Ican’t believe we managed it,” Elaine says. Our soldiers are packing up around us, and I look around in awe. It took us several weeks, but we placed pipes in the most important parts of the country.“Your wounds are healing nicely,” she remarks, and I lift my hand to my throat. Memories of Felix’s eyes turning black come to mind, and I shudder. For a moment, it wasn’t my husband whose eyes I was looking into. The way he smiled was terrifying. Felix has never scared me before, not truly, but in that moment I feared for my life. Before I could even scream, darkness enveloped me, thick and sticky, suffocating me. The next thing I knew I was on the floor, cuts all over my skin and flames engulfing me protectively, chasing away the darkness.Color returned to Felix’s eyes, followed by panic when he found me lying on the floor, drenched in blood. Within minutes, he’d brought Elaine to me, begging her to heal my wounds. I’ve never seen him that panicked before, that terrified. He disappeared as soon as Elaine bandaged my wounds, the cuts immune to her magic. I haven’t seen him since, though each town we passed through informed us that Felix had already placed the pipes we needed.He’s been ahead of us by a few days, so I suspect that he’s already back at the palace by now. I can’t help but wonder if he pushed me away early into our trip because he feared the curse’s pull. He warned me he felt it, but I failed to realize it was to this extent. I’d gotten so wrapped up in my own insecurities and fears that I failed to support him with his.I’m lost in thought as I lift myself on top of Sirocco. The horse and I have become reluctant allies, united by our mutual abandonment.“He’s okay, Your Excellency,” Elaine tells me. “I’m certain he’s waiting for you at the palace. I think he might just have needed some time to process what happened. The curse… it’s hard on all of us, but it’s different for Theon. While you and I can acknowledge that he wasn’t himself in that moment, Theon can’t make that same distinction. He’ll blame himself endlessly, and he’ll fear hurting you again. I beg of you, Your Excellency, don’t let him unravel the future the two of you have woven. Don’t let him untangle your lives. He will, if he’s given the slightest chance.”“Arabella,” I tell her. “I’ve told you countless times that my name is Arabella.”She nods, but I know she’ll refuse to call me by my name. She insists on formality and propriety.Elaine sends me a pleading look, refusing to let me change the topic, and I nod. “Don’t worry,” I tell her, unsure what else to say. I can’t make her false promises. I don’t fear Felix, but I fear what he became. Can I protect myself if it happens again? I believe I might be able to, but what I saw was nothing compared with what Elaine has described in the past. Was it Felix who pulled himself out of the darkness’s clutches, or was it the flames that expelled it?I’m lost in thought the entire way home, for once grateful for Sirocco’s inhuman speed that allows me to reach the palace long before the others do.I’m tense as my feet hit the floor, unsure what I should do or say.“Where is Felix?” I ask as I cross the palace’s threshold, confident that the palace will lead me to him.Candles flicker on, illuminating a path toward the east wing. I follow the path the palace lays out for me, chills running down my skin as the temperature drops. The palace is always kept warm, but it is ice-cold here. I glance at the covered golden portrait frames, curious what’s underneath, yet certain this place is best left undisturbed. I’ve never felt such strong evil magic, and I finally recognize it for what it is—the curse. Not even my father’s torture devices felt this vile. This must be where the curse originated. What would bring Felix here?I pause in the hallway as I realize that the Felix I might find could be the one that haunts my nightmares. I bite down on my lip and shake my head, reminding myself that Felix told me the palace restores his magic and soothes the curse’s worst effects.I climb the stairs toward a tower eerily similar to the one I’ve so often been held captive in, my heart hammering in my chest. In the final weeks of our trip, I’ve replayed our last few moments together countless times, wondering if there’s anything I could have done. If I’d called upon my fire, would that have kept Felix safe?I’m nervous as I push open a door that was left ajar, the hinges creaking. I find Felix throwing a cover over what looks like a mirror before turning to me, and I breathe a sigh of relief when I find his eyes the same turquoise color I love.For a moment he looks at me as though I’m a mirage, but then his eyes clear, and his shoulders straighten. “You can’t be here.”He walks past me, his expression as haunted as mine must look. “Felix,” I say, my voice soft. “It wasn’t your fault.”He pauses and turns to look at me. “It was, Arabella, and it’ll happen again. You aren’t safe around me. You never will be. You have to leave.”“I can protect myself. I’m no longer the girl you brought here from Althea. I can defend myself from the curse’s effects if I need to, Felix.”He runs a hand through his hair and looks up at the ceiling. “You know you can’t, Arabella. There’s no escaping it. It’ll always be there, and you’ll always be at risk.”He looks at me, his gaze sorrowful as he cups my cheek. I feel him tense, darkness slithering into his eyes. The whites in his eyes disappear, black slithering in, taking over. I step back defensively, gathering my magic around me as his expression changes.He laughs, the sound shrill, and a shiver runs down my back. “You can’t fight me,” he says in a voice unlike his own. “You can’t stop this. His soul was always mine to take. He’s fought all his life, but once he sees his precious little wife bleed out, dying at his own hands… he’ll give in, and this world will be bathed in darkness at last.”I stumble back, feeling sick to my stomach. Felix takes a step toward me, his movements inhumanly fast. Before I can call upon my powers, he’s got his hands wrapped around my throat, the black veins on his skin moving, slithering onto my body, as though it’s trying to infect me.I can feel the spark of fire, yet I can’t reach it. I can’t reach beyond the darkness that’s rapidly enveloping. “Felix,” I choke out, trying my hardest to call upon the elements around me and failing.Felix freezes and lets go of me, his eyes clearing. He looks at me in horror and takes a step back, stumbling. “You… you aren’t safe around me, Arabella,” he whispers.I sink to my knees, tears in my eyes as he rushes away, the door slamming closed behind him. I held on to hope for as long as I could, but I have nothing more to give. Felix might be right, and I truly might not be safe around him. What’s worse is that I doubt he’s safe from the curse himself. The more we worked to mitigate the curse’s effect on the land, the more it appears to have targeted him.“Arabella of Althea.”I look up when I hear a woman’s voice. She sounds far away yet close all at once.“The mirror.”I rise to my feet, my heart racing in fear. My hands tremble as I pull off the cover I saw Felix place over the mirror when I walked in, revealing a woman in a white gown. Her eyes are milky white and unseeing, but she’s mesmerizing, and she’s undoubtedly the woman I thought I saw in the mirror the first time I walked into the east wing.“My name is Pythia,” she says. “Along with the people of Eldiria, I have been awaiting your appearance.”“Pythia,” I repeat. “You’re the seer that prophesied our marriage, the one that said I’d break the curse.”She nods. “The future is fluid, never written in stone. Your future has changed countless times from the moment you stepped foot in this palace. Most people have a general path that was pre-written and that they cannot diverge from, but you do not.”I stare at her, unsure what to make of her words. “If my future is not pre-written, does that mean I might never break the curse?”She nods. “I can only see the future as it is presented to me. In the current version I see, you will be in torment until the day you die, never finding the love and happiness you crave. Your presence here was a direct result of my vision, and though I cannot take back the words I spoke as a result, I urge you to heed the Shadow Emperor’s words. If you stay, your blood will spill on these very floors, and your life will be lost.”“I don’t—”Before I can finish my sentence, she disappears, the mirror only reflecting myself. I stare at my reflection, the scars on my skin, the haunted look in my eyes. The vision Pythia had will never come to pass. I will never break the curse, and I will never be able to set Felix free.noveldrama