Curse Breaker (2)

12

My words hang in the air, heavy as I meet Trina's gaze. "It doesn't matter what you think of Killian now. You can hate him all you like. You can want to kill him. But you were wrong to ignore his warning, Trina."

Her gaze hardens, lips pressing together.

"What happened the night of the ball?" Casimir asks.

"Everything happened as we planned. They dressed me up, took me to the ball, and paraded me around like some prize. I didn't understand why at the time."

I swallow. It's impossible to think of that night and not remember what happened in the shadows of the alcove. The purse ecstasy of Killian's lips on mine, the devastation at the look of horror in his expression as he pulled away from me.

"Frey?" Casimir urges.

I shake the memory from mind. "When the king arrived, he started talking about how they'd found the cloud piercer. Me. He threw me in front of a shifter infected with the evocion—"

"Evocian?" Elex asks.

"It's a disease that attacks the brain. That's how the cloud affects the shifters," I explain. "It traps them in their animal form, they lose all sense of humanity."

"And he wanted you to fight it?"

"He wanted me to heal it." They all stare at me like I'm mad. "Killian protected me before it could attack, and then the explosion happened. We managed to escape, and then next thing I know I'm waking up in a carriage heading goodness knows where with three Torinnian shifters and an unconscious Samu."

My words settle in the silence as they process everything that I've said. I'm not surprised. It's taken me days for the information to settle in, the implications behind every single detail to sink in. Even now, reciting it to them, it doesn't quite feel real.

"That's why the king wants you. Because he thinks you can cure the shifters from sort of disease?" Trina asks. I nod. "And why does he think that?"

And when I start explaining I can't stop. I tell them about Nala, Kinjri, about what Ereon did to their species and what he did during the war. I tell them all about why the Torinnians took me, what they think I can do for them and I explain to them why they think Samu won't wake up.

When I've finished talking, my throat aches. Nobody interrupted as I spoke, and I kept my gaze level to Trina's. Finally, as my words settle like falling dust, she clears her throat, pushing off the cave wall.

"What I find difficult is that all this information has been sourced from shifters," Trina says.

"Torinnian shifters," I correct. "Think what you want about them, but they hate Ereon just as much as we do."

"So you really believe it? Everything they've told you?"

"No, I don't," I say honestly. "Even if what they say about who my mother is is true, their faith in me is misplaced. I can't help them. I don't have any special abilities or skills."

"And what about the cloud?"

"I believe that it's real and that it's a threat."

She clicks her tongue. "This is why you're not like us, Freya, why I never should've let you join in the first place."

"Why? Because Killian tricked me?" My anger flares at her nod. "Don't forget I'm not the only person Killian fooled."

"Careful."

"Or what?" I snap. "Are you going to kick me out? Give me to Ereon?"

"No," Casimir responds when Trina doesn't. "You're not going anywhere."

She doesn't break my gaze. "The difference between you and I is that I won't be fooled again by those bastard shifters."

"If you're too blinded by your own hatred and need for vengeance to believe me, then you're right, I'm not like you. I'm smarter than that."

Casimir grabs my arm, pulling me back an inch so I'm half-shielded by his body. Trina once terrified me. I remember the first time I faced her and how small she could make me feel with just one look. But as I hold her gaze from across the room, the glow from the lantern shadowing half her face, I'm not afraid. The daggers in her eyes can't hurt me.

When she speaks, her voice is dangerously low. "What do you want from the deserters?"

Her question stumps me. "What?"

"Why are you here if only to insult our ways?"

My thoughts battle in my head. I don't know what I expected her to say to my revelation; I'm not sure that I had any expectation at all. And though I'm not afraid of her, I force myself to take a breath. I don't need to make anymore enemies, especially not with Casimir's mother.

"I don't mean to insult you. I just want you to understand that whatever is going on is so much bigger than we ever thought."

"I suppose you have a plan, then?"

"A plan?"

"That's what one typically does when encountered with a problem."

She says 'problem' as if the cloud is nothing more than an annoying gnat. I open my mouth and then close it again. She's found my weakness, shoved her fingers in and twisted. Up until now, my plan was to find Casimir. Somehow get back to my brother. I didn't have the time to think any further ahead than that. From there, I have nothing.

"I'm going to get Samu back."

"And then what? Go into hiding forever?" she taunts.

"No. No, I--"

"The entire Kingdom is searching for you, as well as those Torinnian bastards. You'll never live a free day in your life."

Each words cuts like a knife. I find myself taking a step back unconsciously, further behind Casimir.

"You may dislike me, Freya, you may even disagree with how I choose to run things, but one thing is certain, I have more experience in my pinky finger than you do in your entire body. I do not act on something as fickle as emotion. I don't believe the first thing that I hear from somebody that I no longer trust. And I certainly don't do anything without a plan." She inspects her fingernails, as if this conversation is boring her, before raising her gaze to look at Casimir, no warmth in her eyes. "You're expected at the meeting before breakfast. Don't be late."

Without another word, she exits the small cave.

Elex is the one to break the tension, letting out an exaggerated breath of air and widening his eyes. "Well," he says, "I haven't seen her that pissed since we got back. You sure got under her skin."

"Don't make a habit of it," Casimir says under his breath, settling on the edge of the boulder like the conversation robbed him of energy. "I'm serious, Frey. I know you don't like her but--"

"But she's your mother, I know."

"That's not what I was going to say. I just want you to be careful, okay?"

I let out a long sigh and lean against the wall, glancing back towards Elex. His brows are furrowed as he stares at the ground. "She does have a point though," he says, looking up to me. "What now?"

"All I know is that I'm going back for Samu. After that... I don't know."

"Why did you leave him there in the first place?" he asks. "Not to mention, where were you even going?"

"I'm surprised Trina didn't ask that, actually."

"If it doesn't affect the deserters, Trina doesn't care," Casimir says. "But I do."

I take a deep breath before explaining everything that led me to that fire pit in the forest. Because if there's one thing Trina's right about, it's that I don't have a plan.

And Casimir's my only hope of constructing one fast.