Chapter 24
I blinked my eyes open just in time for a hand to cover my mouth, stifling my scream.
A hooded figure stood above me, their features hidden in shadow aside from eerie silver eyes. I choked on a cry as they pushed harder against my face, my heart pounding in my throat.
“Shh, pet,” a voice hushed. “Are you going to scream if I release you?”
A memory flashed of disgusting, cold skeleton fingers grabbing my chin and silver eyes ringed in violet outside my room at the castle.
Carrow.
Terror overtook my body as I desperately scratched at his hand, trying to free myself.
Where was Rhydian? The fire was down to embers, which meant he’d been gone a long time. And how had Carrow gotten past the magic barrier Rhydian had put around the shack?
“Be a good pet and stay silent,” he ordered, then the weight of his hand disappeared from my mouth. I sucked in a long breath, willing my trembling body to still.
Carrow straightened to his full height—he was freakishly tall—then threw back his hood, those strange eyes boring into mine.
“Carrow,” I managed to whisper.
His lips split into a wicked smile, and I half expected to see razor-sharp teeth glinting in the dim light. I swallowed hard as the violet ring in his eyes flared.
“I’m flattered you remember me, pet.”
That nickname instantly made bile rise in my throat. “What are you doing here?” I asked, though my voice was barely audible. I pushed myself to a seated position, glancing around again. “Where’s Rhydian?”
“Oh, don’t worry, your beloved beastie will return soon. I needed a word with you.”
I fought a shudder at him calling Rhydian my beloved beast. The only real beast here was Carrow himself.
“With me?” My hands shook in my lap, and I pushed them together to stop it. Much like with my father, I refused to give him my fear. I wouldn’t give him any more power over me than he already had.
“Yes, you.” Prince Carrow turned around and stalked to the fire, sending it roaring with a wave of his violet magic, much larger than what Rhydian had done. Carrow faced me again. “Rhydian is planning something, and you need to stop him.”
The words went in one ear and out the other. “How did you get in here?” I demanded.
“Focus, pet. There’s not much time.” Carrow seemed like a master at keeping his expression neutral, but for the quickest second, I saw a flash of trepidation cross his face.
“What are you talking about?”
“Has your precious Rhydian told you Avalea’s history yet? Particularly about the beasts of Eroth and Nefaroth?”
My heart stuttered. “Yes. What about them?”
Carrow’s lips split into a sneer. “I’m assuming he didn’t tell you the whole truth.”
“What are you talking about?” I repeated, wishing he would get to the point.
Where was Rhydian? Why had he been gone for so long?
“Rhydian wants to awaken the beast once more. That’s why he’s so desperate to break the curse.”
“He told me about this already.” I scoffed, pretending I wasn’t afraid. “He said breaking the curse might release the beast, but that it was the only way to save Eroth.”
Carrow’s smile had goosebumps rising on my arms—and not the good kind.
“Of course that’s what he told you.” Carrow ran a hand over his slicked-back hair. “Rhydian is a dangerous Fae. He wants to rule Avalea himself, and releasing Kharos is the only way to do that.”
“You’re telling me that the only reason Rhydian wants the curse broken is so that he can wield the beast to rule Avalea?”
Carrow’s face relaxed, pleased that I understood.
I tried to reconcile what Carrow was saying with what Rhydian had told me.
Rhydian hadn’t kept the existence of the beast a secret, and yet he also didn’t tell me this.
Who was telling the truth? I had a hard time believing that Rhydian could be that…
cruel, and yet a part of me felt compelled to believe what Carrow was saying.
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked.
“Because you’re trying to break the curse for him.” He knelt in front of me, and I wished I could squirm farther away from him. “If you break the curse, Kharos goes free.”
“I know, he told me that, but he also said it was worth the risk. Rhydian said breaking the curse would bring Eroth back to life, that it would help everything.”
His smile was a dark, cruel thing. “Rhydian has a nasty habit of lying, pet.”
My first instinct was to deny his words. I found myself wanting to believe the best of Rhydian. Even though he had kidnapped me and brought me here, he had still protected me thus far. He might have been unwilling to be forthcoming with me about a lot of things, but I hadn’t taken him for a liar.
Could Carrow be the one lying? Trying to confuse me? Or had I pegged Rhydian wrong from the start? An unexpected sadness made my bones feel heavy at the thought.
“Why are you really here, Carrow?” I finally asked. Though the potential answer frightened me, I dared to add, “Are you going to kill me so I can’t break the curse?”
The Prince of Nefaroth pushed up to his feet and stalked back to the fire. “No, pet. I’m not going to kill you. Not yet anyway. But you are going to do something for me. Something that will save Avalea.”
I waited, my gut sinking.
“You’re going to fail at breaking the curse—on purpose. These tasks he’s having you do, pretend you’re unable to do them, lie, fake it. Whatever it requires.”
“Why should I listen to anything you’re saying? Why should I believe you?”
Something about his words didn’t feel right, but I also didn’t know Rhydian well enough to tell which one of them was telling the truth. Would Rhydian be so bold as to release an ancient beast to take over this world? Or was Carrow lying to me, trying to get me to fulfill his own selfish agenda?
I had no idea, and that left me scrambling over what to do. The roaring fire heated the cabin to an uncomfortable level. Sweat beaded on my forehead, sliding down my spine.
Carrow’s silver eyes sharpened. “You want to go home, don’t you?”
His reply was a shock, making my stomach sink while igniting a glimmer of hope.
“What?”
“Do as I say, and I will send you home.”
He said it like it was the easiest thing in the world. It couldn’t be that simple.
“But Rhydian said humans can’t leave Avalea.”
“Another lie, pet.” He rolled his eyes. “You humans are so gullible. Of course there’s a way for you to get home. Rhydian simply doesn’t want you to leave because then you can’t free the beast.”
I blinked repeatedly. Could Carrow be telling the truth? What if he wasn’t lying? Was there really a way for me to get home and Rhydian had lied about it to keep me here? At the mention of getting back to my family—and having it be a certainty—I felt compelled to believe Carrow.
I had to be sure though. “If you’re telling the truth, then how do I get home? I won’t agree to anything until I know for certain there’s a way.”
Carrow’s smile was a mix of irritated and obliging. “A portal. There is a portal that will send you back to whatever sad world you came from. My magic will allow you through.”
“Like the one he used to bring me here?”
Carrow nodded.
“Does Rhydian know? Does he know he could send me home with his magic?”
Carrow’s hesitation was so brief that I might have imagined it. His fingers fiddled at his sides before he answered. “Yes, but like I said, he will do anything to keep you here. To break the curse.”
I blinked at him in surprise. Rhydian had been able to send me home this entire time?
If he’d lied about being unable to send me back to Minnesota, was Carrow right that he was also lying about his true motives for breaking the curse?
Or was all of this an elaborate scheme that Carrow was spinning to get me to agree to his plan?
“Why don’t you just send me home now?” I asked, the sudden desperation to see my family like a vise gripping my throat.
The shadows beneath Carrow’s eyes darkened, making his skeletal frame seem even more reaper-like.
“Because I will never miss an opportunity to bury Rhydian.”
A strange, protective feeling roared to life in my mind at the threat against Rhydian. “But—”
Before I could say anything else, Carrow suddenly stood straighter, and glanced toward the door.
“My time is up, pet. Remember what I said. Don’t break the curse.”
And then in a flash of violet, he was gone.
***
When Rhydian returned, mere seconds after Carrow left, I was shaking once again, even though the cabin was now unbearably warm.
At first, he paid me no mind, shucking off his boots and removing his thick coat, hanging it on a nail next to the door.
I was thankful that he didn’t look at me right away so that I had time to force the fear from my face, try to stop the shaking of my hands.
I only hoped his magic was still depleted enough not to feel my terror.
When he finally looked at me, Rhydian did a double take. I was curled up in a ball in the corner of the cot, wisps of hair covering my eyes. His own eyes narrowed and flicked over my features, like he knew something was wrong, but couldn’t nail down what it was. Sweat dotted my face.
Rhydian’s brow twisted as he looked at the suddenly roaring fire and waved a hand at it several times, his shoulders tensing at each failed attempt, before gold light finally burst forth and calmed its rage.
“What’s wrong?” He knelt in front of me just as Carrow had, yet that feeling of terror and dread in my stomach I’d had with the Prince of Nefaroth was absent. It made me more confused because if Rhydian was the liar that Carrow claimed, surely I’d feel as uneasy with him as I did with the prince.
I hated that Carrow dangled going home in front me like a carrot. Breaking the curse for Rhydian had the potential of sending me back, but Carrow claimed that if I didn’t break it, that he would get me home for certain.