Withering Rose (Once Upon A Curse Book 2) (22 page)

Uncomfortable, I take a small step back,
unaware how close I was standing to Cole until my shoulder presses
into his hard chest. I lean into him, hesitant, hoping. Every part
of me warms when he reaches down along my arm, searching for my
hand. We clasp each other, holding tight. With his skin pressing
against mine, I realize I was waiting for that small bit of
contact, that unspoken signal that I've been forgiven. My heart
feels lighter, and a different sort of heat passes through me as he
begins to trace circles on my hip with his thumb.

Asher turns away from Jade, looking from
Cole to me and back again. His brows pull together for a moment
before he shakes his head slightly. "Why don't we both start from
the beginning," he says gently. "You go first. Why does everyone at
the base think someone called the beast kidnapped you? And why are
you here looking very much at peace and not at all like someone
being held against her will?"

"It's a long story," I mumble. But I can't
help but notice how Cole has leaned away from me. His eyes burn the
back of my neck.

"The beast?" he comments.

"Um," I murmur, biting my lip. "That's sort
of what the people of Earth call you."

He snorts. "Really? No wonder you were
afraid."

My tension releases and I smirk. "You did
that all on your own."

He grins too. Our little inside joke.

"Okay, so he's the beast?" Asher asks,
trying to make sense of everything.

"He's Cole," I jump in. "He didn't kidnap
me. I just made it look like he did."

Jade and Asher shake their heads. Each
raises an eyebrow at me, silently questioning for more. Even Cole
watches on, intrigued by this story that I haven't told him. I take
a deep breath. This is going to be a long night.

"You guys must be freezing," I say, ushering
them toward the library door. "Why don’t we all sit by the fire and
figure out what the heck is going on."

They nod.

We walk as a group out of the room. Jade
doesn’t even try to hide it when she reaches down to grab her
discarded gun, tucking it back into her pants. Asher tosses her a
look but she just shrugs it off, staring back. They both remain
stubborn for a moment, but Asher relents quickly, wrapping an arm
around her waist and pulling her against his side. Jade is almost
as tall as he is, and her long slim body is all muscle. He would
never be able to move her anywhere she didn’t want to go, so I know
she leans against him willingly, because she wants to.

Without my magic, I would have been no match
for her. She's a fighter. One look is all it takes to realize that.
But it's just as obvious that Asher's not, he never has been. How
did these two find each other? They're complete opposites, yet at
the same time, deep affection ties them together. Love. Clear as a
cloudless sky. Sparkling between them every time their eyes
meet.

A little part of me wonders if they see it
every time I look at Cole?

Every time he looks at me?

The idea lingers as we all take a seat near
the fire. I settle into my normal spot, tucked into Cole's side.
Pulling my feet into my chest, I bundle up, small and delicate
compared to the muscular arm cradling me close. Jade and Asher
don't say anything as they take their seats, but both of them watch
me curiously. He stretches his feet close to the fire and she
crosses her legs. In the space between their bodies, their hands
come together, meeting seamlessly in the middle as though second
nature.

"I guess I should start at the beginning," I
say, breaking the silence. "I think we all remember the earthquake,
and I know you both must have stories you could tell me of how that
day changed your life, how it disrupted everything. But this is
mine. On the day of the earthquake, I was with my father, traveling
to see you, Asher."

Nodding, he says, "I remember." Then he
pauses, frowns. "My mother was preparing for your arrival."

I want to ask why such a haunted expression
just passed over his face, but I know I'll hear his story in time.
Right now, they all want to hear mine. "When the ground settled, my
father and I woke on one side of a dividing line. He and I were in
an open field, and just fifteen feet away rested a town in ruin, a
town full of things I didn't understand. Buildings. Clothing.
Things like cars and phones. Things that were beyond my
comprehension. We were terrified and alone, and the people of Earth
captured us. For that first year, we lived behind bars, until my
father offered to tell them everything he knew about magic and how
to destroy it. They moved us to the Midwest Command Center, and in
exchange for our information, they kept us fed and safe, they let
us live among them."

I take a deep breath. Cole caresses my arm
with his thumb, silently giving me his strength. "But something
else happened on the day of the earthquake. My mother died, and I
inherited her magic. So for ten years, while we lived among the
people of Earth, I had to keep that power locked inside. I had to
hide it, hide myself, pretend to be something I never could be.
Normal."

Jade gasps quietly. I glance at her but she
shakes her head. "Sorry," she murmurs, gentler than I realized she
could be. "I held magic once, I felt it. I could never imagine
keeping something like that contained. Never."

I scrunch my lips, aching to ask questions.
What magic? How? Isn’t she from Earth? Or was she a princess, like
me?

I swallow them back down, continuing my
tale. "But a few weeks ago, something inside me snapped. The
general in charge of the command center made an announcement, he
told us all how one of the queens had fallen, how the people of
Earth had won a huge victory against the magic. I listened to
hundreds of people cheer and chant, utterly jubilant to hear that
someone with magic had been killed. And I just had to get away. I
couldn’t take it any longer. I wanted to embrace my magic, not hide
it. I wanted to find someplace I could belong. I wanted to be free.
So I ran away. But my father stayed behind, and in order to keep
him safe, we tried to make it look like I was kidnapped, not that I
left of my own free will. I didn’t want anyone to grow suspicious,
to think I had magic, to believe my father couldn’t be trusted. I
didn't know how long—"

I pause when I notice Asher's lips part. He
doesn’t speak, but I can practically hear the questions burning his
tongue.

"What?" I ask.

He meets my stare, eyes downcast with an
unspoken apology.

A fist clenches around my heart. Panic.
"What, Asher?"

He winces slightly. "You said your father
was there?"

"Yeah," I answer smoothly. "Actually, I'm
surprised he didn’t tell you I came here on my own, that I didn't
need to be saved. Why didn't he stop you from coming after me?"

Asher turns to Jade.

She glances at him, biting her lip. An
emotion I can't read passes over her face, lasting for a short
moment before she looks away, cool expression returning. Cole's
grip tightens, as though he knows. Asher spins back to me, gaze
incredibly soft. The smile normally crossing his lips vanishes.

"What?" I whisper.

All the air has gone out of me in one fell
swoop.

Because I know.

Without Asher having to say it, I know.

"Omorose, your father wasn't there."

My whole body deflates. The only thing
holding me upright is Cole. Every ounce of strength seeps out of
me, sinking into the floor, disappearing.

"They thought," Asher continues, unsure of
what to say. "I mean, they told us he was kidnapped too. He
disappeared a few days ago. They thought he was here with you."

"They thought…" I mumble, trailing off. The
world is in slow motion, yet at the same time, everything is
happening too fast. My mind whirls, but I can't speak. My movements
are sluggish even though my brain zips at breakneck speed.

"Cole!" I screech, too loud, too high.

I'm on my feet. I'm pacing. Am I running? I
can’t process what's happening. The room blurs as my heartbeat
turns rapid. I breathe quickly, sharp inhales and exhales. Alarm
courses through me. Alarm and fear. I can’t speak. Can't think. I'm
trapped by my own body.

Be brave.

That voice tries to whisper.

Be brave
.

But I can’t. Because it's my father. And
he's gone. And my world would be nothing without him. He's the only
family I have left. I love him too much to be brave. The idea of
losing him is too overwhelming. Too much to handle.

"Omorose!" Cole calls fiercely.
"Omorose!"

He's calling me back from the brink. I
blink, clearing my eyes, trying to see through the panic
overwhelming me. His hands cup my cheeks, and his smoky eyes gaze
into mine with a fire that sparks me back to life.

"I'll find him," he whispers. "If he's
anywhere on these mountains, I'll find him. Have faith in me. Trust
me. Trust these words. I'll find him. And I'll bring him home for
you."

I nod. But I can’t find any words.

So I cling to his.

I wrap his promise around me like a warm
blanket, comforting and secure.

Cole looks at me for another moment and then
he turns, running toward the door. As soon as he's through it, he
shifts, this time into a golden hawk I've never seen before. Wide,
powerful wings, pump once, twice, and then he's out of sight.

Only when he's gone do I realize all of my
hope flies with him.

When I turn back to the fire, shivering from
something much deeper than a chill, it's not Asher's arm that comes
hesitatingly across my shoulders.

It's Jade's.

I melt into her embrace, surprising us both,
and collapse against her, knocking her off-balance. But her
reflexes jump in, holding up my weight as she leads us closer to
the fire. We sink slowly as she controls our movements, and I drift
to a seated position.

The flames warm my frozen body, but my mind
won't stop picturing my father's dead corpse buried somewhere
beneath the snow on the mountains. Or his mangled body ripped to
shreds by the wild animals not part of Cole's kingdom. The image
switches between deathly cold, blue skin and red-hot, blood-stained
snow.

Cole will find him.

I try to reassure myself.

Cole will save him.

But those two oscillating morbid pictures
won’t go away. And each time they flash before my eyes, they seem
worse and worse, and more and more certain.

Asher comes to sit by my other side. He
takes my hand gently, trying to warm my frigid fingers. And for a
moment, his kindness makes me want to cry. Asher didn’t need to
travel all this way to rescue me, to risk so much for promises made
when we were children. But he did. And genuine concern laces his
eyes, genuine caring. In another life, he would have made a good
husband. My seven-year-old self never needed to be afraid of a
future with him. And in this new world, I know I'm still safe with
him, even if the terms have changed.

"Distract me," I whisper.

"What do you want to know?" he asks
softly.

I shake my head. "I don’t care, anything."
And then I pause, biting my lip as I remember the cheers back at
the base, the victory chants. There is something I desperately want
to know, one topic that might actually pull me away from my dark
thoughts. "How did you get rid of the magic?"

Asher and Jade share a quick glance and then
both turn back to me. I'm not sure what just passed between them
unspoken.

"What do you know about the magic? About the
curse?" Asher asks.

I sigh. "Probably more than you. Cole told
me everything. How a long time ago, we stole all the magic from the
world and bottled it up inside ourselves. How the faerie
priestesses used their dying breaths to lay curses down on all the
humans with magic, to contain the power and to bind it to our
blood, giving all the other species hope that one day the magic
would be freed and released back into the world."

Asher frowns. "Huh?"

"Never mind," I say, shaking my head. "He
can tell you the story later, it's not entirely mine to share. The
only thing that matters right now is that we both know my magic was
stolen, that it was cursed, and I want to let it go. So far, the
only options I've found are breaking the curse and death. Since
you're very much alive, I have to know—did you break your curse or
did you find another way?"

I want so much for him to have the answer I
need.

To say that he found another way.

To say that he uncovered a secret option
number three, one I haven’t in all my research been able to
find.

To say that he knows how to save me.

"Do you know what my curse was?" Asher asks
instead of answering.

My heart sinks. "No," I whisper, unable to
fully find my voice because with that one question I know—he broke
his curse. That's how he got rid of the magic, and that's all I
need to hear. Because my curse is time and it’s impossible to
break.