Chapter Forty-Three
Aidan's spirits were low. He didn't think he would ever grow accustomed to attending one of Meical's allegedly communal feasts, and this one was particularly gruesome.
A fight broke out between two brutes, resulting in one repeatedly stabbed in the guts.
The screams eventually died, but blood continued to drip down on an already scarlet stained floor.
There was a time when Aidan would have been queasy. Now, despite his sticky throat, he forced himself to swallow an overly seasoned piece of meat. As the corpse was dragged away, he briefly wondered if people in the Curselands resorted to cannibalism.
Meical's dark expression was due to the absence of his sister rather than murder. "You said that she would be here!" he snapped to Cal.
Cal shrugged. "I conveyed your warning, but her actions are out of my control."
Meical gave Aidan a baleful look. "You should be the one fetching your wife. If she won't come willingly, you should make her."
Aidan picked up his goblet of wine. "Law of the Beasts. We all do what we want."
Meical gave him a sidelong glance. "Indeed."
Then, quicker than Adan could comprehend, an explosion of pain rocked through his hand.
Meical had grabbed Aidan's hand and crushed it.
He used Curse Magic, the force like a warhammer smashing his hand.
Aidan opened his mouth to howl in pain, but Meical moved his hand to his knee and clutched it tightly.
"Don't say a thing," Meical said in a nonchalant manner. "We wouldn't want the beasts to realize you are weak prey."
Aidan grunted, attempting to keep his pain stifled. A tankard blocked the sight of his hand from most, but Keeva, Nyx, and Bradon had a good view of it. Bradon shifted uncomfortably, and Nyx just took a long drink of her wine.
Keeva gave a merry wave to a few people who were singing a ballad about dismembering people in the Starlands.
Meical pulled out a dagger and started cutting into Aidan's mangled hand. "This is what will happen," he said in a low voice. "You are going to put on a glove, go up to your room and drag Carys down here. Then, and only then, I will give you a healing potion."
"It seems you needn't do such a thing, dearest," Keeva said sweetly. "Lo! Here comes your wayward sister now."
Meical slid the tip of the dagger under Aidan's fingernail and ripped it off. "Aye, there she is," he said. "Any later and you would have lost all of them."
Aidan looked up through tears of pain. Carys had appeared at the entrance. Marching forward with a purposeful stride, she forced herself between Meical and Aidan, took one look at the damaged hand, and discreetly ripped the bloody dagger away.
"I would clean that off before using it to cut meat," she said blandly.
Aidan wanted to clench his hand and scream in pain. Instead, he clenched his teeth and called for Spiky. The Curse Creature couldn't kill his pain, but the Curse Magic did a good job of burying his ability to care.
Unfortunately, the pain was so much that it ignited the other side of Curse Magic.
Viciousness.
He was overwhelmed by the urge to stab Meical's eye. Hoping to calm himself, he glanced at Carys, only for unquenchable fury filled him. None of this would have happened if not for her.
The fury scared him, and he tried thinking of anything else. But the only distraction that came to him was the image of kissing Carys.
Aidan just wanted her.
Pushing aside that uncomfortable thought, he stiffly turned to Meical. "Carys is here. Can I have the healing potion?"
Meical tilted his head as if contemplating the request. "No."
Pain increased his rage. "Do you want me to serve you with a ruined hand?"
"Of course not," Meical said. "You will sit here and take it like a man for the rest of the feast. That is the consequence of not making certain that Carys arrived on time."
"Blood Dragon's sake, Meical!" Carys said testily. "That's hardly a punishment for me."
"That is Aidan's punishment for not being stronger. He should have stopped me," Meical said. "And I will deal with you later, Nightshade."
Carys poured some wine as if it was no matter to her. "I think you shouldn't forget that you've need of Aidan and I. You are wasting a lot of his precious blood."
"I am not worried about either of you." Meical settled back in his seat. "Neither of you is strong enough to oppose me, but neither of you is weak enough to perish."
The feast couldn't end fast enough for Aidan.
Meical had Aidan put on his black leather glove, and the warm, hot material rubbed against his wound.
If that pain wasn't enough, Meical also forced Aidan to use the hand.
At one point, Aidan's anger got too much, and he struck the first fool who approached to make a lewd joke about Carys.
When the interminable feast ended, Meical handed a potion to Carys. "Do be discreet with this potion, Nightshade."
Carys held up the vial of silvery substance. "I believe I made this potion for you. Giving something back is a poor Winter's Dawn gift."
The words broke through Aidan's senses-shattering pain. Winter's Dawn. His damnation had been seven months. It seemed too short and too long, all at once.
"That's for Aidan." A dangerous smile crept upon Meical's face. "I've a much better gift for my sister."
Carys showed no reaction as he handed her the dagger used to remove Aidan's nail. "I've plenty of daggers."
"This blade was sanctified in the Blood Dragon's entrails." Meical took a drink of wine. "It cuts through enchantment."
Carys examined the dagger and then hurled it at Keeva. Meical's hand shot up, catching it by the blade. "I'd prefer you not to skewer my intended, Nightshade."
"You broke my husband's hand and attempted to skewer it," Carys said sweetly.
"Can you cease this dragon shit?" Aidan hissed. "I need that potion."
Carys tilted her head. "Don't be so eager. It won't kill the pain. The pain will stay with you as long as it would take for the wound to heal naturally."
Aidan forced down a scream. "Then what's the point?"
"You'll still have a good hand," Nyx said. "And the longer you wait, the more damaged it might become. That could cause greater pain."
Aidan grudgingly swallowed the potion, bitter greasiness lingering in his mouth.
A wrenching sensation shot through tendons and bones, almost as painful as his hand shattering.
The pain was so great that he couldn't tell if it worked.
Taking a deep breath, he slid the glove off.
Carys shielded him so that no one would see his weakness.
Dried blood stuck to his stiff hand, and pain continued hammering him.
But his hand was healed. He flexed his fingers and touched the untouched skin in wonder.
"Can anything get rid of the pain?" Aidan asked with gritted teeth.
"There's always a way with Curse Magic," Keeva jumped in. "Kieran used to transfer his pain to other people. You merely need to pick a victim and perform a bit of sacrifice magic."
Aidan wanted to smash his painful hand against the table. Why did everything always come back to death with this magic?
Meical snorted. "Kieran was weak indeed if he couldn't stand a little pain. I've drunk of that potion many times, but I seldom send away the pain. I took a sword to the thigh some time back, and the pain still eats at me."
"Aye, you are indeed dauntless," Carys said, mild sarcasm threaded through her words. "Now I've made an appearance at your wretched feast. May I go?"
"Give your husband a kiss." Meical's soulless eyes trained on them. "Winter's Dawn tradition."
Aidan would rather take the dagger from Carys and stab Meical. But he knew there was no choice.
He never had any choice.
Aidan turned to Carys. Usually, she balked at these public mummeries, but this time she grabbed onto him and kissed him with passion.
His internal numbness was difficult to maintain with the pain raging in his hand.
Fire surged through his hand and his spirit as he kissed her back.
Like partaking of the sweetest poison, he knew it would hurt him later.
But he couldn't stop himself. If there was ever evidence he was rotting from the inside out, it was his pleasure at caressing her lips and inhaling her scent.
It took all his self-control to break away from the kiss.
Foul jests erupted from Meical's followers, but it didn't matter.
All that mattered was how much he wanted to kiss her again.
She looked almost as beautiful as on the night of the Doom Ball.
Her burgundy gown didn't have the sweeping skirts of the last one, but it was low cut and alluring.
"We should retire now," Carys said emotionlessly.
She never showed any reaction. Aidan wished Curse Magic had that effect on him, or at least worked faster.
Carys took his hand, the bad hand, and marched him out. They made the long, lonely journey to their chamber. Aidan just wanted to sleep, even if his dream was haunted by blood and death.
Ordinarily, Carys hid behind her dressing screen while Aidan tried to fall asleep. This time was different. She went straight to the small box of Aidan's belongings.
Aidan cleared his throat. "Don't I get any privacy?"
"No dear heart. We're married."
Sarcasm, or any humor, was new to Carys. Unfortunately, the barbed sense of humor reminded Aidan too much of Meical.
"Let go of that!" Aidan said sharply as she opened the box.
She held up his bag of sleeping herbs that he managed to obtain from the Bloodwitch. He never bothered to take the sleeping herbs, even though his sleep was so troubled. He didn't care if she knew about the herbs, but rage kindled at her touching his only belongings.
"Let go!" he snapped.
She pulled out a bag of black petals. "Deadheart. The killer of love."
Aidan marched over and snatched it from her. "That is mine."
"Were you thinking to get around the curse?" She brushed her hair back. "Do you know how much it will hurt when Deadheart wears away?"
"How would you know?" His spite demanded release. "When have you ever had any feelings that you need to kill?"
She stared at him, black eyes as unnerving as when they first met.
"It was when my mama tried to kill me. Meical gave me a bit of Deadheart.
I never thought I had much feeling at all.
..until the Deadheart wore off. I felt like fear was choking me from the inside out, anger burning at my mama, shame smothering me for being so weak, and deep, dark sadness. "
Aidan flinched. Gil said that Carys only understood painful feelings, but that she also understood love. Perhaps the painful feelings were connected to love. Carys' mother had tried to kill her, and her brother had risked everything to save her.
"I pleaded with Meical to give me more of Deadheart." Carys set his box down. "He refused, saying that too much of the potion can turn you into a monster worse than a Curse Creature. Someone who wouldn't hesitate to rip the heart out of the one that they love the most."
He exhaled. "I'm not going to take it. I just wanted to know that I had the choice. I could have freedom one day. I feel free when I channel Curse Magic."
She nodded. "Deadheart is the purest essence of Curse Magic. When you invoke Curse Magic, you find some numbness from emotion. Deadheart takes it all away. For a time. Then it comes back."
He closed his eyes. "I'm not stupid. I know it was only a temporary solution. That is one of the many reasons that I couldn't use it. The strongest reason is that I don't think I can lose you."
When he opened his eyes, a strange look greeted him. The black covering her eyes almost seemed to flicker. Then everything faded from her face, as though she consumed Deadheart.
"You are going to have to take Deadheart."
Aidan's hand instinctively clutched the Deadheart potion. "I beg your pardon?"
"You are going to have to take Deadheart," she repeated. "So that you may be released from perdition."
"No!"
Carys sat down on their, her, bed. "It is the only way you can be free."
Aidan's wraith erupted. "No! I won't have you die just to be free."
She drew her knees up. "I won't have to die at all."
He frowned. "What do you mean?"
She hugged her knees, burying her face into them. "You can go back to the Starlands." She lifted her head. "And I won't have to die."
"You are speaking nonsense," Aidan said firmly. "I cannot return to the Starlands. If we part, you will die. Deadheart might spare the one that I love the most, but it wouldn't spare you or me. If we part for too long, we will both perish. My loved one would survive, but we would both die."
"We shan't die."
His heart threatened to leap with hope, so he crushed it down. "What do you mean? Will you break the curse?"
"I cannot ever break the curse." A sad smile touched her lips. "Yet when Kieran first sent you back to the Starlands, we were apart for too long. We both should have died."
His hands trembled a bit. "Then did the curse break on its own?"
"No." She shrugged. "Of course not. But there is a way around every curse. You exploited that at the Doom Ball to destroy Kieran. Now we will do the same thing. The greatest jest of all is that it is all Meical's doing."
"Meical?"
Carys extended her hand, and he slowly moved over to her. His fingers laced around hers and she clutched his hand. "The Curse Ceremony. We exchanged blood, and the magic keeps the blood within each other evermore. We can be parted, but we will never be apart."
The pieces slid together. "Because I carry you within me, I can travel far away, and the curse will never activate?"
Carys nodded grimly. "That is one thing that my brother never considered. And he thinks himself so smart."
The room spun. Part of Aidan wanted to go running for the nearest Jumping Portal, but he continued gripping Carys' hand. "So I can go home?"
"You can go home."
He swallowed, resisting any joy. Hope was as likely as snow in the Curselands. "But why would you want me to go? What about your plans?"
"We are healing the Curselands, but it is merely empowering my brother. My plan was to live under the sun." Her hand shook. "That will never happen now."
"But we could still make the Curselands better..." Aidan started to argue.
"We're still monsters down here, even with trees and carrots." A terrible shudder ran through her body. "The truth is that I've known for quite some time that we could part. Only now, I've reason to act on that knowledge."
Aidan let go of her hand. "You knew for a while and didn't tell me?"
"I thought we could make this place better. But it's not worth the cost. Do you know what Meical means to do? He is studying Jumping Portal magic and intends to summon a great number of them. He sent someone to the Starlands to make the preparations for the worst spell of all."
"Worst spell of all?" Aidan rubbed his head. "What...hold on! How could he send someone to the Starlands? The curse would kill them."
"Not if they are someone who never used Curse Magic." Carys clenched her fist. "Someone dwelled in hell and never succumbed to it."
Aidan scrunched his face, ready to remind her that he did succumb to hell.
His heart sank when he realized she wasn't talking about him.
"Gil?" he whispered.