Chapter 20
Magic can do many things, but it can never bring someone back from the dead.
LEMPICKA
“Lempicka… save me.”
The voice ripped through the night, tearing me from sleep like a gong reverberating inside my chest. I bolted upright, breath short, my heart pounding against my ribs. A sugary sweat pearled on my forehead. It was impossible. Yet, I had heard it.
Nyla.
I threw my blankets aside, strode across the room, and yanked open the heavy curtains. Outside, the mist wavered between the trees, thick and impenetrable. But in the distance, a wavering light pierced the fog, pale as a moon’s reflection trapped in water.
A silhouette. A woman with short hair, white as snow against the forest’s darkness. A hand stretched out toward the manor. Toward me.
“Nyla,” I whispered, her name slipping from my lips.
I seized my lantern and, without a sound, hurried down the stairs, careful not to wake my companions. The manor groaned with the bite of the wind, its pipes rumbling like a distant avalanche. I pushed open the front door. A blast of icy air rushed in at once, biting my cheeks.
“Lempicka…” The voice floated to me, like a lullaby.
My step faltered. The air grew heavy. The fog thickened, clinging, seeping against my skin like a living thing.
“Nyla?” I breathed. “Where are you?”
My throat tightened as I advanced, fighting against the mist that clogged my lungs. Then I saw her. A tender smile. Clear eyes, half-closed, as though they held an infinity of stars. It was her.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” Nyla said softly. “Come closer. We’ll be a family again… You, me, and Aignan. Like before.”
I rushed toward her, terrified she would vanish again.
Faster. My feet sank into the mud, the forest clung to me, brambles tearing at my arms. But I didn’t care.
I had to reach her. Behind me, the manor faded into the mist. Red eyes blinked between the trees, retreating into shadow. Even the Spirits fled that night.
But me… I didn’t stop.
“Nyla!” I cried.
My mentor stilled. One hand was outstretched, calling me closer. “I missed you.”
A sharp pain twisted my chest. I wanted to believe. By all the confectioners, I wanted so badly to believe. My trembling fingers brushed her outstretched hand. “You came back… The witch was lying. You’re here. You’re not—”
My lantern slipped from my hands, shattering on the ground. Darkness swallowed me whole.
“Pathetic. So gullible,” a warped, raspy voice sneered.
The vision shattered into a thousand shards, reforming instantly into a frog that croaked weakly. Then, in a sickening crunch, a boot crushed it without mercy.
I lifted my eyes. A man emerged from the trees, a twisted smile tearing across his face, as though his flesh struggled to contain what he had become.
He reeked of corrupted magic, a metallic stench saturating the air around him.
And his eyes, not only those anchored in his face, but the ones opening and closing along his throat, his arms, his clavicles.
Slitted pupils, glowing yellow, writhing like a swarm of restless insects.
A Cursed sorcerer, likely fed by sucremort.
A chill climbed my spine. I staggered back, but it was too late.
A black root shot from the ground, coiling around my ankle and hurling me violently to the ground.
My head struck the damp earth, and pain exploded behind my eyelids.
Crystallized sugar burst from my body, glittering in the dark grass.
“Tell me how to enter the manor,” he commanded. “This barrier keeps me out. How do I break it?”
“Never!” But my defiance rang hollow. The fear in my voice betrayed me.
The sorcerer knelt beside me. “So rebellious.” His voice slid into me like frost beneath the skin. He leaned closer, his foul breath brushing my ear. “My orders are clear. Zelda wants you dead. And who am I to refuse my queen’s wish?”
I choked. He wasn’t alone. In the shadows, two Cursed stretched tall, their silhouettes melding into the treetops. Their flesh was nothing but parched skin, marred with gaping scars and swollen, pulsing welts, oozing a dark liquid that dripped onto the moss with a sickening sound.
Where their faces should have been was only a black void. No eyes. No nose. No ears. Just a mouth—vast, grotesque, gaping down to the chest, filled with twisted fangs, yellowed and slick with thick saliva that dripped in long, viscous strings.
And as if the nightmare weren’t enough, they each held a leash. At the other end, smaller Cursed crawled like feral dogs, monstrous hybrids between hyena and reptile. Horror froze my spine, but I locked my gaze onto the sorcerer.
“There is only one person I would ever let kill me if I were to fail,” I whispered. “And it isn’t you.”
I wanted to live. More than anything. I prayed the Spirits had warned Arawn, and that the mist was signal enough. But for now, I had to stall.
“You think he’ll come for you?” the sorcerer sneered. He circled me slowly, tracing an invisible ring, a predator savoring his prey. “For a mere human? You think he’d choose you over Zelda? You’re nothing but a replaceable pawn.”
My heart clenched. His venomous words sank in, laced with a curse spun to break me. Believe in yourself, Lempicka. Believe in him. You are not weak, you are not alone, you are not—
“What a lovely curse,” the sorcerer hissed, lips stretched into a reptilian grin.
His bony fingers pressed to my throat, tightening, cutting off my breath. Agonizing pain flared under my skin, spreading like wildfire. Where he touched me, dark stains bloomed, stretching into venomous filaments.
“You’ll be magnificent once the rot consumes you.”
No one would mourn me. A tear slid down my cheek.
I didn’t want to die. I just wanted… to be loved.
For someone to stay. My heart trembled and cracked.
A fissure, sharp, cold. Maybe my death would fix everything.
Arawn would live. Nyla would no longer be disappointed.
If this was the price to protect those I loved, I would pay it.
But not like this.
Not at the hands of a monster.
A sharp shiver climbed my throat like a blade of frost, as if even my bones refused to yield. Then, grain by grain, the sugar in me hardened. Razor-sharp. Transparent. Crystal born beneath my skin, rising as a barrier between him and me.
“You’re wrong.” I smiled despite the burning, acidic tears streaming down my cheeks. “He will come.”
The sorcerer jerked back, his fingers twitching as if burned. His eyes narrowed.
If I was to give my heart, it would only be to one person.
A sound split the night. “Lempicka, don’t listen to him!”
A freezing gale tore through the mist, and an unyielding grip wrenched me from the void, lifting me out of the sorcerer’s reach. Arms held me tight. The familiar scent of eucalyptus and bark erased the metallic stench of corrupted magic.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered against Arawn’s chest, my fingers clutching his coat instinctively. “I thought it was her. I’m so stupid, I—”
A gloved finger tilted my chin up. His eyes were storm-filled abysses, dark, deep, unshakable. A quiet rage still smoldered there, but it wasn’t aimed at me. He studied my face with such intensity that it froze me in place, as though to make sure I was truly here.
“It wasn’t Nyla. The sorcerer used your fears, shaping her image from Zelda’s memories.”
I blinked. How did he know Nyla worked for Zelda? How did he know her name? I didn’t remember ever telling him.
Arawn lowered his head, his forehead brushing mine. “I’m the one who should apologize. I made you wait too long.”
I pressed my hand to my chest. He had come for me. And he wasn’t even angry. Not the cold, cutting Arawn I knew. No. He seemed… different. Less distant. Less unreachable. His breath was uneven, his brows drawn. Something inside him was faltering.
Without another word, he turned, coat snapping behind him. He placed himself before me, a wall between me and the sorcerer with his Cursed.
“You dare profane my lands? Look at what you’ve become,” he growled, voice cracking like thunder. “What illusions has Zelda promised you to reduce you to this?”
The sorcerer sneered. “We are her apprentices. We want what she gave you.”
Arawn let out a humorless laugh. “My curse? She lied to you. Zelda wants to replace me with pale copies. You have no control over your magic. Those around you have already lost their will, and soon, so will you.”
“Show me your true form,” the sorcerer taunted, a twisted smile curling his lips.
“Let’s see if you’re strong enough to defeat my Category Eight Cursed and me.
I always wondered if the legend of the bloodthirsty beast with monstrous horns was nothing but a lie.
Especially now that you’re a vegetarian. ”
Grotesque laughter echoed through the forest. Arawn ignored it, his blazing gaze turning back to me. “Run to the magic barrier. They can’t cross it, so you’ll be safe.”
The wind rose suddenly, a storm growling in the sky.
“But…” I hesitated. Crossing Arawn’s barrier would drain his strength. He was stubborn, and he hadn’t eaten since the market. His magic would fade fast.
“Do as I say!” he roared, his voice cracking like a whip, laced with barely contained fury.
Ink-black streaks seeped from his hair, dark violet veins crawling across his skin.
I spun on my heel, heart hammering, and sprinted toward the manor.
My skirt tangled in my legs, and I forced myself forward.
But I had only gone a few steps when arrows hissed through the night.
Arawn moved with inhuman speed, swatting several aside with a flick of his hand.
But not all were aimed at him. One sliced through the air, straight toward my chest.
Before I could scream, the arrow buried itself in Arawn’s arm. He had moved too fast for me to react, too fast to shield himself. His coat, torn, revealed flesh beneath, bleeding with a dark liquid. The venom seeped into the fibers. A foul stench saturated the air. Acid. Poison.