003: My curse

Kael's POV

I didn't sleep that night. Sleep hadn't come easy in years, not since the nightmares started, so I stood at my window and watched the sun crawl over the horizon. My mind kept replaying the scene from the ceremonial hall, analyzing it like a battle strategy. The golden threads appearing, the bond forming with a human slave, the chaos that followed. It was a complication I didn't need and couldn't afford.

When morning light finally filled the tower, I made my way down the hallway and stopped outside her door. I needed to assess the situation and determine the best course of action. Training her was the logical choice if she was going to try to survive the trials, though survival seemed unlikely given she's a human and her obvious weakness.

I knocked twice on her door, sharp and quick.

"Come in," her shaky voice came through the door.

I pushed the door open and found her sitting on the bed, still wearing that same stained uniform from last night. Her brown hair hung in her face and dark circles shadowed her eyes. She looked pathetic, like a wounded animal waiting to die.

"Get up," I said flatly. "We need to talk."

She stood quickly and swayed on her feet. I watched without moving, waiting to see if she would fall. She didn't, though it looked like a near thing.

"Follow me."

I led her back to the main room where morning light streamed through the narrow windows. She stood in the center of the room and looked around at the weapons on the walls with wide, frightened eyes.

"Sit," I gestured to the chair by the table.

She shook her head. "I'm fine standing."

"I wasn't asking. Sit down."

She sat immediately in a stiff and jerky movement. I leaned against the table and crossed my arms, studying her like I would study an opponent before a fight. She was small, weak, untrained. The trials would destroy her in minutes unless something changed.

"The bond between us is real," I started, keeping my voice emotionless and direct. "You may not have felt it form last night but everyone in that hall saw it happen."

"I know," she said quietly.

"The trials are real too and the King will make them as difficult as possible. He wants you dead." I paused, watching her reaction. She went paler but held my gaze. "And the curse is real. Every woman who's been presented as my mate has died. Five women over the past ten years. Some lasted weeks, one lasted only three days."

"How did they die?" she asked.

The question didn't surprise me. Most people were too afraid to ask, but she seemed to have more courage than sense.

"Different ways," I said without flinching. "One fell from a tower. One got sick with a fever. One was killed by rogues during a hunt. One stopped breathing in her sleep. The last one threw herself into the river three days after the bond formed."

Her hands gripped the edge of the chair but she didn't look away from me. "Why does everyone think you're cursed?"

I turned away from her and stared at the cold fireplace. The story was old, worn smooth from telling it so many times over the years. The words came out mechanical and emotionless because that's how I'd learned to say them.

"My entire family died when I was four years old. Rogues attacked our home in the middle of the night and slaughtered everyone. My mother, my father, my two older sisters and two older brothers. I survived because my mother hid me in a cupboard before they broke down the door."

I heard Elara shift in her chair behind me but I didn't turn around.

"When the pack found me the next day, I was covered in their blood. The Elders decided I was cursed. Death follows me, they said. Anyone who gets close to me will die. The King took me in and raised me." I turned back to face her with a blank expression. "That's all you need to know."

"I'm sorry," Elara whispered.

I felt nothing at her words. Pity was useless and sympathy changed nothing. "Don't be. It was a long time ago."

"But those women who died, you don't know for sure that it was because of you—"

"Five women, Elara. Five different deaths, all connected to me. The curse is real. Accept that fact or you'll die faster than the others."

She flinched at my words but straightened her shoulders. "The King gave me three days to prove myself worthy of a wolf mate. If I refuse the trials, he'll execute me. So either way I'm going to die."

"That's correct." I moved to the weapons on the wall and pulled down two practice swords. "Which is why I'll train you. It's the only logical option."

"You'll help me?" She sounded surprised.

"Don't mistake this for kindness," I said, turning to face her with a sword in each hand. "The bond makes me protect you whether I want to or not. It's instinct, nothing more. If training you gives you a chance to survive the trials, then you can reject the bond and leave before the curse kills you. That benefits both of us."

I tossed one of the swords to her without warning. She caught it clumsily and nearly dropped it, struggling to hold the weight.

"Have you ever held a weapon before?" I asked.

"No."

"Ever been in a fight?"

"No."

"Ever trained in any kind of combat?"

"No." She looked downnat her feet with the same doomed expression from last night. "But I'm a fast learner."

I raised my sword without responding. We would see how fast she learned when facing real combat.

The training was exactly what I expected. Elara was terrible at everything and knew nothing about fighting. She didn't know how to stand, how to hold the sword, how to move without leaving herself completely open to attack. Every instruction I gave her, she fumbled through like a child playing at being a warrior.

I knocked her down six times in the first term minutes. Each time she got back up, which was more than I expected from someone so weak. Her hands started bleeding from gripping the sword wrong and her arms shook from exhaustion, but she kept trying.

"Again," I said after knocking her flat on her back for the seventh time.

"I can't," she gasped from the floor.

"Then you'll die in the trials. Get up."

She glared at me and pushed herself to her feet using the sword for support. Her arms shook seriously as she raised the practice sword.

"Again," she said.

We trained until midday. When I finally called for a break, Elara collapsed on the floor and didn't move. Her breathing came in ragged gasps and her whole body shook.

I put the practice swords back on the rack and walked past her without looking down. "Eat. And rest for an hour. Then we continue."

"Kael," she said, her voice weak. "Thank you for training me."

I didn't respond. There was nothing to say to that. Though I was surprised she was thanking me instead of cursing at me.

By evening, Elara could barely walk. I watched her limp down the hallway to her room without offering help. She needed to learn to handle pain on her own if she was going to survive.

Hours later when the tower was dark and silent, I found myself walking past her door. I told myself I was doing a routine check of the tower, nothing more. But I stopped outside her room and pushed the door open quietly.

She was asleep on the bed, still wearing the dirty stained clothes from yesterday. Her hands were wrapped in cloth strips and even in sleep, her face was tight with pain. She looked small and broken and completely unprepared for what was coming.

The mate bond pulled at me, trying to make me care but I forced myself not to. The bond was just another complication, another problem to manage. It didn't change the facts.

She would die. Just like all the others had died. The curse always won in the end.

I backed out of the room and closed the door. Then I returned to my own quarters and lay down on my bed, staring at the ceiling. I began calculating the best way to prepare her for the trials even though I knew it was probably pointless.

Even if by some miracle she survived, the curse would kill her eventually. The only question was whether it would happen during the trials or after.

Either way, I needed to stay detached. Getting attached to someone who was already dead was a waste of time and energy.

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, but one thought kept circling through my mind despite my best efforts to ignore it.

How many days did she have left?