Chapter 22 #3
But my friends, no way. And if they did . . . the grief it would cause, to be betrayed like that. Water trickled down my arm as I lifted my hand up and scrawled a rune my mother had used on me as a child, one that lifted my hair and braided it around my head like a crown.
“And I’m sorry that you had such dog-shit friends . . . that put you in there.”
She recoiled, her remembered pain of their betrayal clear on her face. But when she met my gaze again, it wasn’t pain reflected there. It was guilt.
“It’s not like I’m any better.”
I cocked my head and studied her for a long moment. “You betrayed them, too?”
“No, I . . . ,” She smacked a webbed hand against her forehead and let out a low groan.
“I betrayed you, Harlow. When we made our deal, it was more than just a binding oath. I cursed you. You’ve been dying since the moment I tasked you to find the kraken coin.
Every minute you spend not searching for it makes the curse stronger.
You’re only going to feel worse as the days pass. I’m . . . I’m so sorry.”
But I barely heard her as the realization struck me like a ton of bricks.
It wasn’t the gate or Typhon that had cursed me at all.
Thinking back, the symptoms had been barely noticeable when I was actively looking for the coin.
“But why? I would’ve had to do it either way. We had a magical contract. We –”
She gripped a fistful of her own hair, her face twisting with pain.
“Being trapped here . . . it’s twisted me.
Made me bitter and untrusting. I’ve been full of nothing but hate after what they did to me.
” She spoke faster with each sentence that passed, looking more and more distressed.
“I looked at you as just an extension of them, but I was so wrong. You’re a good person, Harlow, I’ve watched you fight for your friends.
Taken blows for them. Do the right thing even when it’s hard and you screw it up. ”
“Thanks?”
“And I’d do anything to undo the curse now that I see you aren’t like those who hurt me. Except I can’t. And believe me, I’ve tried. I –”
“I forgive you.” The words floated from my lips before I’d even had time to think about them. But, as I reflected on it, I knew that it was true.
She cut off, reeling. “You what?”
I shrugged and held her stunned gaze.
“What you’ve been through . . . I get it.
Sometimes people lose their way.” I’d done some terrible things myself when I was in pain, scared, or feeling bitter.
Who was I to judge, especially when she was so clearly full of remorse?
“You can still make up for it. You’re a good person too, Calypso.
Deep down. Otherwise killing me wouldn’t bother you. ”
The words felt right. This was the person I wanted to be. The one I needed to be. Fable had forgiven me the same way, even after all the pain my father had caused her, and I would have to hope that Opie would give me the same grace when we reunited.
“I wish I was there with you right now . . .” I looked up at her, touched by the words as she extended a clawed hand, reaching out toward the space between us. “So, I could wrap my fingers around your throat and shake you until your head pops off!”
I drew back and blinked.
Well, that took a turn . . .
She balled her hands up into fists and let out a growl.
“How could you say something so stupid Harlow? I cursed you. You’re actively dying because of me, and all you have to say is ‘I forgive you’?
Is that what you’re going to say to Nocta, when you finally face him and he goes to kill you? I forgive you?”
Wow. It took me a moment to realize in her own strange way she was trying to help. “You think you’re training me now?”
She raised her webbed hands in the air, sheer exasperation, clearly. “Someone has to harden you up! You’re too nice! You’re going to get yourself killed! Look at me, I cursed you, and you’re being nice to me! Ridiculous! Idiot girl!”
I opened my mouth to respond, but she swiped her hand upward, magic buzzing at her fingertips as the image of her in the locket fuzzed and faded. The last thing I heard before it went black was a strained sob and a muttered repeat. “Idiot girl!”
Well, shit.
That had gone differently than I’d expected. And, as much as I wanted to call her back and yell at her, I didn’t have the time or energy for that. No, I needed coffee and to get a move on to the next item on the list of hellish things that seemed to grow by the second.
Dressing, I tried not to think too much about that list.
The curse.
Calypso saying that I would be stronger than Thalienne, and that Thalienne knew it.
The idea that people who were once friends could turn on you, and that it might even be warranted.
And wildest of all? That my father was part-Fae.
Nocta was part-Fae.
Maybe it hadn’t been my mother who’d given me this strength after all. Maybe her death hadn’t been because she hadn’t learned to use her magic?
With that much power inherent in him, how much harder would that make it to stop him? I was afraid to ask, because I had a feeling the answer would be the last thing anyone wanted to hear, least of all me.
Impossible.