Chapter Sixteen #11
“Her very soul is a curse. An evil, horrid thing that sucks the light, and the warmth, and the joy, and the faemanity from everyone and all. That terrible, rotten thing that puts everyone around it through the same pain it goes through. Constance turned herself into the worst kind of beast to have love and power, so what do we who fall under its influence become?”
“Beasts,” someone whispered.
Bang! Bang! Bang! “You didn’t know that would happen when you ripped her soul out of her chest. But when you realized, you did the only thing you could, and ripped out your own.”
“What?” Aeris cried, helping Bradach to his feet. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying Alisdair never ripped out his heart. His heart never had anything to do with this, because it’s been here the whole time.” I paused only briefly, resting my hand on his scar. “It’s there, but it’s not beating. The body is just a vessel.” Bang! Bang! “For the soul.”
“Wait, wait,” someone cried. It sounded like Shadi. “I don’t get this. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“It does make sense. Constance was a soul eater, and her soul never stopped. The final stage of the beast curse isn’t turning into an animal.
It’s losing your soul. Alisdair ripped out his and protected it, so that he could never reach that stage,” I said.
“Over the centuries, the beast curse has ravaged and maimed him beyond recognition, but he retained his mind. He protected his true self. And he never stopped waiting for the sun to return.”
“But how... do you know all of this?” Foalan swayed on his feet.
“I know because Alisdair told me.”
Scoff. “Make sense, girl!” another voice put in. “You just said if he told you, then it’s not truth, because he can’t speak of his affliction.”
“What he did to Constance isn’t the affliction,” I snapped. “It’s what she did to him that is. You can exploit the rules of a curse if you’re clever, like telling a princess the names of your family, so you hold on to them just long enough.”
Whispers broke out behind me. They didn’t understand that last comment, and they didn’t need to.
“Alisdair could tell me about a horrible woman and the misery she spread everywhere she went. But he couldn’t tell me that misery took his soul, and turned him into a beast. Even so, he gave me the final piece of the puzzle, hoping my slow wits would put it together.
Argh!” I belted, hitting the stone harder.
“How the curse came to be, and how to break it.”
“Do you know how to break it!” a voice shouted.
“Of course, I do.”
Alisdair’s lips moved. I couldn’t hear him over the clamoring, but I thought he whispered, I love you.
“Well, it’d be more honest to say your soul gave me the final pieces. Hanging off my wrist, it beat that deceptive heartbeat in my ear when I thought fondly of you, pondered you, lusted after you, and loved you.” I laughed softly. “All the while, it was banging the truth into my head.
“If hatred ripped out your soul and turned you into a beast”—I cracked the jewel in half—“then only love could give it back. And I do, Alisdair.” Gathering the broken black diamond, I blew on it—sending all of my love with it.
“I love you too.”
Glowing, golden wispy tendrils rose from the jewel that wasn’t a jewel—enveloping his fur-matted limbs, curved fangs, black snout, and long, fuzzy ears.
His eyes snapped open.
“Alisdair? Alisdair!”
He shot into the air, toppling the throne and hovering above it. The glow swirled around him—faster and faster. Glowing brighter and brighter.
I reached for him, then clapped my hands over my eyes—crying out. Too bright!
Alisdair burned as bright as the sun itself. He was the sun itself.
Warm and protecting. Harsh and steadfast. The same sun that nourished the flowers in the meadow, scorched the desert soil.
He was maddening like long, summer days that beat on your neck while you wished for clouds and rain.
He was brilliant like those same summer days—spent laughing and splashing in the river with your siblings.
Like the sun, his soul was always there, always protecting me, always guiding me, always loving me. Even if some days, the clouds came between us. Alisdair never left me.
“Little bird.” He kissed me, trapping my gasp.
And he never would.
Hot, fiery, and passionate—our tongues tangled, battled, and curled around the other, no part of us ever wanting to let go. I moaned, throwing my arms around him. Alisdair, Alisdair, Alisdair! He was finally mine.
We broke apart, grinning into each other’s eyes. Our real eyes.
The real him.
“No horns,” I whispered. “No claws. No fangs. I did it.”
My love was whole and handsome. He once told me I would’ve fainted if I saw him as he was, and Meya, take me, I swayed on my feet—stunned not by the beauty of his perfectly sculpted face, but the way his true and genuine smile transformed it.
“I can’t believe I really saved you.”
His gaze traveled over my head. “Not just me.”
Foalan touched his handsome face—again and again. No matter how many times he did, the fur and snout didn’t come back.
Bradach spun in circles searching for the wings on his back. Gone.
“Eadaoin?” A tall, muscled soldier broke through the pack of joyous, tearful people, and stopped in front of a young woman with smooth skin, a pert nose, and full lips. “Wow,” he breathed. “You are... hideous without fur.”
“What! Keefe!”
Bursting into guffaws, he swept her up, spinning her off her feet. “I jest, my love. You’re the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen. And you always were.
“Marry me.”
Eadaoin hid her face in his chest. That didn’t stop me seeing her beaming smile. “Maybe,” she purred. “If a better offer doesn’t come along.”
“It worked.” I shrieked in delight, jumping up and down. “And— Wait!” I spun on Shadi. “Do you still have your magic?”
Twinkling, colored sparks burst out of her hand. “I would say so.”
“What about Riordan? Where is he?”
“Don’t worry. True healers came halfway through and took over. They heard someone screaming for help,” she said. “He’s going to be okay.”
“Of course he is.” I threw myself in Alisdair’s arms. “Because nothing can go wrong on such a perfect day. Make it more perfect by telling me everyone, everywhere, is truly free of the beast curse?”
“They are, Calli. All of Elva.” He nipped the tip of my nose—naughty to the last. “I’ve taken so much of her power within me, I gave more power to the beast curse infecting me.
I fed it. I helped it spread. But of course, if I was the cause, I was also the solution.
Freeing me from the curse freed everyone. ”
Happy as I was, I shuddered. “But what about the rose?” I whispered. “Shouldn’t we get rid of it now? It’s still a soul-sucking leech. It’s not safe to keep around, even if it’s locked in a tower.”
“I’ve wanted to every single day,” he returned, keeping his voice low. “But I couldn’t until the binding spell was reversed for every woman in Elva. Until everything she destroyed was put right. I needed her power for such a massive undertaking, and well...” He gazed around. “It’s almost done.”
“Almost?”
He captured my chin between two fingers. “Are you unbound?”
I shook my head. “Come to think of it, I don’t know if it freed Meli yet.”
“Then the work isn’t done. The good thing is now we know how to trigger the beast curse, and how to end it. You,” he whispered, stroking my cheek. “As long as your love protects my soul, the snow will always melt. The darkness will forever lift.”
“Alisdair,” I whispered, eyes swimming.
“If any woman out there is still bound, she need only come to us to be freed. We can control the curse now. We can—”
“Make it so no woman in Elva is ever bound again,” I finished. “And if they are, we can give them their life back.” I sighed, eyes drifting to the ceiling. “I just wish we didn’t have to keep that thing around to do it.”
“Constance has done nothing but spread evil and hate since she set foot on our land. Now she’ll finally do good for the people of Elva.” He smirked. “Which is what the deluded, would-be tyrant wanted, so what a fitting way for her to spend eternity.”
I laughed. “Sounds good to me.” I rose on tiptoe, eager for more of his lips on mine.
“Well done, well done.” A voice turned our puckered mouths toward the door. “You did even better than I knew you would, my lady.”
I stared at the woman, having no idea who she was, until six small baby cots floated through the air after her.
“Treasa?” I blurted.
She spun on her heels. “That’s me. I don’t normally acknowledge the part I played, but I have to say, I cried when the curse saved your mother. Life has pulled you all apart so many times, it tore my heart out that Meya should take her from you again.”
“Umm...” I blinked at her. “I don’t understand.”
“I do,” Alisdair growled. He was no longer a beast, but the threat was no less ferocious. “She did this.”
“Did this?” I repeated. “Did what?”
“I planted items marked with the Wind and Wild crest in your mother’s home, knowing that monstrous man would—well, do something monstrous.”
My jaw dropped. “You did what?!”
“I did as ordered, my queen. As your humble servant, I—” One of the babies started fussing.
“Oh, hold on.” Treasa floated their cot around, and picked the little one up—bouncing her in her arms. “Hmm. Where was I— Oh, yes! I got your mother and sister sentenced to execution because I had to give you a real reason to leave Lumenfell and Alisdair’s side,” she dropped—calm as could be.
“I noticed that after Raelina died, the curse worsened. It ripped through the land quicker than ever, and bled over the borders of Quatassa and Sarabai. Which is of course why I had to convince my lord that you died too.”
My eyes bugged wider with every word. “Treasa!”
“Yes, yes, I was surprised too by how quickly his despair spread like plague,” she mused. “You are his one true mate, my lady. Never doubt that.”