Natural disasters have tripled in the last fortnight,” Elaine tells me as we walk toward the atrium together, her brow creased in concern. “It’s never been this bad, Theon. With each passing day, I grow more worried. It is almost as though the curse knows you’ve married the empress, and I’m unsure if the resulting rise in incidents is a good sign or the opposite.”I think back to my conversation with Arabella last week and shake my head. “I’m not sure, either,” I admit. Arabella and I have been working together to research the curse and any potential powers she has, but we’re both coming up empty. “I’ve consulted Pythia, and she insists that it’s Arabella who’ll break the curse, though I’m still unsure how.”My mind drifts to the way my wife looked when I explained the true union aspect of the curse, essentially insinuating that we should sleep together even if it’s just to rule it out. She looked apprehensive and unwilling, to say the least.I’ve been giving her some space, ensuring I don’t come to bed until I’m certain she’s asleep so as to not overwhelm her or push her away, but each night, it becomes a little harder to stay away. I’ve never craved intimacy, yet falling asleep next to her has been surprisingly soothing. Every morning, I wake with her in my arms, caught in a web of limbs and long hair. She holds me a little tighter when I attempt to pull away, her lips pressed against my neck, my name a soft sleepy whisper that inevitably makes me stay in bed longer than I should. My empress is enchanting me with one single word, one that’s reserved solely for her. My name.“It feels intentional,” Elaine says as we walk over to the training grounds. “The incidents are taking place at opposite ends of the empire, almost as though to spread our army thin. I’m concerned for the empress’s safety.”I shake my head in reassurance. “She’s safe here at the palace so long as she doesn’t enter the east wing—you know that as well as I do. If she leaves at all, it’ll be with me.”Elaine nods, but I see the concern written all over her face. We’ve never had a real chance at breaking the curse, and I know she’s scared our one and only opportunity will slip between our fingers.Elaine continues to update me on the state of our empire’s affairs, but all I can focus on is the vision in black ahead of me. Something dark and primal rushes through me each time I see Arabella in clothes that are clearly designed to complement mine, even though I know it’s the palace providing them for her, and not something she’s chosen of her own accord.noveldramaI watch as Arabella studies the roses climbing on the palace walls, her eyes filled with sorrow. She’s been different in recent days—kinder, more patient. She’s even smiled at me a handful of times as we pored over books together to find ways to draw her magic out, and I was shocked to find she instantly became even more breathtaking. When she smiles, her eyes soften and twinkle beautifully, and her head falls back just a touch as she looks at me.“You’re smiling at the sight of her,” Elaine says, sounding elated.“I’m not,” I lie.She grins and steps back. “You should go to her. It looks like she might have some questions about the roses. No one knows more about them than you do.”I throw her a good-natured glare before I walk over to my wife. Arabella looks up, our eyes locking, and then she does that thing again—she smiles at me. There’s no longer any hostility in her eyes, and though it isn’t a huge change, it feels like it is.“Felix,” she calls, her voice so melodic and sweet that I can’t help but smile back at her. “Felix!” she calls again, panicked this time as she throws her hands up. I look up just as shards of ice dislodge from one of the palace’s towers, large icicles headed directly for me, only for them to remain suspended mere inches above my head. “Thank the Fates,” my wife says, her hand on her chest. “Thank the Fates you caught that.”I raise a brow and shake my head. “That wasn’t me, Arabella.”“Wh-What?” she stammers, confusion flickering through her eyes. Moments later, the ice comes crashing down, and I grimace as it cuts my skin, blood splattering everywhere before my body has a chance to mend itself. “Felix!” Arabella screams, pure horror ringing through her voice as she runs up to me.I grab her arms and force myself to smile through the pain. Just because my skin heals itself doesn’t mean I don’t first feel every bit of pain I otherwise would’ve felt. “I’m okay,” I reassure her. “I’m okay, Arabella. Make sure you don’t touch my blood—not under any circumstances. I’m uncertain why it didn’t burn you last time, but I’d rather not risk it.”“I’m sorry,” she repeats, over and over, tears streaming down her face. “This is all m-my fault. I’m s-sorry, Felix. I didn’t… I should’ve t-told you the t-truth.”“What truth?” I ask, my tone gentle as I transmute my blood off my skin and the snow, and far away from her.She looks at me with so much remorse in her beautiful eyes that all I want to do is pull her close. “I-I’m c-cursed, Felix.” She begins to sob and buries her face in her hands. “Misfortune f-follows me everywhere I go. Fires. Floods. Tornadoes. Earthquakes. That avalanche… I’m certain it’s my fault, and th-this, too…”I cup her face gently, my mind whirling. “Look at me,” I plead. “Please, Arabella.”Her eyes flutter open, and I step closer, my heart hammering in my chest. If what she’s saying is true, it all finally makes sense, and cautious hope rushes through me. “You aren’t cursed, beloved. For a curse to be strong enough to cause natural disasters, it’d have to be decades in the making. I’ve studied curses extensively for well over a century, and those rumors about magic turning against its users? They aren’t true. That is why those in our safe havens have not incurred misfortune of any kind—because there is no such curse.” She looks at me as if she wants to believe me but can’t. “Think back carefully to the way the icicles didn’t hit me right away. I think I know what you wield, Arabella, and you were right. It isn’t magic.”“I’m n-not cursed?” she asks.“No,” I reassure her, smiling. “You are not nearly old enough for any curse tied to you specifically to have grown that strong, and there is no curse of magical bloodlines. You aren’t cursed, Arabella. Quite the opposite. You have no idea what you just did, do you?”She shakes her head, and I stare at her in awe. Even with her lashes frozen thanks to her tears, she’s breathtaking. “You wielded air, Empress.”