Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 186911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
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.”
My mind twisted into knots putting the scale of her manipulation together. “You! It was you in the square! You sent the mob here?”
“Nope, that was my daughter. Firstborn,” she explained. “She was born six hundred years ago, and has lived with her father outside of Lumenfell, and the curse. My first husband also hid and protected her, so she’d never be forcibly bound. Fortunate for she grew into a prodigy. She claimed the gift I gave her, and then surpassed me. Truly, she is a wonder.
“Anyway,” she breezed, still sounding like we were having a fun conversation about Elvan beaches. “I told her she had to keep sending people until she was sure she sent you. Thankfully, you caught on quickly.”
“And the flowers?” Alisdair barked. “How did you get so many of them!”
“Those flowers can pop up farther than you know when you perform great magics, my lord. Whenever you missed one, or more, I helped myself.” She shrugged. “Never knew when it may come in handy, and this time it did.” She beamed. “Lit a fire under our lady and she—voila!—broke the curse! Huzzah, huzzah! What a great day for Elva.”
Every soul in the room gaped at her in disbelief.
“Treasa,” I said slowly. “I don’t think I like you very much.”
She laughed heartily. “I did ask you if you were willing to accept the consequences of spreading the curse faster. I do regret the lives that were lost today,” she said, losing her smile. “I never wanted that, nor do I take it lightly, but freedom is everything. There is no life without it. So, thank you, Queen Callidora Cursebreaker, High Lady of Wind and Wild. You saved us all. Long may you reign.”