Page 13 of To Wake a Kingdom

“Oh, good.” Mare struck me with an ugly sneer. “I wanted you to be here to witness this.”

“Don’t do this. Leave her alone.” I pointed the dagger at Mare, my arm shaking like the pathetic thing it was. “Please, don’t do this. You don’t even know if her death will break the curse.”

“No, but I know keeping her alive won’t, since it appears she is incapable of undoing her own magic. Isn’t that right, my dear, idiot sister?” Mare gripped Kianna’s chin and lifted her head. Kianna let out a squeak, squeezing her eyes closed. With her other hand, Mare dragged a metal tip down Kianna’s smooth brown cheek.

“You were always the most pathetic one, weren’t you? Such an embarrassment. Such a tragedy. Your death is a chance I am more than willing to take.” Mare offered me a malicious smile before turning back to her sister. “You are going to make such a divine trophy. Perhaps, one day, I can collect the entire set.” Her hand levered up, poised to strike.

“I’ll go with you!” The words escaped in a thundering rush of ill-conceived intentions. Mare went still, arm halted in mid-air as she considered me.“If you give me time to break the curse, I’ll go with you willingly once it’s done. Please. I can’t leave them here like this. Let me wake them up, and then I’m yours.”

“No, Your Highness!” Kianna shouted, finally finding her voice. “You cannot!”

My focus on Mare, I ignored Kianna’s pleas.

“I give you my word.”My shoulders fell back, and my chin tipped up. I hoped I sounded surer than I felt. Mare’s expression turned inward as she tapped her chin with a pointed claw. “Surely a willing captive is much easier to deal with than an obstinate one? You’ve already waited this long. What’s a little longer?” I spread my hands in a helpless gesture.

Mare placed her hands on her knees and rose. A puckered scar ran across her chest. Red and angry, it had only partially healed. I reminded myself that whatever power she held, Mare could still be cut. At least Kianna’s magic had managed that much.

I met Mare’s gaze, trying not to tremble under her piercing golden stare.

“I do admit I am intrigued.Canyou find a way to break it?” She tilted her head and scanned me from head to toe. “Very well. You have exactly thirty days. Break the curse yourself, wake up your miserable family, and then you come willingly with me.”

“And you won’t touch Kianna. Now or then or ever.”

“Now or then or ever,” Mare mimicked, her eyes narrowing. “But don’t think you can trick me. I could kill her now and take you, anyway.”

I acquiesced with a small tip of my chin.

“We shall see what you are capable of, little princess.”

My lip curled as she took a step toward me, trying to force me back, but I stood my ground. A light winked in her eyes as if a thought as delicious as honey-soaked cakes had materialized in her hands. “And if you fail, I will not only kill her—I will kill every person who sleeps in this castle.”

“Why?” The word lumped out in a gasp and sagged to the floor.

She patted my cheek and gave me a simpering smile. “Because I can, my dear Thorne.”

My heart stilled in my chest, the air emptying from my lungs in a soundless scream.

What had I done?

Mare bared her teeth and checked an imaginary pocket watch, giving it a shake as if to spur a sluggish mechanism. “Tick, tock, Princess. I’ll be keeping my eye on you.”

Then, with a tight smile that didn’t reach her eyes, Mare disappeared into the air, and I collapsed in a shaking mess. Pressing my forehead to the ground, I wrapped my arms around my head as I rocked back and forth. I couldn’t breathe, my neck caught in an ever-tightening noose.

Kianna rushed to me, stroking my back with a delicate hand until I found my breath. Her voice was soft when she asked, “Why did you do that? You can’t go with her. Do you know what she’ll do to you?”

Abruptly, I sat up and turned a sharp gaze to the Fae. “I couldn’t let her kill you, could I?”

Mare’s last threat clanged in my ears like a dirge, a hammer smashing through the ephemeral future I’d constructed for myself. I’d thought this was a second chance for me. For all of us. My parents. My grandparents.

Every person I’d ever cared about was somewhere in these castle’s halls, and Mare had already taken them from me the day I’d been born. This was no second chance. It was just another curse.

How many could I endure before I crumbled to ash?

Kianna’s eyebrows knit. “You should have let her. That would have been easy compared to whatever she wants from you.”

“Then you would be dead, and she would still have taken me. What good would that have done?”

Kianna nodded, though I could tell she wasn’t convinced.

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