Page 96 of Curse of Thorns
Reahgan drifts to the floor beside me, hands on my knee and face inches from mine. The smell of burnt flesh fills my nose. “I can cure you,” he whispers seriously. “I can break the bond.”
My eyes fly open. “What?”
“The bond is simply a spell. And it can be broken.” He rushes over the words like he’s just figuring this all out along with me. “You can be free of this spell she has on you. You’d be able to see so clearly then!”
My stomach sinks. I don’t want that—do I? My feelings for Caelynn are so complicated it would be nice to be able to sift through them easier. Butbreakingthe bond?
“You are so easy to manipulate, and she’s doing it to you now. I won’t let them win this game just because of your sappy feelings that aren’t even authentic.”
“This isn’t a game, Reahgan.”
“To them it is! They want to destroy us all. And they’re moving naïve and ignorant living fae—like you—around like fucking chess pieces. It’s masterful, really.”
I don’t know what to believe. His story fits.
But he wants to kill Caelynn because he thinks she’s going to help the Night Bringer destroy the world.
“Even if all of this is true, Caelynn would need to cast the spell. She won’t do it.”
“That’s what you’re putting your bets on, Rev? That your sweet fated mate will refuse to do their bidding? How do you think I died, Rev? She killed me to complete a bargain she made with them!”
“What did you do to her?” I say as those images play through my head again. Caelynn held down by my brother’s power. Nausea rolls through me.
While he was alive, I’d always hero-worshiped my brother. So much I hadn’t seen the cruelty in his eyes.
But I see it now.
“Before Caelynn killed you. What did you do to her?”
“Ha!” he spits. “I did nothing to her.”
“I saw you.” I stand. “You held her down.”
“She was an assassin! A spy sent to kill my little brother. What did you expect me to do? Pour her tea? No, I was going to do whatever was required to get answers from her.”
“You enjoyed it.” It feels right, this realization. He’d always liked causing others pain. He reveled in it. The way he picked on me wasn’t just a big brother teasing his sibling. He loved it. He liked seeing my tears. My pain.
“I didn’t do anything. The bitch broke free of my holding before I had the chance.”
I shoot a blast of white-hot power straight into the wraith’s chest, and he crashes through the far wall, wood splintering. Anger fills me, and I charge my brother.
