Curse Breaker (2)

12

I take a shaky breath. From the way they all stare at the ground, I sense I'm not the only one betrayed by Killian's deception. Though I'm sure theirs has more to do with their pride than their feelings like mine.

"So if I go to Veymaw--"

"You can't go back to Veymaw," Trina cuts me off.

"What do you mean?"

"There's hefty prize money on your head, Freya," Trina says. "Anybody who delivers you to the king would grain enough riches to last them a lifetime. Enough riches to persuade even your friends to betray you."

My stomach twists into knots. My friends rise to mind--what must they think? It seems the king hasn't specified why there's a bounty on my head, but I don't doubt they've all come to their own conclusions. Jakob would betray me for a mere penny, but Cadence? I can't believe she'd betray me for anything.

"The question is why does the king want you so desperately," Elex asks.

"I need you to tell me what happened at the Palace," Trina says, "every last detail. Right from the moment you parted ways with Elex and Casimir."

Her tone makes me shift uncomfortably. The memories flash in my mind. They feel like decades ago when in reality it was merely a week. I swallow, trying to clear the dryness in my throat.

"The night before the ball," I say, glancing towards Elex and Casimir, "after you left, Killian and I snuck around the Palace looking for more information on Samu."

Casimir's gaze darkens. "And what happened? What did you find?"

Killian's breath on my neck, his hands at my waist as he pressed me against the wall, shielding me from those Palace guards. The taste of his lips. I shove the memory away and pray they don't comment on the warmth in my cheeks.

"While there, we came across these documents talking about Torinne and how it was destroyed by the cloud. Have you... have you heard about that?"

"The cloud?" Casimir exchanges a glance with Elex, looking equally confused. "What is that?"

I look at Trina. "Killian told me he warned you about it when he joined the deserters."

"He mentioned it briefly. Though since we discovered the truth, I've dismissed anything that came from that traitors mouth."

"Killian said you weren't worried about it at the time, either."

She raises her jaw, her next words filled with venom. "I had more important things to worry about than a bad storm."

"It's much worse than a storm." A chill crawls across my skin. I inch closer to Casimir until our arms brush. "It's a weapon. Ereon created it to use against Torinne during the war." I look to Trina. "Have you ever wondered why our traders don't go to Torinne anymore?"

"Because relations were tense after the war."

"It's worse than that. It's because there's no one in Torinne to trade with," I say. "The country is uninhabitable. It was destroyed by the cloud. That's why Killian came to Elel with his people, to try and stop it."

Trina narrows her eyes. "This sound an awful lot like a defense, Freya. Almost like you're on their side."

"I'm not defending anybody, I'm just trying to explain. Cas, do you remember the day of that storm in Veymaw, the one I got caught in and thought I saw my dad and Samu? The one that killed Jyro?" His jaw tightens, but he nods. "That was the cloud."

Trina's steely gaze hardens. "And why should we be afraid of this cloud? Why should we care about the shifters in Torinne?"

"Because it's spreading to Elel and it's dangerous." I lift the bottom of my trousers, revealing the marred ankle. "When I was in the cloud, I started to hallucinate. I saw my brother and my father being attacked by shifters. And then I started getting attacked." I turn to Casimir. "Do you remember what you said to me? About how they found me?" He nods. "It looked like I'd been hacked at with a knife because I was. I hacked at my own leg, just like Jyro swallowed those rocks and drowned himself."