Cursed by Alexa Egan

Author:Alexa Egan [Egan, Alexa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy
Goodreads: 18164454
Publisher: Pocket
Published: 2014-03-31T00:00:00+00:00

7

The view beyond the window was as gray as his thoughts. A dour rain-soaked landscape, the moors shrouded in fog. Heaving himself from bed, Sebastian hobbled to the armchair by the fire. His ankle had mended, thanks to Katherine’s healing gifts, but it remained achy in the damp weather. It was the less tangible injuries, unresponsive to Katherine’s Other magic, that truly unsettled him. The whispers invading his dreams to the point where sleeping more than a few hours at a time was impossible, the frustrating blanks in his mind as if parts had been scraped away only to be replaced with dark and terrible memories that were not his own. After two week’s recovery, he might be healed in body. His soul had not recovered as completely.

“Lucan is gone.” Duncallan leaned against the door frame. “That’s the second time he’s done that to me. Up and disappeared in the dead of night. You’d think I’d be used to it by now.”

“Perhaps it’s for the best. The Kingkiller wouldn’t be an easy companion. There’s too much hate bound up with his presence. Too much misery. What does Gray say about it?”

“After the initial shock when I told him, very little. I’d have been happier if he’d raged at me for keeping such a secret. At least I’d know how he really felt. These unnerving silences of his just leave me walking on eggshells. One of these days that iron control is going to snap … and the gods help us when that happens. We’ll be picking up the pieces.”

“So says the heedless care-for-nothing who’d rather thumb his nose at the world than follow the rules.”

Duncallan smirked. “Being a good boy is highly overrated.” He straightened from his post to drop back into a chair, arms folded as his gaze traveled over Sebastian with a searching look. “But I think you know that as well as I do these days. Duty is well and good, but not at the cost of what—and who—is most important.”

Sebastian’s chest tightened as he sought to still the voices in his head; though these were not the ghosts of the Naxos hive but his own conscience. His mother would be furious. His family outraged. Society agog.

He didn’t bloody care.

A smile curved his mouth and lifted the oppressive weight of the grim day from his shoulders. Now he just had to convince Sarah not to care, either.

*

Sarah held the gold disk between thumb and forefinger as if it might bite. Forgotten until now, it gleamed dull in the flickering light of the fire, the inscriptions rubbed almost invisible. Why had Christophe hidden it? Was it a keepsake from one of his murdered brides? A token of the Naxos? The only one who might know the answer was dead, the truth with him.

“What’s that then?” Hester asked.

Sarah closed her fingers around the disk, the edges biting into her skin. “It belonged to the prince.”

Hester snorted her scorn. “Another shoddy bit of broken jewelry he tried to pass off as some ancient treasure, no doubt.

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