Reshina
Sleep took me, but not for long. I hadn’t been able to sleep more than a few hours at a time for a few centuries, and even though I’d been dragged into the Underrealm, attacked by creatures I had no knowledge existed, and had barely escaped the jaws of a monstrous Beast, I woke just two hours after my eyes closed for the night.
Dawn was approaching according to the tall clock near the fireplace. After preparing myself for my tasks of the day, I donned the single gown Piffle had left in the wardrobe.
It was a deep sapphire blue—a color I rarely wore, but I could at least pretend to like instead of one of those pink rosebud pieces he’d rightfully pulled from their hangers.
The neckline cut a square at my chest and the sleeves ended at my elbows, cascading into a black lace frill.
I yanked the corset ties out of the back, making space for my wings—another adjustment I’d have to mention to Piffle.
I shoved the strings into my pocket. For now, the top of the dress would stay, but I’d need Piffle’s help to add the strings back into their loops if I planned to keep the dress from falling off my chest throughout the day.
I pinned my thick black hair into a knot on top of my head, adjusting my crown of silver and black branches, and slipped on my black heeled shoes.
I wanted to find my way back to that staircase, investigate the black door, and find the library Arthur had mentioned—all before Piffle came to wake me in two more hours. I’d need to be quick and quiet.
Pressing on the door handle, it opened a crack before hitting something lumped behind it. Not furniture, but something with give. I shut the door, trying again with more force, only to hear a mumbling of curses on the other side.
With enough room to slip through, I frowned at the man lingering on the stone tiles. “Why are you lying outside of my door, Arthur?”
He wore the same clothing as the night before—ripped shirt, bare feet, bites turned to mostly healed bruises by Piffle’s attendance no doubt.
“I meant to leave before you woke,” he grumbled, sitting up and rubbing his face.
“That doesn’t explain why you are here in the first place,” I huffed. “Let me assure you, I am in no hurry to return to the western corridor anytime soon.”
He pushed on the door to stand upright. “It wasn’t that.”
I slipped my hands into the pockets of my gown—its best feature by far. I played with the corset strings and little vials of curses I always carried, my anger at my situation getting the better of me. “What then? Do you lack a bed in these tunnels somewhere?”
Adjusting his shirt and pulling at the tears, he hummed low. “Of course I have a bed.”
Getting nowhere, I changed the subject. “Piffle tells me I am only safe from the Beast if I’m here in the Underrealm. Is that true?”
“Piffle talks too much.”
“At least he talks to me at all.”
“Did you get my note?” he asked, ignoring my question.
“Yes.”
“And?”
I shook my head, turning down the hall, already done with him. “I’m not killing you, Arthur.”
His steps echoed behind me. “You’ll find it’s the only way. You have a family. Children. A life. I have nothing but this place. The sooner you choose to end me, the better the outcome for the both of us.”
I spun on my heel. “To take a life would be detrimental to mine. Even I have limits. I will find another way out.”
A muscle ticked across his sharp jaw, flexing the long scar down his face—something I’d been curious about since I first saw him.
“The only way you’re leaving here is by killing me.
Because we both know you’ll never say the words, ‘I love you’.
It will be a maddening next hundred years for you, Reshina. ”
“Your father did not live for hundreds of years before the curse was lifted from your mother.”
“My father was not bitten by the Underfae.”
“What does that mean?”
“It changed me,” he added casually. “Now turn around. I’ll string this for you.”
He pulled at the black corset ties hanging out of my pocket, turning my shoulders so my back faced him. I was too surprised by his insinuation to resist as I felt the tug of his fingers pulling the strings through the eyelets.
I looked over my shoulder to catch a glimpse of his bruises again. “You’ve been bitten by the Underfae before last night?”
“Yes. The first night the curse took me, I hunted for Ishtak, same as you. I would have been bled dry by those things if not for the Beast taking over.” With swift hands, he pulled and adjusted the laces, careful not to pinch my wings.
“But in the end, their bites changed me. Now I don’t know what I am. ”
I glanced at my arms. Not a single mark was left from the frenzy the night before. “I feel no different.”
“I don’t know if faekind are affected in such a way. Or if a Goddess could ever change. I only know that I have ceased to be human for some time now.”
“And what?” I huffed, allowing his hands to turn me again at the waist when he was finished. “You believe you’ll live on with this curse for centuries because you were bitten by those creatures?”
“Reshina,” he whispered, stepping closer, “I have not aged since that day.”
I quickly scanned him again. By my understanding, he should be through about half of a human life.
But he did not look it. Humans aged dramatically—wrinkling, slowing down—their few decades in this realm changing them so quickly, it felt like the blink of an eye before one passed over to the Veil and thousands more were born.
But Arthur didn’t look to have lived much beyond his fourth decade of life.
His forehead held a few lines from worry.
His eyes and mouth showed little residual evidence of a life of smiles and laughter.
He could be as old as I was when I stopped showing signs of age at thirty-seven.
It was a common time for faekind to cease aging until they reached over a thousand years old, something I would not achieve for a few centuries yet.
“These…creatures. You’re sure they’re Ishtak’s Underfae?” I asked with caution.
“I…” he began, swallowing in distaste. “I cannot say…particulars…”
Sighing, I shook my head. “Don’t strain yourself.
I recognize a Goddess’s bind when I see it.
I’d like you to take me to the library, but first…
” I looked him over again. Dark circles under his eyes told me he hadn’t slept much.
The slump of his wide shoulders confirmed it even more.
“I’d like to try to leave. Again. Before I commit to finding another way out of here. ”
A grin tugged on his lips. “What do you have in mind, Goddess? The Beast will always capture you before you leave the grounds. And he’s known for his insatiable desire for blood.
” He stepped even closer—close enough that I was forced to step one foot behind me to keep my balance.
“He is certainly yearning for a true taste of yours.”
“How does it work, exactly? If you’re locked in chains down here, could I get away before he could break through them? Could we try it?”
“Sure, I keep a set of chains in my rooms.”
I laughed. “Do you really?”
“No,” he said swiftly. “I left them at my home in Riche before my mother died and left me to become the Beast she hated.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Typical, for a son to blame his mother for something she could not change.”
“I don’t blame her,” he growled. “I blame you.”
“Ah,” I said, turning down the corridor. “A much better choice as I am used to the blame for the title forced upon me. As if I had any other choice but to deliver those curses.”
He dashed to my side, walking with me. “But your son bears the title of Cursebringer now. So you have done what my mother did. You’ve passed the burden onto your child.”
I shook my head. “Not that you would understand, but Korven took the title for himself. He trained for many years to take it in his sister’s place. He wanted it to save her from the burden.”
“Yes,” he grumbled. “He does play the overprotective part well.”
I stopped in my tracks. “You’ve met?”
He tilted his head side to side. “I like to think I aided him in pursuing what he truly desired.”
“You’re friends?”
He laughed, the boom reverberating in the hall and flickering the low candlelight. “Your son loathes me. That I am sure of. Almost tossed me out a window once.”
My frown deepened. “Well, regardless, it’s fine that you blame me. Hate me all you want, I—”
He darted in front of me, blocking my way. “I don’t hate you, Reshina. Blame and hate are not synonymous here.”
“I’d hate me,” I said softly. “I don’t mind if you do.”
His head shook slowly. “It’s more complicated than that.
Your deliverance of this curse altered the course of my life forever.
But I only exist because you delivered this curse.
I lived a full life before the call of the Beast took me.
” He stepped closer, towering over me and blocking the light.
“I am ready to die. I avoided trapping another down here for over a decade, but when I realized it was you…this is how the curse was meant to be broken. With your knife in my chest.” He laughed lightly.
“A sort of cruel twist on Cursebringer, don’t you think?
To first bring the curse and then be the one to end it. ”
“And what?” I breathed, easing into the space between us. “Am I to live with the guilt of taking your life for the rest of my days? Not to mention the punishment that would follow for stealing a life from the Veil before its time? I’m not your escape, Arthur.”
“I beg to differ,” he growled. His eyes were ice—such a cold blue, I swear I had not seen a color that could compare.
“Do it.” He jerked his head toward the end of the corridor where it met a forked path.
“Run. Let’s see how far you make it before the Beast cuts into your flesh and drags you back underground. Escape is not an option, Goddess.”
I shivered at the offer, something stirring in my chest at his words. “And if I do, you’ll stay here for as long as he lets you?”
“Yes.”
I stepped around him, heading down the hall. “I don’t know the way to the stairs.”
“Feel the pull. Know what you desire and the halls will show you the way.”
“Alright,” I said warily.
“Run,” he commanded again.
I shook my head with an easy grin. “No, Arthur, I shall fly.”
I shifted, soaring away, searching for that pull he spoke of.
The stairs, the stairs, I thought over and over, coming to the two paths. I veered right, not sure I felt anything in particular—it was just the first thought I had.
Not a sound came from behind me, and I hoped that meant Arthur would keep his word and stay in the Underrealm as long as he could. Surely the Beast could not catch a raven.
Surely, this was my chance at escape.