Chapter Thirty-Three: The Curse He Carried

Adrian did not speak on the walk back to the stone house.

I did not push him. I stayed close beside him, my hand around his, and let the quiet stretch between us. Jorah followed a few steps behind and wisely kept his eyes on the trees. When we reached the house, Adrian sat down heavily by the fire and stared into it like it might give him an answer.

I made tea. It was a small thing, but my hands needed something to do. When I handed him the cup, he held it without drinking.

“You should know everything,” he said at last. “I have kept it from you for too long.”

“Then tell me.”

He took a slow breath. “My family has carried a curse for six generations. My great grandfather was the first to feel it. He made an enemy of a witch during one of the old border wars, and she cursed his bloodline before she died. She said the Black wolves would grow strong, stronger than any other pack, but that their wolves would slowly turn against them.”

“Turn against them how?”

“At first, it is small. A temper that is too sharp. Dreams that feel too real. Then the wolf starts to push harder when the man is angry or afraid. In the end, the wolf takes over completely and does not give the body back.” His voice dropped. “My grandfather died that way. My father, too. They both lost themselves before they turned fifty.”

My stomach turned cold. “Adrian, how old are you?”

“Twenty nine.”

“And how long have you known it was starting?”

“Four years.” He finally looked at me. “That is the real reason I rejected you, Elena. I told you I was afraid of a weak mate. That was true, but it was only half of it. I was also afraid of dragging anyone into what was coming. If my wolf was going to destroy me, I did not want to bind a woman to me who would have to watch it happen.”

I put down my own cup. “You did not think that was my choice to make?”

“I did not think at all,” he said. “I was a coward who dressed his fear up as duty. I have told you that before, and I will keep telling you until you believe it.”

I let the silence sit. I was angry, and I let myself feel that too. It was not the sharp, hot anger of that night in the great hall. It was quieter and older, the anger of someone who had lost a year and a home and a version of herself to a decision made without her.

“I forgive you for being afraid,” I said slowly. “I am still working on forgiving you for deciding for me.”

“That is fair.” He did not argue. “That is more than fair.”

Corwin came to the house an hour later. Adrian had sent for him, and when Corwin walked in, he looked from Adrian’s face to mine and let out a long breath, like a man setting down something heavy.

“You finally told her,” he said.

“You knew?” I asked.

“I have known for two years. I have watched him hide it.” Corwin took the chair across from us. “I told him a dozen times to tell the council, to tell you, to tell anyone. He is the most stubborn man I have ever served.”

“I am sitting right here,” Adrian muttered.

“Then you can hear me say it to your face.” Corwin turned to me. “My lady, what happened behind the healing house today was the worst I have ever seen him. If you had not been there, I do not know how it would have ended.”

“I do not know what I did,” I admitted. “I only knew I could reach him. It felt like opening a window in a locked room.”

Corwin and Adrian exchanged a look.

“That is the part that interests me,” Corwin said carefully. “The curse has never once responded to anyone. Healers, elders, even a witch my father brought from the north when Adrian’s father was dying. Nothing slowed it. And yet you put your hands on him and it went quiet.”

“It is the bond,” Adrian said. “It must be.”

“Maybe,” I said. “Or maybe it is more than that.”

I told them what I had been thinking since the clearing. The old texts Mathis had shown us spoke of the Hidden Line as a bloodline tied closely to the moon. The witch who cursed Adrian’s family had used old moon magic too, according to the stories. If the curse and my bloodline came from the same source, then maybe the two were meant to meet.

“You think you can undo it,” Adrian said quietly.

“I do not know. I think it is possible.” I looked at him. “I also think Marcus Hale knows it. That is why he wants me so badly. He is not only after my power. He might be after yours too, or what your curse could do if it broke loose.”

The fire popped in the hearth. Nobody spoke for a while.

“That would explain why he bought the corridor of land,” Corwin said at last. “If the passes open and the curse reaches its end, Black River falls. Our territory becomes his for the taking, and the Hidden Line is his to use.”

I felt the shape of it click into place, and it made me dizzy. “He needs us both. He needs your curse to take you, and he needs my seal to break at the right time. Then he can take everything.”

“Then we do not give him either,” Adrian said. His voice was steady again, the old Alpha strength back in it. “We find a way to break the curse ourselves, before he can use it against us.”

“How?”

Adrian looked at Corwin. Corwin looked at me.

“The seer,” I said slowly. “The old woman Tobin saw. She felt the first layer break from a distance. She understands the magic better than any of us.”

“She is also working for the man trying to destroy us,” Adrian said.

“Yes. But Tobin said something strange.” I turned it over in my mind, the thought arriving slowly. “She told him the girl would not be able to stop it, because it was written in her blood. Not in Hale’s plan. In my blood.”

“What are you saying?”

“I am saying maybe she is not entirely loyal to him. Maybe she is telling us something on purpose.”

Nobody answered. Outside, the wind had picked up, rattling the shutters, and somewhere far off a wolf howled long and low across the dark pines.

I did not know yet if the seer was an enemy or a warning in disguise. I only knew that if she was afraid of what Hale was building, then we had been wrong about who held the real power in that camp in the woods.