distance between us, his approach forcing me to back away. We travel like this across the lush cavern, from one shrub to the next, while the orbs prick the ceiling with unearthly teal, and reptiles scroll through the underbrush.

“You caged our fauna and our children,” Elixir seethes, his scales radiating like a thousand shards of glass. “Where was your courage, then?”

“Do you think sacrificing mortals in kind makes you any better?” I counter. “To say nothing of how you’ve jeopardized humans before that, what with your glamouring and harassing and pillaging, afflicting everyone with trauma and paranoia, all for your superior amusement. Not that you’re the type of Fae who relishes diversion. No, you’re the brutish type who prowls and then pounces, attacking mortals with those savage eyes. Well, it’s no wonder you’re cursed, and I don’t feel the least bit sorry for you…you leviathan!”

A hedge with broad, tubular branches materializes in my periphery. I smack one of the boughs in his path, as though that will hinder his progress.

Elixir catches the branch and squeezes the stem, just like he once tried to squeeze my throat. “Fuck the game,” he warns. “I could poison you. I could I feed you to the sharks.”

“Or you could blind me,” I bait.

Elixir stops—and snaps the tube branch in half with a single clench of his fist. The sound cracks through the space. It takes a fretful amount of willpower not to jump. That bough had been three inches in diameter, but in his grip, it might as well have been a twig.

“I shall do worse.” Without glancing away, Elixir drops the branch. “You know that now.”

Yes. Being invested in winning means I’ll still perish at his hands. Either way, win or lose, he’ll inflict vengeance on me. In the end, I’ll die.

“What game did the others play?” I demand.

“The same one,” he answers.

The same one. Did any of them succeed? What happened to those humans when they lost?

Elixir anticipates this question. At his leisure, he gestures to the heinous collection of brews. “The ones who lost or forfeited outright had to drink from one of these.”

Bile clots my tongue. “At least you gave them a choice between melted flesh and an addiction to fornication.”

“I said they had a choice between mixtures. I never said that I’d specified in advance the vessels’ effects.”

Now I’ll truly be sick. Those poor souls hadn’t known their fates until after emptying the unknown contents down their stomachs.

“You merciless, unspeakable tyrant,” I spew.

“I am,” he acknowledges.

“That was someone’s child, someone’s parent, someone’s sibling, someone’s friend, someone’s love.”

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