Yew Queen Trilogy, стр. 31
The veins in his throat shook, his eyes crazy wide, then lightning caged the entire castle in jagged lines of blinding amethyst as the ground trembled under our feet. Dust fell from the walls. The trees in the courtyard shivered. Lucus, Baccio, and Aurelio—held impotent in the situation—snarled and called out in fae, shoulders rising and falling as they stared the Mage Duke down.
Lucus’s hands flexed at his sides, and the shame welling from him was palpable. “I will never forgive myself for Lucilla’s death.”
The Duke lunged, his grip still on Francesco’s throat. “Do not say her name!”
He raised his hands, calling a whirling storm of lightning above the courtyard. A metal and herb taste coated my tongue, and my magic coursed through me, jolting my whole body. My knees hit the stones as one massive lightning strike crashed to the ground beside the fae.
Chapter 21
Cobblestones erupted from the ground along with vines and roots controlled by Lucus and his brothers, but the mage’s lightning sliced through the twisting arms of wood and leaf. Another bolt smashed into the ground beside Lucus, and he and his brothers took off into the sky, Lucus veering around the Duke. Through the memory’s emotional connection, I knew Lucus was angling to grab Francesco so they could fight back with their full force.
The Mage Duke threw Francesco to the ground and lifted both palms. “I curse these intruders, those not of my clan.”
Lucus flew at him, vines curling from his fingertips, but a sphere of pale light circled the Duke and flung Lucus backward. Baccio and Aurelio lashed woody roots at the sphere, but the earthen weapons sizzled on contact.
“Every century, you will see the world you can no longer enjoy, the world you stole from my Lucilla. You will travel along the ley line, sleeping in the earth like dead men, surviving on just one victim, possessing only enough energy to survive and endure the torture of a half-life.”
Lightning snapped across the chests of Lucus and his brothers, and they collapsed, sprawled on the broken cobblestones like corpses.
The curse was a grip on my soul, a black pain that cracked me open and poured poison into my blood. I gagged, the world spinning as the Duke’s evil magic tore my heart, squeezed my limbs, and ripped my consciousness like it had clawed fingers inside my actual head. This was evil beyond anything. I would never be the same after feeling this. I fisted my hands, stomach lurching and eyes hazy. Never.
“At the close of each moon cycle,” the Duke said, his voice like breaking glass, cutting my ears and burning eyes with unshed tears, “you will sacrifice a piece of your soul, or you will all die at once. I will spread hate for the fae far and wide. Your kind is no more. Lord Lucus,” the Duke snapped, “as you watch your brothers die, may your unforgiven heart shatter as mine does over and over again until I join my daughter in death.”
Bleeding from his side and his ears, Lucus groaned and rolled, trying to stand, his pain my pain, his agony and desperate need to get to the mage and take him down so strong inside my own chest that I could barely breathe.
The Mage Duke clapped his hands together. The lightning sped to the castle’s walls, then crawled like shining snakes over every dip and ledge, each brick and stone. Before the magic reached the castle door, the Duke fled.
“Duke Ludovico!” Kaippa ran from the back of the courtyard, his face like stone in the amethyst light of the spreading curse.
The Mage glanced at Kaippa before turning to leave. He shouted something unintelligible, then was gone.
“Master?” Kaippa ran toward the door, panic pulling his features taut.
The portcullis hit the ground. Kaippa slammed into its metal grating, roaring in frustration as the magic slithered over his hands, covering the entire structure and everything inside.
The memory fizzled away, and the real world returned.
I leaned against the corridor’s wall, sucking air, willing the feel of that curse and Lucus’s emotions away. He touched my shoulder.
“I’m fine. Give me a minute.” Power shifted inside me, and I jerked, falling into Lucus’s arms.
“It’s your magic.”
“I felt the Duke’s power in the curse. It was…” There was no word to describe the pure evil of what I’d experienced. And oddly, I didn’t think a fae could understand it. Only a mage would. I shook my head and straightened. I had only just become a mage. Why would I even think something like that?
“Did you learn anything?” Lucus kept his voice even, but desperation lanced his tone. It cut me like I was still connected to his feelings.
I swallowed and took another deep breath. “I would love to say I have all the answers, but this will take some time to pull apart. There wasn’t anything obvious, but I have no idea what undoing a curse entails, so I really don’t even know what to ponder over.”
“Listen to your mage instinct. It will guide you.”
“Yeah, not feeling that.” I wanted nothing to do with being connected to the Mage Duke. My stomach turned thinking of how much he had resembled Aunt Viv. “Let’s get going on the aura thing so I can go home.”
“Of course.” Lucus tucked a hair behind my ear, his fingertip sending tingling sparks trailing down my neck. “Coren.” I met his gaze and saw that ancient hurt there, the guilt for what he’d done to Lucilla, to his brothers. His grief for Francesco. “Thank you for doing this. I’m sorry you’re tangled in the web of my sins.” His hand lingered by my ear.
I covered his fingers with mine. “I don’t blame you. It’s just a big bucket of awful. And hey, I am really sorry about your brother.”
His thumb hooked over my regular human ear, and he smiled sadly. “You may have his blood, but you’re nothing like him.”
I smiled back but kept my mouth shut. I was a