The secret curse, p.21
The Secret Curse, page 21
Afraid to speak, I managed to nod.
He ran a thumb softly over my bottom lip.
I shivered.
This time, the kiss wasn’t rushed. I drew in a ragged breath, closing my eyes. His fingers slipped through my hair. Pulling me closer, he lifted me suddenly, and I broke off laughing as my feet dangled in the air. He spun us around, and with one lingering kiss, he finally pulled back, but only enough to kiss my forehead.
I lowered my eyes to hide the sudden emotion. “I haven’t been to any weddings in the human world, Vaade or otherwise,” I murmured. Or any weddings at all, for that matter. “But I believe the kiss comes at the end of the ceremony?”
Wryly, Koda laughed, stepping back. “Then let’s hurry up and start so we can get to the end.”
I bit my lip, holding back a laugh too. “I’ll follow your lead. How do we begin?”
Like before, Koda pointed to my three middle fingers one at a time. “Mind, body, soul.”
Had it sounded this romantic the first time he’d explained? I stared into his eyes, memorizing the amber sunset colors, and the way they warmed as he looked down on me.
“A typical human marriage places the rings on the soul finger,” he repeated the words he’d said the first time. “But the covenant requires vulnerability as proof before the rings will accept the spell.”
This time a different word caught my attention. “Proof of what?”
“Trust.”
The one word that had haunted me since before I could remember, causing me pain at every turn. Could I accept it now? Koda waited patiently, as my inner battle manifested itself in pulling back with tense shoulders.
He reached across the growing space, fingers softly touching my cheek, tucking a loose hair behind my ear gently. “Can you trust me, Jezebel?”
Hearing him speak my name instead of Jinni Girl made my lips twitch.
He didn’t know what he asked of me.
But in all my time here, he’d never broken a promise. He’d been the one to rescue me from the Vaade who’d attacked me. He’d tended my wounds, told me the truth about the Dragon’s plans. He’d even tried to protect me from the pain of discovering Shem’s betrayal. As his prisoner, I’d been obligated to rely on him, but still, he’d never let me down.
“Okay,” I whispered finally, taking the hand he held out. “Time for you to make me weak and defenseless.”
He chuckled. “As long as you’ll make me the same.”
I still held the delicate Jinni ring, so he moved to take it, holding it in front of my middle finger, clearing his throat. “The ceremony begins when we each place the other’s ring on the middle finger and speak the words of the enchantment. Once this is done, the weakening starts. Our abilities will fade gradually.” He paused, gazing down at our hands intertwined in front of us. “We’ll say our vows, before completing the ceremony by moving the rings to the last finger with a final oath.”
Wordlessly, I nodded. I couldn’t have spoken past the tightness in my chest if I’d tried.
“Say this after me,” he began, intoning in a deep voice, “To prepare the soul, I surrender the body.”
I cleared my throat, which was suddenly dry, and rasped, “To prepare the soul, I surrender the body.”
As I finished, he slid the ring onto my middle finger.
Immediately, a tingling sensation flooded through me like a cool inner wind running through my veins. When I grasped for one of my Gifts, they seemed distant, as if they were housed in my body, but had moved to another “room” of sorts. Shifting felt just out of reach, and the distance I could normally travel felt like it was decreasing steadily, shrinking away like the water lapping at the shoreline beside us.
Koda was speaking, and I made myself focus, as he repeated the vow for himself. At his nod, I slid the dragon ring onto his middle finger.
He flinched a little, clearly not liking the weakening any more than I did.
When he blinked back at me, his sunset-colored eyes were a little less vibrant. If I hadn’t spent a full minute staring into them moments ago, I might not have noticed. Subtly, they continued to change, dark pupils growing less narrow and more round by the second, visibly proving that the covenant had begun.
Back in the Vaade camp—and all of Jinn—our people would be feeling the covenant start to take effect, slowly leeching away their Gifts and strengths as well.
If they hadn’t noticed the missing rings before, they certainly knew now.
An image of Shem panicking caused a confusing mixture of satisfaction and guilt all at once.
“Now the vows,” Koda murmured, staring at our hands shyly, cheeks growing red. “There aren’t any required words for this part. It’s usually just the standard wedding promises... We can make up our own.”
As his words sank in, I felt a full-body flush as well. He meant we needed to say how we felt. That might be even more vulnerable than the temporary loss of our abilities. “You first,” I managed to squeak.
He cleared his throat. Staring out at the water, he thought for a minute, then turned back to me. “When I came to Jinn that day, I didn’t expect that I’d be kidnapping my future wife,” he began with an ironic grin.
I scoffed, shaking my head, but gave him a small smile.
“I promise to protect you,” he continued. “Even when you might not see it that way.” I frowned at his choice of words. That was an odd way to make that vow. Perhaps it was a Vaade saying? “To provide for you,” he went on, distracting me from asking. “And to prove myself worthy of being a husband. I look forward to learning to love you.”
He leaned in, whispering, “Based on my experience so far, I don’t think it will be hard.”
His breath tickled my ear.
I shivered. Warmth stole over my body as I dared to meet his eyes. I could admit now, in this moment, if only to myself, that I wanted this.
It was my turn.
Gathering my courage, I drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I vow...”
My mind went blank.
What was I willing to promise him? Nothing felt safe. But that was the point, wasn’t it?
“I vow to tell you the truth,” I began in the softest whisper, growing more confident as I spoke. “To always try to love you back, and to... trust you.”
Simple words.
Not nearly so simple to put into action.
His eyes softened, and he squeezed my fingers gently. When he didn’t continue, I blinked away the emotions and cleared my throat. “Now what?”
He hesitated.
An odd emotion I didn’t recognize flickered across his face, too fast to read.
“Now,” he said in a slower voice, “We say the final words to complete the covenant as we place the rings on... the next finger.”
Slowly, he drew the delicate white gold ring off my finger, staring down at the ruby and diamond for a long moment before he lifted my hand.
There was that strange expression again. It was gone before I could name it.
With his hand and the ring poised in front of mine, he dipped his head lower, until there was only a breath of space between us. “With this ring, I take you, Jezebel, to be my wife in every way, until death takes us.”
As he slid the ring onto my finger, he closed the distance between us and captured my mouth with his. The kiss flooded my senses as strongly as the magic had the first time. My entire body trembled.
When he pulled away, my mind felt almost fuzzy from the kiss, as if a fog had come over me.
Eyes closed, I laughed on a shaky breath as he finally pulled back. “That wasn’t technically the end,” I reminded him in a teasing tone. “We still have to do your ring.”
“I know.” His smile was close-lipped, almost tight at the corners. One hand absently touched the dragon tooth necklace. He didn’t usually fidget. Our covenant must be making him more nervous than he’d let on. “I just couldn’t hold back.”
Pulling his own ring off his middle finger, he held it out to me and stretched the fingers of his left hand out so I could place the ring on his ring finger.
As I reached out to take his hand, a flash of white and red on my own finger caught my eye.
It struck me as strange.
My thoughts felt uncharacteristically out of reach, like I was forgetting something important.
“What am I supposed to say again?” I asked Koda to cover my hesitation, staring down at the ring on my first finger.
“With this ring, I take you, Koda, to be my husband,” he chanted the rest, but I slowly stopped listening.
The ring.
It was on my first finger.
What had Koda said before we’d started? It was a struggle to remember his words. Straining, I found them one at a time. Mind... body... soul. The ring finger was for the soul—for the marriage and the covenant to be completed.
But he’d put it on...
The first finger.
Mind.
Something teased my memory... Something to do with forgetting?
My heart stalled as it finally came to me.
The curse.
Drawing in a slow, careful breath, I managed through years of practice to keep a calm mask on my face as I met his eyes. They were shifting from sunset orange and yellow to a darker hazel. Was the weakening completed? If so, I was entirely defenseless... and I might’ve made the biggest mistake of my entire life.
“What’s wrong?”
All kinds of alarm bells were ringing in my head.
He wasn’t stupid. He wouldn’t put the ring on the wrong finger by mistake.
I hoped I was wrong.
On instinct, I kept my suspicions to myself as I repeated the vow carefully, watching his face the entire time. There was a tightness in his eyes even as he smiled. It added to my growing tension.
“... until death takes us,” I finished, staring into his eyes the way he had mine.
I slid the dragon ring onto his first finger.
Just like he’d done for mine.
When panic flickered in his eyes, my heart sank.
The emotion was gone so fast though, I almost thought I'd imagined it.
He cleared his throat. “Good,” he said as he pulled the ring off again, though I got the distinct impression he did not think it was good.
He placed the thick dragon ring in my palm. Stretching out his hand toward me for the third time, palm toward the ground, he said, “Now move it to the final finger, to connect the soul, and the covenant will be completed.”
I took it.
Then, I slipped my own ring off as well.
Holding both of them in shaking hands, I held mine out to him, wanting despite everything to trust him. Desperately hoping he’d prove me wrong. I whispered, “You first.”
Stricken, he didn’t take it. “I... can’t.”
28
SLOWLY MY HANDS FELL to my sides, still holding both rings as my lungs constricted.
I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t think.
Everything hurt.
“You can’t,” I repeated.
He might as well have taken a knife and stabbed me in the chest. It hurt the same. Maybe more.
His betrayal was worse than Shem’s... because I’d chosen to trust him fully. I’d been all in.
Koda looked anguished as he finally spoke. “I’m sorry. I can’t explain.”
Every word slammed the knife in deeper. My heart shattered into little pieces and then each of those pieces broke again a thousand times more. I wrapped my cold fingers around the dragon ring in my palm as the same ice stole over my heart, trying to mend the fragments, piecing them together in a jagged new shape that didn’t resemble what it used to be.
It never would.
“You were never going to complete the covenant for me, were you?” My tone was deceptively soft, hiding my growing fury. I didn’t need his explanation. “You did exactly what your father wanted. You used me.”
But he shook his head. “The covenant and the curse would’ve happened one way or the other. My father would’ve made sure of it.”
I shook my head as a tear slipped out.
He reached out to wipe it, but I leaned away, and he let his hand drop. “This was the only way I could—” he broke off briefly, shaking his head as if frustrated. “The only way I could protect Tehya,” he pleaded, hazel eyes tightening around the corners. “She wants to marry Akeena, not your prince.”
My prince? For a split second, I felt a gap in my memory like a gaping hole, then the hole was gone. He meant the Jinni prince.
“There had to be a marriage to use the covenant spell,” he was saying. “And I know it doesn’t seem like it, but this solution saves you as well as Tehya. You would’ve been a target along with the rest of Jinn, but now, as my wife, I can keep you safe.”
I scoffed. “Safe, while the rest of my people are enslaved or worse?”
Forehead wrinkling, Koda pressed a hand to it as if searching for something. “I... I don’t think that’s what my father plans. He only needs the curse in place for a short time. A few months or a year at most.”
“A year?” I gasped, shaking my head. “There will be nothing left of us.”
“I can’t explain,” Koda repeated. “It has to be this way. But with you as my wife, I’ll have the power to end the curse as soon as we—” he cut off, almost like he’d choked on something, then growled softly. “As soon as we conquer Jinn,” he said instead of whatever he’d been about to say. “Your Gifts won’t be gone forever.”
I couldn’t hold his gaze anymore. My eyes shuttered as I squeezed the rings in my hands tight enough to hurt. “You really believe that, don’t you?”
“I swear it,” Koda vowed passionately, trying to touch my cheek again, but I opened my eyes in time to dodge his hand. He let it fall. “I’ll keep you safe in the meantime. I promise.”
Your promises mean nothing.
I didn’t say it aloud, though. My mind raced, tripping through the holes that kept springing up, confusing me as I tried to think. How could I stop the curse?
“I have to do this, Jezebel.” Koda’s voice broke a little, as if he was somehow hurting too. “For my people.”
He’d always wanted to help his people conquer mine—the truth had always been there, yet somehow, I’d forgotten it, despite the fact that he was the one who’d kidnapped me in the first place.
“Don’t talk to me about your people,” I spat, taking a step back. It was the exact reasoning Shem had given me. Did I matter so little? “I was supposed to be your people. Your wife. You lied to me.”
Our wedding vows weren’t even fully finished, and they’d already been broken.
“No,” he swore. “I meant every word. I’ll protect you from all of it. You are my wife now, which means my father can’t touch you. No one can.”
Who was his father? I somehow couldn’t quite remember.
His fingers continued to twitch like he was desperate to reach for me and forcing himself to hold back. “Your people will forget. It has to be this way. But I can remind you of the truth”—he squinted, as if he either didn’t know or maybe couldn’t recall how it worked—“every day if need be. And when the time is right, I’ll make sure we complete the covenant to bring your abilities back.”
“When the time is right,” I repeated dully.
“It’s not like you care about your people anyway.” He threw up his hands as if he was truly surprised by my reaction. “What do you care if we take power away from Jinn? The Gifts are an unfair advantage.”
“That’s how you see me?” I stood frozen in place, fracturing further with every new revelation. I thought he’d been the first person to respect my Gifts, that he didn’t resent them. But he’d wanted them to be removed all along.
“No, of course not,” he was protesting, but I barely heard him.
A numbness stole over me.
I didn’t know what to do.
Maybe we could find a way to backtrack this covenant somehow before it was completed.
I could go my own way, and he’d go his. I’d never have to see his backstabbing face again.
Turning away, I moved to pace.
Koda grabbed my wrist, stopping me. “What’re you doing?”
I’d meant to put a little space between us, just temporarily, to figure out how to talk this through with him.
“You can’t leave.”
I looked from his hand on mine to his now fully-human hazel eyes, barely recognizing him anymore. “Let go.”
“I can’t do that,” he growled. Though his Vaade strength had faded, he was still stronger than me. When I tried to tug away, he only gripped tighter.
I reached my free hand into my bag for the knife. If he wanted to bully me, I could threaten him right back.
My hand brushed against the little jar with the paralytic that I’d used on... someone... I couldn’t remember who... before my fingers curled around the knife.
I yanked it out, pointing it at Koda’s face. “Let. Me. Go.”
Something in my expression must’ve told him I was serious. He finally loosened his grip, holding his hands up in surrender. “This is going all wrong.” He gripped his head, shaking it slightly as if to clear his thoughts. “We’re on the same side, remember? You have to finish the covenant by putting the ring on my finger.”
When I took a step back, he followed. “I will if you go first.”
“I already told you, I can’t.” He matched me stride for stride as I backed up, speeding up when I did, ignoring the knife. “Not yet. For our plans to work, we need the Jinn to be completely cut off from magic. Nothing else will be enough.”
“Why? What do the Vaade plan to do?”
“I can’t say.”
“Why?”
“I—I don’t remember,” he admitted, rubbing his brow with a frustrated hand, then shaking his head again. “You have to trust me.”
I scoffed.
That was the one thing I never should’ve done in the first place.
On instinct, I tried to travel away. But of course, I couldn’t. A spike of fear raced up my spine when I realized I couldn’t even remember how.
