Page 91 of Curse of Thorns
I blink. Oh, we’re going there, are we?
“Not that I blame you. She’s quite attractive. I’d have bedded her myself if given the chance. I simply would have killed herafter.”
My stomach sinks, the breath leaves my lungs.No. No,this is not my brother.
I close my eyes but can’t get the image from the Orb of Terrors out of my head. Reahgan holding Caelynn down with his magic and touching her...
“How do I even know you’re my brother?” I spit.
He chuckles. “Sorry, brother. I forget you were always the honorable one. The bleeding heart, making friends with those of low birth and even the servants.” His smoky shoulders rise in a shrug.
“You weren’t like this,” I whisper. “You were...”
“Good?”
I nod.
“Perhaps. For a time. But it’s much easier to become a wraith than you’d think. If you continue focusing all your energy on your hatred for my murderer, you’ll find yourself joining me here in your afterlife. If you had died in the trials like he wanted, you and I would have been reunited several weeks sooner.”
“I don’t know if I believe you.”
He sighs, smoky arms flailing around as he spins. Reahgan always was the dramatic one. “Well, let me put it this way: would another wraith would put himself at risk to save you? I protected you against Father while I lived and against my own kind here, now. They’ll be hunting you, even now.”
“Then, why didn’t they follow us?”
“Because she is more important. You are a secondary mission.” He floats around the room like he can’t manage to sit still. “Their master has other plans for the shadow bitch. They are ordered to capture her and take her straight to the devil.”
“The Night Bringer?”
“Ha! The Night Bringer is not in this cursed place. He couldn’t leave if he ever entered. That’s the problem, you see.” He shakes his head. “No, the Night Bringer was your devil. The Night Terror is ours.”
I sit up straighter.
“One monster of ancient renown is inside the Schorchedlands. The other outside. And they will do anything to be together again.”
I blink and shake my head. There’s another one. I recall the voice that attempted to lure me inside the caves during the trials. How Caelynn pulled me back. That’s my only experience with the beings in question. But I don’t need to know more than that hypnosis, the cascade of dark power that held me captive for those few moments—and the look of fear in her eyes. Caelynn, my powerful and brave and bold shadow fae, is petrified of him.
And now, I learn there are two.
“Father must be so pleased that you made it inside these walls,” Reahgan chuckles. “You’re strong, brother. He wished you to be weak, but the more you proved him wrong, the angrier he became.”
The wraith drifts toward the bed and settles over it as if pretending to sit like a living being. He’s not alive. And yet, he’s here. His soul, trapped in this place.
“I’m proud of you, Rev.”
I swallow. “Is it really you?” My heart aches. I want it to be him, so badly. And yet, it boggles my mind. Maybe I shouldn’t wish it.
The wraith’s face softens if such an expression is even possible for a creature made entirely of magic. He places a smoke hand onto my forearm. “Look inside,” he says softly. “You’ll see everything you need.”
I turn toward his swirling body and look into the light at his chest. It’s bright white, like a pure ball of luminescent energy. The light swells and then covers everything.
I am a child again, running through the iridescent forest after my older brother, Reahgan. He’s so much faster. He slips through the trees and tricks me. He tosses a pile of glittering leaves over my head and laughs, running the other way.
I pull away from the wraith, blinking rapidly. My heart swells, feeling his essence.
It is him. This is my brother.
Bile rises in my throat.
