Cursed by Malignant Magic (Once Upon A Curse)

Chapter 18

Chapter

Eighteen

S omeday soon, I wouldn’t wake up from my adventures.

It was a grim thought, the only one in my head, as I worked my way back to the land of the living.

I have been through a lot in the last…I wasn't even sure how long. Time seemed to have run together entirely. I had been blown up by magic, snatched by a giant bird, dropped, kidnapped by Legacy, dehydrated, starved, and beaten. Then I had used my magic to escape, a feat in itself, nearly drowned, and gotten caught again. A slight lull, another escape, shot with a crossbow, and then captured again.

All in all, that was what? At least three head wounds, maybe more. Perhaps my mind had been so thoroughly scrambled that I might never wake up again. Given the way my head felt now, it wasn’t all that farfetched.

"I know you're awake," a voice said, and something smacked next to my ear, as if something had been thrown at my head.

My eyes flew open, and immediately I regretted it. The light wasn't overly bright, just a few candles flickering in the corner of my vision, but it still felt as if someone had plunged a dagger deep into my skull. I winced.

"You threw something at me," I croaked.

My throat felt dry, like it had been stuffed with cotton, enough to tell me that it had been quite some time since I had last drunk anything.

But not so long that I didn't remember what had happened, nor recognize the voice. Legacy. Which meant that she was the one who had tossed something at my head.

"I did," she agreed, not sounding the slightest bit repentant.

I rolled my eyes even though it hurt my head and tried to turn to see what she had thrown at me. My arm was in the way, but when I shifted, something tightened on my wrists, preventing me from moving more than a few inches.

My heart sinking, I lifted my gaze, catching sight of the same rope as before binding my wrists, with the extra length looped around the headboard of a bed.

I groaned. "I was hoping this was all a bad dream."

"It isn't," Legacy said cheerfully.

Her boots thudded on the floor toward me. She messed with the ropes, offering me just enough slack to sit up.

"Why did you come after me?" I asked.

If she gave me any more information, I would use it against her. It was only fair, considering that this was the second time she had kidnapped me, and she had gotten me shot this time.

She bit her lip then sat on the bed, halfway down but still too close and yet not close enough.

I struggled into a sitting position, and my leg gave a stab of pain at the movement.

"I have the sight,” she said. “I see things through touching. Past, present, and future. I saw that you would be important, but even though I didn't know why, I had to come find you."

Hope surged in my chest, but it was brought down by an arrow when she kept talking.

"And I was sent to find you."

"There it is," I said with disgust.

The hard wood of the headboard dug into my back as I leaned against it and closed my eyes. I'd heard of the sight before. It explained how Legacy had been able to find me, and perhaps why she had shown me something resembling kindness during my first captivity. Her visions showed her that I was important, but that didn't matter to her cause.

And here I thought that it was because… Never mind. Not important, and definitely not a good road to allow my thoughts to travel down.

Legacy sighed and shifted away, rising from the bed. "I can understand why you're angry. But I'm tired of this endless war, of people dying for reasons they can’t even remember, and I think you’re tired of it too. Am I wrong?"

She waited for my answer, and I opened my eyes and lifted my head to look at her.

This war had been going on for longer than either of us had been alive. My parents had died because of it. I’d been fighting in it one way or another since I was old enough to be useful to Ehuna. Yet this was the first time anyone had ever asked me about my feelings on it.

"You're not wrong," I managed reluctantly.

From the look in her blue eyes and the passion in her voice when she spoke of it, I wasn't the only one who had been fighting this endless war for a long time. Still, I didn't understand what all of this had to do with me.

Had she tracked me down because of her orders or because of her visions? Or both? Either way, she didn't seem overly inclined to share with me her reasons.

Seeming satisfied with my answer, she turned away and ignored all of my attempts to engage her in further conversation.

With a frustrated huff, I let my head flop back onto the headboard.

I must have fallen asleep, because when I jerked awake, I fought down the urge to yelp with surprise as the door cracked against the wall. Two serving girls with long, luscious dark hair and impeccably groomed appearances carried up steaming buckets of water. With a synchronized heave, they dumped the water into the deep copper tub, sending droplets flying through the air. Their white smocks worn over their skirts were now spotted with tiny splashes from the hot liquid.

Their movements were graceful yet purposeful as they prepared for their next task. So focused they were that neither of them so much as looked up. Either that, or they were determined not to see a filthy girl covered in blood tied to a bed.

I couldn't exactly blame them for not wanting to make eye contact, but they wouldn't be much help if I tried to make an escape attempt.

"Thank you," Legacy said to the girls, reaching into her cloak to hand over a few coins.

They curtsied and stepped out, closing the door behind them.

"I see why everyone has decided to ignore that you've kidnapped someone. Bribery," I snarked.

Legacy rolled her eyes, gathering up the towels and pale yellow soap the girls had left behind. A folded-up wooden screen sat in the corner of the room, and my lips curled up in a wicked grin as my mind made the connections.

"You have a serious problem now," I told her smugly.

I leaned back against the headboard as best as I could with what little slack from the rope I had. No blood stained my sheets despite the giant gash in my pants, showing that she had tended to my wound. That meant that either all of my blood had been left somewhere else, or she had decided to ask someone else to bring clean sheets for us. If that was the case, it meant more people had already seen me tied to the bed, which made my face flame with embarrassment.

But if she had cared enough to send for fresh sheets, then she might be willing to let me clean up a little so that I didn't get blood and mud all over the sheets.

She sighed, finally dropping onto a stool next to the tub as she turned to face me. Ever since I had woken up, she had been strangely reluctant to look me in the eyes, and I could only pray that I hadn't said anything strange while unconscious. With that in mind, I was more than happy to make her question the situation as much as I was.

“And why, exactly, would I have a problem?” she asked.

“Because if you put up the screen, you have to worry about me escaping while you bathe. If you don’t, you have to worry about me looking at you.” I cocked a brow and made firm eye contact, doing my best to let her think the redness in my cheeks was just a remnant from my exertion after waking rather than embarrassment.

Perhaps I could bluff her into thinking she could trust me. Or, like so many other things, it might go terribly wrong.

But honestly, at this point, what did I have to lose?