Page 14 of Ruin
He sat on the end of his bed. “You’re a natural.”
I held my hands behind my back, fumbling my fingers. “The curse was confirmed.”
“By whom?”
“No one important. All that matters is I’d been made to look like a beast to the world, and until you, I had no idea.” I inhaled sharply. “Every time I’ve seen my reflection, I’ve hated myself. I am the embodiment of a monster.”
“Oh, Evangeline.”
“Don’t pity me.”
“But I want to.” He had kind eyes, the type that made a small part of me want to let him.
“Tell me. How do I remove it? You’re a faery. You must know.”
He looked up at a gold lamp that hung between two pictures, one of boats on the sea by the castle, the other a wood, with knights riding through the trees. I wondered where his mind had gone as he stared away blankly. “A curse can only be undone by the one who cast it,” he explained. “To rid you of it, we first must find who placed it on you.”
I tapped my finger against my chin. “The only ones I can think of who would do such a horrid thing to me are my family, my father in particular. He hates me.”
“No man can hate his own childthatmuch.”
I swallowed hard. “You havemetmy father, correct?”
He chuckled. “I see your point, but, wait.” He stood, then pulled out a chair for me to sit on.
I took my seat and he took my hand in his. Kneeling in front of me, our gazes locked, and I’d never felt so vulnerable.
“I’m sorry, Evangeline, that you have had such a lonely life and have been betrayed by your own blood. Nobody deserves what you have had done to you.”
I touched the side of my neck. “I deserve it.”
“I do not believe it.”
He had such light in his eyes, and he had been the first to see it in me. I couldn’t tell him the truth; I was a murderer. I may not have been ugly on the outside as was perceived, but on the inside, I was the wretched thing I’d been cursed to be.
“Help me,” he said, breaking me from my dark thoughts. “If not to start a war, then to release my people from the dungeons. Take the Sword of Impervius from your father. You know it is the right thing to do.”
“The only weapon that can kill a fae,” I stated.
He shook his head, then stood. “Not the only thing, but one of two. There is a dagger that exists too, but it is under our protection.” He paced in a circle, holding his hands behind his back. “Kai created the five objects to being balance to the world. Immortality cannot truly exist. It is against nature. When we were created, so were the weapons that could end our lives.” He looked down at his hands and the rings that shone from his fingers. “It is a mercy. No one should be made to live forever.”
“He has three of the five. There have been whispers that he has been searching for the other two. Don’t you understand what will happen if he finds them? He will become invincible.” Caspian looked manic, even with the shadow over his face. His back faced the window, the sunlight surrounding him like a bright aura. “He is an unjust man—cruel, as it shows by what he did to you, his own daughter. He will hunt us. Bring the fae to our knees.”
I pressed my hands together, then rested my chin on the tips of my fingers and let out a long, weary breath. “I am not an advocate for how the king rules. In fact, I oppose his means. However, I cannot condone your people’s weakness. One sword can’t slay you all. With a little organization, you could fight back. You have the numbers and the ability to heal yourselves, and you can’t die. Don’t you realize the army you hold? The numbers we have, the vast armies, are nothing but a delusion. We are mortal.”
His lips parted, then his jaw slacked. He stared over the top of my head for a good minute before blinking. “You’re right.”
A part of me wished I hadn’t enlightened him. I could have started a revolution, although their fatal flaw wouldn’t allow it. They were the definition of chaos. Starting a war wasn’t in their blood nor was violence.
“We do not wish to engage in battle unless absolutely necessary,” Caspian said quickly, solidifying my thoughts. “You do, however, hold truth. All we wish to do is keep our land and take our people back from where they have been mercilessly held.”
“How did you know?”
“You think my king does not have spies here at court? Not all sorcerers hate us.”
I curled my lips together, behind my teeth. “I will help you get them away and remove the sword from my father’s possession.” I held a finger up, pausing him. “But I will not hand it over to your king. I will keep it, lock it away…”
He stopped pacing and sighed relief. “I am in your debt, Evangeline.”
