Page 164 of Crown of Briars
I stilled, every muscle in my body taut with awareness.My mother’s curse.
Holy Stones…
“You—You?—”
“My mother was the sorceress Jessinda,” Gerard said, his chin lifting with pride. “She died at the hands of these unseelie beasts. And I am here to avenge her.”
My entire body was numb with dread. This couldn’t be true. How couldGerardbe the son of a sorceress?
Think, Sybelle!I told myself.What do you know of sorceresses and witches?
They possessed untold power. Even more power than the fae.
They were distantly related to fae and were said to possess fae blood, though not as much as the seelie and unseelie.
Male witches had no magic, but they could still produce female heirs and pass along the power through their bloodline.
Gerard has no magic,I realized.
He was staring at me, waiting for a response. I had to say something to buy myself more time. I needed aplan.
“What are you doing with that?” I blurted, gesturing to the gleaming rose jewel in his hands.
“This is the key to the curse,” he said, cradling it in his hands, as if he knew just how precious it was. “I couldn’t risk you bringing them together.” His eyes fell on the shadowstone clutched in my right hand.
“What happens if they come together?” I asked slowly.
Gerard’s eyes darkened with suspicion.
“I just want to be careful,” I said quickly.
Not technically a lie.
“If they get too close, the stones will weld together on their own. And, once unified, if they are destroyed, a piece of the curse is broken. It was part of the language my mother built into the curse.”
By the stone of shadow and blood, I make this vow.Those had been her words.
She had swornonthe stones themselves.
But, in the vision, the shadowstone had vanished after she’d cast the spell. Where had it gone?
“How do you know all this?” I asked. “You—You speak as if you were there.”
He wasn’t. That much, I knew.
“My mother toldit to me.”
My heart seized. “W-What? I—I thought the curse killed her.”
He nodded gravely. “It did. But when she cast it, she used the last of her strength to travel back to me and give me that just before she died.” He gestured to the shadowstone in my hand. “She entrusted me to hide it where the unseelie could not discover it.” He chuckled. “I should have known you would find a way to dig it up.”
I stared at the black stone in my shaking hand.The shadowstone.It had been buried in those caves in the Earthen Court all along… becauseGerardhad put it there.
“Why?” I asked in a hollow voice. “Why did you do all this? Why were you living in the Earthen Court this whole time?”
“My people came from there,” Gerard said. “That horrible unseelie king thought he had obliterated the witch clans when he killed my mother.” A slow smile spread across his face. “But he was wrong. Many of them fled to the Earthen Court and started new lives there. I couldn’t join them, as I did not possess any magic. But I wanted to be closer to them and start my life anew. I made it my mission to ensure the division between the Earthen and Shadow Courts remained firm; otherwise, Mother’s curse would have been for nothing. That’s why I placedspies in the Shadow Court.”
Spies?My gut wrenched as I realized what he meant.
