Chapter 29
Chapter twenty-nine
Sofie
The day I lost Jax was yesterday and weeks ago all at once.
Every day, I rose and reviewed my training on curses. Every day, I met with Master Aynia.
Every day, there was no change in my husband, who’d almost drowned in the bay after my sleeping curse overtook him. Even now, the splinter of wood from the pier was lodged in his finger, refusing all attempts by the healers to remove it.
Every day, I wondered how this could’ve happened.
I was supposed to be a master of curses.
They were my specialty. I was the caster.
So why couldn’t I remove this sleeping spell from Jax?
And what did it have to do with the ring still stuck on my finger?
I had gone from being afraid to try removing it to testing it every hour.
Even now, it would not slide over the joint.
After a week without progress, Master Aynia fetched me and brought me to the restricted section of the Library. There, we settled into one of the enchanted reading rooms, designed to protect the readers from any harm contained on the pages.
We read about death magic, the very stuff the Bride had used to curse Jax and his crew. And so it was I learned of my mistake.
My sleeping curse had been warped by the more powerful magic already placed on Jax. That was the backlash I had felt after casting it. A piece of the Bride’s curse still lived in him thanks to me, bound up in the curse I’d angrily cast on him the morning after we’d wed.
Our studies took another week—long enough for unexpected visitors to arrive at Dewspell’s gates.
My vision was blurry from hours of reading when a paper messenger bird summoned me from within the Library. Master Aynia had to read it for me as I fought to re-focus my eyes.
“Your parents are here,” she said, sounding as surprised as I instantly felt.
“That’s impossible.” I cleared my throat, then said it with more conviction, as if that would change anything. “That’s impossible!”
Master Aynia shrugged. “We do the impossible here every day. Why shouldn’t your parents have sailed from Aegle? And it looks as though they’ve brought friends.”
“But how? The naval blockade is still keeping any ships from entering. Did they slip by somehow?” They were good enough sailors to do it. But something told me the navy of Endergeist wouldn’t have been that easy to get by—something like the three dozen mages that were estimated to be on board.
The last ship that tried to sail by them was at the bottom of the bay, the merchants now captives of King Venet of Endergeist.
“I’ll keep reading,” Master Aynia promised. “You need a break anyway.”
She wasn’t wrong. Still, I couldn’t stand the thought of not doing something to clear up my mess. And since all attempts at negotiating with King Venet had failed, and Jax still lay in the healing ward next to a slowly mending Oasis and Omar, his body as still as in death…
I couldn’t picture a worse time for my parents to finally show themselves here. Not once had they both come to Dewspell. Not even when I graduated!
As the note promised, they were waiting for me in the visitors’ lounge, along with a score of anxious merchants whose ships were trapped in the bay.
When I walked in, I found my parents a little grayer than the last time I saw them, and as industrious as ever.
“Of course we can get you out,” my father said, shrugging out of a fur lined vest that was unsuited to the season this far south. “The same way we got in.”
“But how?” the merchant pressed.
My mother gave him a forbidding look, her shoulders flexing in a way that drew attention to the axe on her back.
The merchant backpeddled so quickly, I’m surprised he didn’t fall off his chair. “Ah, yes. Proprietary knowledge.”
“Do you want to hire us or not?” my father demanded, before my mother nudged him. His face lit up, no longer forbidding as he noticed me. He switched into our northern tongue at once. “Sofie, my girl! How good it is to see you!”
Vester Ul’Garen was the only person I’d ever met who was taller than Jax. The moment he stood, he seemed to fill up the room—what space my mother didn’t occupy by sheer personality, that is. Her personality, of course, was terrifying.
My father scooped me up in a huge hug, while my mother remained at a distance.
“You don’t visit enough,” my father whispered.
“I think mum prefers it that way,” I whispered back.
I chanced a glance at her, the child inside of me still worried she’d heard.
My father raised his voice to booming. “Nonsense,” he said, to my horror. “Your mother is very proud of you, even if she can’t quite get over that you’re not a shield-maiden.”
I offered her a weak smile. “You’ll be pleased then, mother. At least I’m a captain’s wife now.”
“Captain Bluebeard,” she said with distaste. Slowly, she made her way towards my father and I, her armor and weapons clinking. “You’re lucky you aren’t dead. They say he murders all his wives.”
“Not true,” I said, keeping my voice as even as I could beneath her ice-blue glare. How had that news reached Aegle already? “I’d introduce you to him, but he’s cursed at the moment.”
My mother’s usual steely gaze flickered. My father laughed.
“I’m sure he deserved it,” he said.
“He didn’t. What are you doing here?”
“We came to help, of course,” my mother said stiffly. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Half the fleet is waiting at the river. We’ve taken over a small town and rode their horses here. We’re ready to break the blockade with the rest of Carabosse.”
“You—what?”
“You bested the royals of Endergeist with your magic, and now they think they can retaliate?” My mother seemed to grow larger. “No one makes demands of a daughter of Aegle! More than that, no one touches my daughter.”
My eyes widened, my mind whirling too fast to let my mother’s protective, almost proud words sink in. “Say that again?”
But no matter how many times I heard it, the fact remained:
If I ever woke Jax, I’d need to apologize for underestimating him again.
“Five pirate ships,” Headmaster Wolfe repeated, stunned, “and three dozen Aeglean raiders.”
I nodded, seated politely while the headmaster paced, her stack of bright purple hair bobbing at each turn.
“How long before they can be in place?”
“They’ll be there by morning,” I said, wincing. “I asked my parents to wait until I spoke to you, but they were…disinclined.”
We don’t take orders from Dewspell, were their exact words.
Headmaster Wolfe didn’t even seem to notice. “Thank the gods that are left, now we can get the queen off our backs. I tell you, Sorceress Dar’Vester, I’m not sure we could’ve held out much longer. I’ll summon the deans and masters at once. We’ll have a proposal of mediation ready by then.”
“Actually, headmaster,” I said, summoning my courage, “I would like to make an offer to King Venet myself.”
The truth was, I’d already sent that offer via paper messenger bird. The king wouldn’t accept it—but by morning, I had reason to believe he’d change his mind.
My parents were right. It turned out I didn’t take orders from Dewspell anymore, either.
“What sort of offer?” the headmaster asked, her full attention on me like an owl watching a mouse.
I’d always been a little afraid of Headmaster Wolfe. Now, the only thing I truly feared was staying Dewspell’s villain forever.
“After extensive studying with the help of Master Aynia,” I said, “I’ve decided it would be within the bounds of my role as a balancer to modify the curse I placed on Princess Auravelle.”
Her eyes narrowed. “That’s unacceptable. Until we can track down the rogue fairy godmothers who so selfishly bestowed her with gifts, the princess must remain cursed as she is.”
“I disagree.”
“Godmother Dar’Vester, you are sworn to be a balancer and to conserve the fragile magic we have left—“
The description of my duties was the last thing I wanted to hear. I knew the words well enough on my own. I could recite them in my dreams. I sometimes did.
My duty was the shield I had hidden behind for so long. Now, my choices would be my own again.
“I gave my resignation to Master Aynia earlier this afternoon,” I said. “Villainy should always be a choice, Headmaster. I’m choosing not to be the villain anymore.”
Headmaster Wolfe froze. “Your position has nothing to do with villainous intent…”
“What does the intent matter, if the result is the same? I’ve been too careless with my magic. Even now, my husband is paying the price for it. The least I can do is stop it from harming someone else. But don’t worry, headmaster. The curse will remain.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What, then, are you proposing?”
“An escape clause,” I answered. I couldn’t help the quiet smile I wore. “There is always another way.”
That night, I returned to the healing ward. The alterations I’d proposed to Princess Auravelle’s curse had given me an idea. A desperate one, but just in case…
Just in case, I stood beside Jax’s bed where he lay frozen in time, doomed to eternal slumber. Of the two of us, I was the one who was meant to be doomed. He was always meant to walk away.
I didn’t want him to walk away from me. I didn’t know what my future would look like now that I was no longer a fairy godmother of the realm.
I didn’t know if my new life would grow too boring for Jax, or if our feelings despite the trials we’d been through really were proof we’d live happily ever after. But it was worth the risk, loving him.
When I spoke, I kept my voice to a raspy whisper so as not to awaken Oasis and Omar, both resting in their beds on either side of Jax, their faces smooth where once they’d been strained by pain even in slumber.
Just an hour ago, I’d sent a paper messenger to Safira, letting her know Omar was finally awake, if only for a short time.
Omar and Oasis both had a long recovery ahead of them. But they would recover, even if they weren’t fit to raid ships any longer.
My heart fluttered as I pictured a new life for them and for me. One that had the man in front of me in it.
I bent down close to Jax’s ear. “I choose you,” I whispered, “over treasure, over glory, over status, over power, magic and my own foolish pride. I choose you every time, just like you chose me, even if I couldn’t see it.”
Then I shifted so that my hair fell over his face, a shock of color next to his graying skin that should’ve been a rich brown. I was ready to complete the kiss that our curse had so rudely interrupted.
For when all else failed, said the fairytales, true love’s kiss would save the day.
As I bent closer, Jax’s eyes fluttered open.
“Now here’s a welcome sight,” he croaked, the color rushing back to his wan cheeks. His brows bent in confusion. “You weren’t about to kiss me without permission, were you, wife? What villainy!”
I pulled back sharply, tears dotting my eyes. “Jax,” I breathed. “I wasn’t—I thought, before—“
Jax’s hands gripped my shoulders, pulling me down towards him as he lifted his head from the bed. Our lips met, sending a flush of heady feeling through my body. And while it wasn’t what broke the last of the Bride’s curse, it might as well have been.
It was a kiss that felt like my favorite thing in the world: magic.