Asylia was dark, rainy, and cold, its narrow streets ugly and dirty compared to the pristine, snow-covered peak where I’d left Elektra and Piers.
Where I’d left my new Masters.
It was the dinner hour when I reached home. The downstairs windows in our narrow, three-story villa lit up the rainy night like beacons.
I plodded down the street toward windows at a steady cadence, heedless of puddles and the bone-deep ache in my feet after three days at a bruising pace through the Badlands. Every time I slowed, the curse shot a warning spike of sizzling pain into my heart, snarling in my mind with orders to keep walking. At times, it had even wrested control of my body, forcing my feet forward with its own, controlling magic.
I was just steps from our front door when it crashed open.
“Bri! Oh, honey!” Mom shot out and raced down the steps, her blonde hair wild and loose. She wrapped me in an embrace that smelled like coffee and honey.
I wanted to cling to her, to sob, to beg her to save me. A searing pain shot into my heart, making me see stars. The threat was obvious enough. I kept my arms at my sides, too terrified to cry.
The curse allowed her to hug me, but it growled inside me at her nearness, making my chest ache. Hate you, hate you, Zel, the curse hissed at her, its raspy, animalistic voice a warped echo of Elektra’s. You will pay. Traitor! You will come to us. You will see the end firsthand, and you will know we have won.
“Where have you been? We were so worried! We’ve been searching the city for you for days! We were just about to lead a team out to the Badlands.” Mom loosened her grip slightly and leaned back to study my face. “What happened? Did you leave the city?”
“Just wanted to get away for a while. I’m back now.”
The curse growled.
I pulled out of Mom’s grip and walked toward the house, my movements jerky.
Dad and Alba emerged from the door, wearing matching expressions of bewilderment. Even in the dark, wet night, I could see how much they truly looked like father and daughter, the observation still painful when I would have thought my heart would be fully numb by now.
“What— Well—” Mom sputtered, then rushed to stand between me and the door. “You can’t just leave whenever you want! There will be consequences. You aren’t going anywhere for a long, long time, Bri.”
The curse seemed to give a satisfied stretch, then relaxed like a well-fed cat. That’s right. I could almost envision it smiling with Elektra’s pleased smirk. Long, long time.
“Fine with me,” I managed as I avoided Mom’s gaze and dodged past her, ignoring Dad and Alba as I entered the villa and hauled myself upstairs. “I honestly don’t care.”
My bedroom was unchanged. Bare, oppressive walls. A narrow bed. A neat, boring desk.
The curse directed me to the crack in the floor beneath the wardrobe, where I’d hidden the adventurer’s journal and the maps I’d used to find the crater in the Gold Hills.
Working quickly, I stuffed them into a small, empty trunk, then opened my luminous lamp and poured the glowing, golden liquid into the trunk. Dad’s footsteps sounded on the stairs as I topped the concoction off with a near-dead suffio ember from my room’s hearth, then latched the trunk and gave it a firm shake.
BOOM.
Heat from the explosion singed my hands. I dropped the trunk and blew on my palms as the curse retreated into satisfied silence. No one from Asylia would find the secret crater any time soon, much less guess that I was under a curse.
Dad entered the room. His gaze went right to the singed, smoking trunk. “Covering your tracks, I see.” His tone was grim. “You don’t need to lie to us, Briar Rose. We love you. We’d do anything for you. Don’t you know that?”
“Don’t worry about it, Dad.” The curse hovered, listening carefully. I averted my gaze from my father’s. “I’m back now. I’ll be a good daughter. Promise.”
“We don’t need a good daughter!” He slammed a hand on the door frame. “C’mon, kid. We just want you to tell us what’s going on!”
“Here’s what’s going on—I’m back. I’m tired. I’m going to bed.” I shrugged and turned my back on him, then took off my jacket and kicked off my dirty, wet boots. “See you in the morning.”