Cursed: Briar Rose's Story - Kaylin Lee Page 0,49

movement woke him. He stretched, then settled as Kaia tucked him against her body.

“Hello again, sweet one,” she cooed, smiling as her son fixed his dark eyes on her face.

“How …” I didn’t have the words. “How can you …”

“How can I still smile, with Cole gone and the world dissolving before our eyes?”

I nodded slowly.

“I should have died five years ago,” she said, then pressed a kiss to her son’s forehead. “Whether we beat the Masters or not, today is a miracle.”

Chapter 26

Thud. Thud.

Elektra hovered over my frozen body, her eyes flashing. “You thought you could escape me? Idiot. I always win in the end.”

She removed a vial from her violet robe, her eyes flashing with hatred.

I tried to move away, but my body was paralyzed in sleep. “Help,” I whispered, but the word stayed trapped in my mind.

Thud.

“I’ve already won.” Elektra poured the vial over me. Was the fire on my skin a memory, or real?

“Bri!” Thud. Thud. “Wake up, Bri!”

“You were mine for five years, creature.” She opened another vial. I tried to groan but couldn’t make a noise. “You’ll be mine for eternity,” she continued. “You are nothing without me. You are nothing without—”

CRASH. “Bri! Are you well?”

A hand shook my shoulder. I startled and sat up straight, torn abruptly from the nightmare as my nerves stood at attention. “Tav?”

He crouched by my bed, his red hair a mess and his chest heaving. Behind him, the door hung haphazardly from one hinge, still swinging from his entrance. He ran a hand through his hair and exhaled. “You didn’t answer. I thought—”

“I was just asleep, I think,” I mumbled. My voice was hoarse and creaky from lack of use. I rubbed my eyes, then my temples. The headache from yesterday hadn’t eased. Instead, fuzzy sleepiness had joined it. “What time is it?”

“You’ve been asleep all day.” Tavar stood, looking uncomfortable. “They thought you were dodging the prince’s command to rejoin the Sentinels. No one guessed that you were still asleep until Alba mentioned something. But then your door was locked—”

“The latch sticks sometimes. There’s a trick to it.” I pushed off my blanket, feeling sticky and claustrophobic. “We lived in this room for a while, back when I was younger.”

Tavar nodded slowly. “You sure you’re well? I’ve never known you to sleep in or be late to a brief, much less miss a summons entirely.”

“The curse used to wake me up early.” I pulled the cord from my braid and loosened it, needing something to do with my hands. “Never let me sleep for long. There was too much to do.”

“I see.” Tavar’s stillness made me nervous. He was watching me too closely again, paying too much attention. What if the curse—

No. The curse was gone.

My fingers felt clumsy and thick. I twisted my hair into a quick bun, tied it, then stood. The room spun, but I stayed still by sheer determination. “Where’s the brief? I’ll be there in a moment.”

Tavar towered over me, and I was acutely aware that we were alone—alone, without the curse to observe us and offer snarling commentary on my every word and movement. The silence in my head was unnerving. But not as unnerving as the twinkle in Tavar’s blue eyes.

“You missed the brief by about six hours.” He leaned back on his heels and slid his hands into his pockets. “You should probably just find Raven and look sorry. She’s in her old office. Want me to walk you there?”

“No.” I hadn’t meant to sound so sharp. “I remember it.”

Tavar nodded, lifting a hand to his heart in a teasing salute. “Then I’ll leave you to it, Sentinel.”

He left with an uncharacteristic bounce in his step. I narrowed my eyes and went to the door to watch him stride down the hallway. What was there to be so happy about?

Then he glanced over his shoulder before turning down the next hall and caught me watching from the doorway. For some reason, he grinned. “Good luck with the Acting Commander,” he called back to me. “Glad you finally got some sleep.”

~

Raven’s voice was cold when she greeted me at the doorway. I entered uneasily, still woozy from so much sleep.

A pretty, dark-haired woman and an older, bespectacled man straightened from where they worked at a paper-strewn table, both eyeing me with palpable interest. Ella’s Draician colleagues from the Office of Ancient Kireth Research, I thought. Chloe, and a university professor whose name I’d forgotten.

“You’re late, Sentinel.”

I focused on Raven. “Apologies,