Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
H e dropped me off in a cave in a hidden grove up on a high mountainside.
Through my cloud of pain, I watched him turn away without a word, spread his wings and take flight.
I’d caused him to go too far. What was stopping him from leaving me for good?
I deserved it. I thought I might help him, and all I’d caused was… this.
A short time later, Vaelor returned with a female demon. She had small goat-like horns and a woman’s top half, but underneath her skirts, I made out furred legs and hooves. “Hello, Denara. I’m Resha. I’m a healer and I’ve come to treat your leg.”
She did a quick examination. I cried out when she touched it. “Here, take this,” she said. “It will help with the pain.” She popped the lid on a small vial filled with a silvery-looking liquid.
Before I had the chance to reply, she shoved it in my mouth and I took a gulp.
“Human bones are weak, but they also don’t require long to heal.
The fact that you are a hedge witch helps.
With the right ingredients, your power will help you recover.
” She pressed some weed bark into my hand.
“Chew this twice a day and you should be healed within two days. And here is a blanket to keep you warm.” She handed me a bearskin blanket.
Before the pain medicine kicked in, she was gone, and so was Vaelor. When he returned, relief curled in my chest.
“I’ll be nearby,” he said, but then turned away, Lanzin’s dark wings spreading. “I simply… need some time.”
Somehow that caused me to feel worse instead of better. Every day for the rest of his life he’d be reminded of the horrible sacrifice he’d made for me. How could he ever forgive me for this?
His mate. The revelation should mean everything, and yet, it only tied Vaelor tighter to me and his pain.
He was bound to me, but didn’t want to be.
I might have discovered a torture worse than being abandoned.
But that was it, wasn’t it? I was cursed just as badly as Vaelor.
Every bond I formed, I found myself ruining—with my horrible father, my mother who had to kill him and leave to protect me, my brother whom I was unable to protect.
And now Vaelor, who gave his all for me and will forever remember everything he lost when he saw his reflection.
Being with me, being near me, was a curse.
I was the curse.
The next day, I woke up and found berries and cooked fish waiting for me.
During the day I read through the hedge witch book, searching for spells that could break Vaelor’s curse, but it was hard to concentrate with my mind always wandering to the woods, wondering where Vaelor might be and how he might be feeling.
On the second day, I chewed the last of the plant the healer had given me. My leg felt good, so I unwrapped it and bent it. A soreness moved through my joint, but other than that, it was healed. Gods, demon remedies were far and away better than human medicine.
Vaelor staggered out of the woods. I searched his body, but there were no fresh signs of wounds. Only an emotional devastation that went so deep it nearly broke me in two.
This was what I had done to the once proud and determined demon lord.
He fell to his knees.
I rose, forcing my healing leg beneath me, and rushed forward, slowly sinking to my knees in front of him. He leaned forward, burying his head in my hair, and I wrapped my arms around his body, holding him against me.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured. “I’m so sorry, Vaelor. All of this is because of me. You gave up so much and I—I wish you hadn’t.”
He jerked back to look at me, an anger sparking in his eyes. “What do you mean? You wish I had let you die? Are you that ungrateful?”
“No!” I ducked my face into his shoulder to hide my shame. “The sacrifice you made for me… I—your brother—I’m not worth such a heavy price.”
He drew a nail under my chin, tilting my face up to his.
“You listen to me. Don’t you dare think there is something wrong with you or that you aren’t worthy.
After I lost my mother, my wife, my child, my sister, I was nothing.
I was dead inside—the only thing keeping me going was my people—my people who I know now were already dead.
But you, Denara, have brought me to life.
You may have killed my body, but you’ve brought my soul back from the dead.
You’re worth every sacrifice, every scar, every cut. ”
Tears stung my cheeks. His words struck me to my core, my heart lifting in a manner it never had before. If there was a way to break a curse, it was in the how Vaelor was looking at me. “Do I mean that much?”
His cool fingers moved against my cheek, brushing away my tears. “If I had to do it again, I’d do it and more to make sure you lived one more minute of life. I’d sacrifice every life, go through any pain just to watch you draw one more breath.”
“But why?”
“Don’t you know what you are to me? Don’t you know what we are? You’re my spark of life. I thought if I sent you away you’d be safe from me. But it’s too late. No matter where you go or what you do, my heart will be forever lost to you. I surrender myself to you, Denara.”
I pulled his face to me and kissed him. Our lips moved together. I expected it to feel different somehow, but it didn’t. His hands roved over my body. Gods, this male. This demon male I had once believed was a monster like other demons… was so much more.
He drew back, dropping his forehead to my own. “Is this all right? My body—it’s not what you’re used to.”
I touched his jaw. “I don’t have any qualms about you touching me.” I looked into his eyes and saw Vaelor. My demon. “I see who you are.”
He kissed me again, hard, and I melted into his grasp. “You are mine. We were always meant to be,” he said in a low voice. “It was my fault to send you away. You and I, Denara, are written in the stars.”
“You mean like destiny?”
“Erlinen didn’t hear the exact wording. There is more to the curse. More you don’t know.”
I sat up straight. “Tell me.”
“The specific phrasing was this:
All whom you love shall fade from your grasp,
claimed by fate’s cold and unyielding hand;
each bond will wither, each heart be lost,
until you walk this world alone and damned.
Yet one shall come, your fated mate?—
her blood like roses upon your breath;
through her, your curse shall break or bind,
and set your course for all your days?—
to endless life… or final death.”
I sucked in a breath. “So we are mates.”
“Fated before I ever met you. Before I even died.”
That was the reason Vaelor hadn’t killed me after he tasted my blood, why he could possess me without it hurting. It was why he was able to touch me whenever he pleased, and the cause of my persistent urge to stay near him.
“And yet you pushed me away,” I said, a little accusingly.
He stroked my cheek, his other hand at my back, holding me close.
“The curse didn’t say whether you’d live or die.
For all I knew, you’d set me on the course and then die, or even worse, your death would put me on the path I’d need to take.
From the instant we met, death and danger seemed to follow you everywhere.
And since it was a curse, I only ever imagined the worst scenario.
At first, before I knew you, I couldn’t have cared less should you meet your end.
But now, it is the most terrible thing I can imagine.
I’d forego everything to keep you alive.
I’d remain cursed. I’d push you away and lose the chance to see you again if it meant you lived. ”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked, softer.
“At first I didn’t want you to know what power you could wield over me.
I was only keeping you around for your potential to break the curse.
But after I started to care, I—well, I was resolved against giving you a reason to stay.
” His powerful jaw clenched. “But I see it is too late. I have feelings for you, so whether or not you are with me, you may still die. The only way I can try to prevent that is by remaining near you.”
“You thought you could play by the rules and you would be safe. But it doesn’t work like that. A curse doesn’t care about rules.”
His hand against my spine curled inward, gripping the fabric possessively. Gods, I loved his touch.
“You play outside the lines, Denara,” he said. “I can’t work within the system and protect you.”
“And yet you are bound to Spiritu Malignos.”
“I am. So you see, I am damned no matter what I do. I can’t make you leave, and I can’t keep you close in the end. What am I to do, Denara? I’ll do whatever you say.” Gods, his gaze was fixed upon me with such hope and expectation.
“I don’t know. I don’t… Wait.” I extricated myself from his grasp and hurried over to my book.
Bringing it back, I flipped through the pages—toward the back of the book until I came to the right one.
“It won’t help us with Spiritu Malignos, but it might undo the hedge witch’s spell.
It’s a ceremony between two mates that can break a curse.
It might work. But we have to be sure we are mates or… ”
“Or?”
“The couple dies.”
“I suppose for me that would mean turning into nothing. You did notice there was the entire part in the curse about leading me to final death.”
“Or that I might bind the curse on you for good.” I chewed my lip. “If you don’t want to?—”
“Our fated bond was so strong it carried over into death. Even Throk had never heard of such a thing.” He urged me closer and grazed his lips against mine. “I’m sure of who you are, now more than ever. If this breaks curses, then I’ll do it.”
Even though I had barely found out about us being mates, it felt more right than anything I had heard.
I doubted only my ability. I would have to be positive we followed the process exactly, or the magic might reject us and we could die anyway.
“It is… intense.” I turned the book facing him to show him the very intimate images penciled on the page.