Chaos and Ash by Carrie Pulkinen

Author:Carrie Pulkinen [Pulkinen, Carrie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Carrie Pulkinen

CHAPTER TEN

The blood in my head plummeted to my feet. I held onto the counter and slowly made my way around to Ember. “What do you mean, I am the curse? What does it say?”

“She knew you would find it. Cinder knew you’d detect the spell.”

I clenched my teeth. “What does it say?”

She let out a slow breath and opened the journal to the first page. “‘Dear Ash. If you’re reading this, I never made it back.’” She pushed the book toward me. “Do you want to read it?”

I shook my head and sank onto the stool next to her, a sense of dread tightening my stomach, making me feel like I’d swallowed a brick.

Ember nodded and continued reading aloud. “‘I know you planned to organize the library in Dad’s absence, so I hid your favorite sigil book next to this journal in hopes that you’d find it should I go missing too. I really did leave in search of our parents. I didn’t lie about that, but there are other things you need to know. You and Ember.’ Hold on. I need a drink. Want one?”

I swallowed the dryness from my mouth. “Sure.”

Ember grabbed two beers from the fridge and popped the tops before returning to her seat. She took a long pull from her bottle and slid mine toward me. The icy bubbles loosened the thickness in my throat, but they did nothing to quell the sense of impending doom churning in my gut. Chaos hadn’t said a word, which was a very, very bad sign.

“‘Our parents lied to you about the curse. They lied to us all. Every High Priestess that came before Mom lied too. You aren’t the miracle baby she made you out to be. There’s a reason why you’re the only third daughter to survive. Mom didn’t have the heart to kill you.’”

My eyes blinked rapidly of their own accord. I took another swig of beer, but it barely made it past my throat.

Ember continued, “‘The curse wasn’t that every third daughter of the High Priestess would die in infancy. It was that she would go insane and murder everyone in the coven.’”

“Wait. What?” No way would I murder the coven. I loved our coven and most of the people in it. “That can’t be right.”

Ember gave me a sympathetic look and read some more. “‘I know it’s hard to believe, but mom showed me the curse. It was in the dark grimoire in the safe.’”

I shot to my feet. “This can’t be happening. I need to see it for myself.”

“Hold on.” Ember grabbed my wrist and tugged me back into my seat. “You need to hear the rest of this first. ‘The dirty secret of our coven is that if the High Priestess has a third daughter, she murders her. It has happened several times over the centuries, and the knowledge about the real curse is passed orally from the High Priestess to her oldest daughter. That’s why I now know.’”

Holy mother of magic and mayhem.

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