Page 170 of Crown of Briars
I wouldn’t get to tell him goodbye. I would never get to tell him how much he meant to me.
There wasn’t time.
Because it had all finally come together in my mind.
Until one of my kind gives up her life for yours, this curse will live on.
The shadowstone and bloodstone were onlypartof the curse. Gerard’s life was onlypartof it.
There was one last crucial step. Without it, the curse would live on.
Mylife had to be sacrificed.Iwas the last piece.
The witches came from the Earthen Court.Mycourt. I had their blood running through my veins, even if it was diluted with hundreds of years of human blood.
Tislora had confirmed it. The texts I’d read had confirmed it.
I was descended from the same witches who had been slaughtered by Varius’s ancestor.
By the stone of shadow and blood, I make this vow: Until one of my kind gives up her life for yours, this curse will live on, even as my line lives on.
Three pieces to the puzzle: stone of shadow and blood, a life willingly given, and Jessinda’s bloodline.
When the stones were destroyed, Gerard had said only apieceof the curse would be broken.
Varius had thought onlyoneof the three things was needed to break the curse. But in truth,all threehad to be accomplished.
The stones had to be destroyed.
I had to willingly give up my life for Varius.
And Jessinda’s heir needed to be killed.
Once I was dead—and the stones were destroyed with me—then all that was left was Gerard. And Jessinda’s curse would finally end.
I had to do this. There was no other way.
Between my shadows,the alporas, and the dull senses of the humans, we had the upper hand for far longer than I’d anticipated.
They clearly weren’t expecting to be blinded by my darkness. And they weren’t expecting us to be able to fly, either.
While those of us with alporas made our assault from over the gate, the rest of the soldiers snuck out the side entrances to converge on the human army on foot. This kept us from raising the portcullis.
We had to keep them from breaching the castle entrance.
I slashed my sword with relentless precision, cutting down human after human. Their foul blood coated my arms and splattered my face. Beneath me, Zorben roared, the sound mingling with the carnage and urging me onward.
More blood. More death. More rage.
Beside me, my fae comrades fought mercilessly, their blades tearing through the human flesh as if they were made of parchment.
After a few hours, we managed to push the humans farther down the road and away from the portcullis. The sun was dipping below the horizon. The fading lavender sky warned of nightfall. Exhaustion pulled at my body, and my shadows hadgrown thinner. I hoped the humans’ eyesight was too weak to notice.
I wouldn’t be able to keep this up much longer. In a few moments, I would have to pull my shadows inward or remove my Lumen.
I hadn’t yet decided what I would do when I heard Orla shout the words I’d been longing for.
“Fall back! Retreat to the forest!”
