Page 152 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
This wasn’t right.
No, no, no. This isn’t what I wanted! Take it back!
Mrs Minton was screaming, her voice wretched and far away. “Stop, stop! What are you doing?”
“All part of the process…” The Enchantress smiled, ceasing her endless chant.
Pain blurred Dimitri’s thoughts, but he screamed for Adeline, writhing on the floor like a flaming spider as his body twisted and turned. His tail lashed between his legs, his chest heaved, his nose churned in his face.
“What have you done, whore?” his father yelled.
The Enchantress spat. “What my sister longed to do, only was bound by her word.”
“You promised no harm—”
“No harm would come to yourguests,Your Vile Grace. I said nothing about your son.”
Dimitri could barely see through the searing, splitting pain in his temples, but a flash of silver pierced through the haze. He blinked, and the next time he looked, the Enchantress was speared on the end of his father’s sword.
Red erupted across the whiteness of her gown. The Duke yanked back his sword. She fell slowly, like a dying moth, smiling even as the blood trickled from her mouth, congealing on the ground beneath. She smiled at Dimiri, hard and cruel, and then back to his father.
“I hope he kills you.”
The monster took over.
Chapter Thirty-Five: The Curse unleashed
“No,” Adeline half screamed, half gasped. “No, no,no.He can’t be… he wouldn’t—”
Only he would. Of course he would. Because who would want to be alone in the dark in near-constant pain?
If he couldn’t save himself from being alone, of course he’d want to free himself from the rest of the curse.
Because she wasn’t there.
Is this what you were trying to tell me in the library?
I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry—
“This is my fault,” she said numbly.
“No,” Thomas insisted. “This is on him, and his father. If anyone is to blame, blame him.”
“This blood,” she turned to Thomas, “whose is it?”
“The Enchantress’,” he explained. “The Duke killed her. There’s no one, no one to turn him back—”
Adeline fought the urge to be sick, to cry, to rage.Stand upright. Do not fall. You’re no use to anyone that way—
Thomas clutched at her skirts. “Go to him,” he pleaded.
Adeline opened her mouth to protest, because what could she do? She had always been powerless, no kiss had broken his curse before, nothing she had done had—
“The Duke is organising a hunting party, Adie,” Thomas continued. “If there’s no way to turn him back—”
Adeline buckled. Of course she had to go to him. She had never once been able to ignore him when he was in pain. Why should him turning into a monster change that?
Elliott vanished into the house and returned in seconds, carrying her coat and their father’s pistol. Adeline flinched as he pressed it into her hands.
