Page 57 of Cursed Evermore
What if I had seen this ring? Telling her about the curse was as good as confessing guilt. Icouldbe guilty and not remember, so I needed more information before I dug myself a deeper hole.
“What are we doing here?” I tried to keep my heart and mind steady enough to focus.
“This is where the ring was last seen. Whatever happened to it, happened here.”
“Here?”
“Five years ago.”
My lungs locked and I grabbed my chest. The timing hit me, striking every nerve in my body. “Five… years? Oh Gods.”
Arielle's eyes sharpened, studying my reaction with newfound interest. “Elariya, can you tell me what happened here?”
“My father disappeared.”
Something flickered across Arielle's face, recognition perhaps, or intrigue. She leaned forward slightly. “Will you show me?”
“Show you?”
“I need to see inside your mind.”
“How can you see inside my mind?” I panted.
“It’s a simple spell. I just need to touch your head. I promise I won’t hurt you, and you’ll see what I see, too.”
My breathing evened out to a slower pace and I stared at her, wondering if I could trust her. I’d trusted Wolfe and look what happened to me. What if something worse happened?
“Listen, I know you’re scared. But if you want to get out of here, you have to let me do this.” She spoke with certainty. “Right now, I’m the only voice of reason on your side. We’re both mages. Perhaps you can trust that.”
I stared at her, weighing my impossible options. Gods. Could I even call them options? Everything felt bad.
Either I stay here and suffer, or I trust her.
The problem with staying here was I didn’t even know whereherewas.
The problem with agreeing was the risk of her finding out about the curse.
That left me with the best bad choice.
“Okay. Look inside my head.”
Arielle came closer and raised a hand to my temple. Warm fingers pressed against my skin, but I trembled against the shiver that rolled down my spine.
“This won’t hurt,” she assured me, pressing her fingers deeper into my skin.
“What will happen?”
“Think of it as a replay of the events that took place here.”
My insides squeezed. I was going to see my father disappear again, relive it.
She muttered a spell and released me, looking about us for something to happen. I looked, too. Then the sound of a horse galloping through the woods filled the air. Even before we saw it, I knew exactly where to look.
I turned to my left just as my father and his horse came into view.
That memory—of seeing him, of that sound—had tormented me for five years.
But this was different. I was facing my father again only days after a reset, when the curse left the memory feeling like an open wound.
