Page 2 of The Cursed and the Broken
“Kitarni, no,” my mother yelled as I slipped past her and shoved out the door, but there was no time to consider. With a flick of my wrist I summoned an invisible wall, blocking her exit. She slammed into it, pounding her fists against the forcefield, terror in her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Mama,” I whispered, guilt ripping at my heart as she clawed at the barrier like a wild animal. She would be safe inside, hidden behind her wards where no harm could come to her.
I had always been impulsive, perhaps rash, but for Eszter? She was my world. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for the girl. Even … even face Death.
I prayed Mama wouldn’t lose two daughters this night.
Gods save her, I thought as I bolted down the gravelly path towards the barn looming in the distance. The night was dark, the moon hidden behind clouds gathering ominously above. Frost licked up my veins, seeping into my skin, but the adrenaline coursing through my body set fire to my blood, burning my limbs to pump one foot after the other.
Branches snagged on my gown as I pushed myself, running against every warning in my body that demanded I turn around and seek the comfort and safety of my home.
My breath huffed out before me. No. I would not fail her.
Eszter’s scream pierced through the shrieking winds, causing a flock of birds nearby to escape to the sky and my heart to pound like war drums before battle. I would fight if it came to it. No matter that I hadn’t a clue how to wield a blade?especially against a being that was neither living nor dead, but somethingother.
I slowed to a crawl as I approached the barn doors swinging violently before me. No sound now came from inside, not from the animals, nor from my sister. I peered around the door, feeling frost creeping up the hand that clung to the wood. Pain throbbed as it spiralled towards the tendons, but I held fast, needing something to ground me to reality at what my eyes beheld.
Death stood facing my sister as she trembled before our animals, her arms outstretched, gown ripped, and innocent face streaked with tears. What chance did a fourteen-year-old girl have against the harbinger of doom himself?
My sister’s eyes in that moment were those of pigs before the slaughter. A sixth sense of what awaited, knowing not what happens in the steps before, but what awaits at the end. It was enough to spur me into action. He took one step towards her, or perhaps glided—I couldn’t tell beneath his shrouded from—and reached out a skeletal hand.
“Don’t you dare lay a single finger on her,” I said firmly, the undertones of fear quavering my voice.
Death turned painfully slowly, and when he looked upon me, I saw nothing beneath that hood. No face, just emptiness, like a black hole that sucked you in and suffocated all oxygen and warmth from the air.
He merely cocked his head, a predator weighing up his prey, but when his attention moved away from Eszter, I allowed a small sense of calm to bolster my resolve. There would be no running past Death, for even a featherlight touch was enough to end one’s life. Even witches, for all their power, were but flecks of dust for him to flick away with skeletal fingers.
We Bárány women weren’t without cunning, but as our family name suggested, we were shepherds, and I refused to leave my flock.
At the back of the barn was a hatch in the wall a few feet high, not so generous as to allow someone of my size through, but enough for Eszter’s tiny frame to slide under. I shifted the knife to my left hand, twitched my right ever so slightly towards Eszter’s only chance of escape. She was an observant girl—if not ruled by her emotions—and she nodded just once as she edged toward the hatch.
Death had eyes only for me, not that I could see any. I wondered if beneath that hood there would be naught but hollows. “Whatareyou?” he asked in a raspy voice.
My skin prickled with revulsion at that unearthly tone. Swallowing the rising bile, I scoffed. “Can you not identify a witch when you see one? You’ve been killing us for years, after all.”
“Your power speaks volumes to me, girl, but I smell something else in the air. You reek of its stench.” Death seemed to look right through me then, as if studying my very core, and whatever he found, it seemed most intriguing to him.
I wasn’t sure if I should breathe in relief or run for my life. Death’s interest was not high on my priority list. The whole encounter was so odd, I couldn’t help myself. “Why have you not claimed my soul yet?” I said brazenly. “Lost your touch?”
I must be losing my mind. Mama would have died three times over if she’d heard me. Probably would have come back to haunt me, too. I might be rash, but I’m not stupid. Eszter would soon be out of the hatch and back home to safety. I needed to keep Death preoccupied a little longer.
A world-weary sigh echoed in the barn, the hideous sound scraping against the threads of my sanity. “Do you think me a fool?” he hissed, causing the animals to tremble at the sound. “I know your precious sister escapes as we speak. But I did not come for the lamb.”
My skin prickled at those words, and fear filled the cup of my stomach until it overflowed from every pore. I lifted the knife with a shaking hand, but one flick of his wrists and the blade whooshed through the air to thud into the barn hanger.
He stalked towards me, foggy plumes stretching out before him as he stopped inches from my face. My instincts screamed at me to run, to fight, to dosomething, but I stood frozen, rooted to the floor. His breath puffed over my cheeks, the rank odour smelling of spoiled meat and mouldy fruit.
I raised my chin, refusing to be defeated in this moment. My sister was safe. That was all that mattered. Biting my lip to keep from quivering, I stared into the hollow where his face should be. Defiant to the last, even if I wanted to throw up from fear or melt into a puddle of terror.
“I’m not here to end you Kitarni Bárány.”
Wilting in relief, I glanced at him curiously. “Then what—”
“Fate has much more in store for you, and I wouldn’t cross her path. She holds quite the grudge. I should know, she was to be my bride once.” His voice carried a hint of longing, and Death studied his bony fingers, cocking a head as he, presumably, regarded me once more.
I blinked. Death, one of the four horsemen, is stood before me, pining over a long-lost love who wants gods only know what. This couldn’t get any stranger. Taking a deep breath, I narrowed my eyes as the weight of what he said hit home. Fate? I hadn’t realised there was a spiritual entity threading the course of our lives.
Lifting my chin, I took a cautious step back from the entity before me. “If you’re not purging any souls tonight, why are you here?”
