All Chapters of The Curse Of Loving You: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Lyre’s POV With a last sweep, the guard crashed to the floor. I pressed the tip of my spear at his head.He didn’t even bother to look up. Just raised his hand in surrender.Pathetic.I pulled the spear back and stepped away. Training had gone on for hours since Mirabel left, but it still wasn’t enough to burn the restless energy out of me.By the time I walked to the window, the sky was already bleeding red. The sun sank low, spilling light across Thornveil’s walls.That’s when Mirabel’s words slipped back into my head.Would Orion really come back?I leaned my forehead against the cool stone wall, letting the thought drag me backward.Back to when we were younger. When the packs still gathered in Thornveil for meetings that dragged on for hours. I used to sneak out of the hall, and he was always there. Orion Vale. Trouble written across his face.Alongside Alastor. The three of us running through the courtyards, climbing walls, daring each other to race along the ramparts like idio

Mia’s POVThe streets of Thornveil were livelier than I expected.Merchants shouting over each other, kids running between stalls, the smell of grilled meat and fresh bread thick in the air. For once, it didn’t feel like the world was falling apart.I pulled my cloak tighter around my disguise and kept walking. No one paid me much attention — which was exactly how I wanted it. Still, it was… nice, seeing people laugh, argue, live like there wasn’t a bounty worth ten million gold on my head.A small ball rolled across the path and hit my boot. I looked down to see a kid, maybe five, staring at me like I’d stolen his entire world. I bent down, picked it up, and tossed it back. “You should be more careful,” I said.He grinned, showing off a missing tooth, then ran off yelling something about beating his friends.I couldn’t help but smile a little.It had been a while since I’d seen something so… normal. I ended up sitting near a group of them, watching as they argued over who was the s

Alastor’s POV The river was quiet tonight.Cold water ran through my hands carrying away the dirt and blood from my gloves. I watched it swirl and vanish into the current before tossing the rag in after it.The girl had been quick. Too quick for someone raised behind castle walls.I’d expected a frightened princess, not a fighter. There’d been precision in her strikes… desperation, yes, but control too. Was my informant wrong? That kind of control that doesn’t come from lessons in a ballroom.She’d been trained… by someone who knew what fear felt like.“Too skilled for a royal,” I muttered, flicking water from my fingers.Mia Esbond. She wasn’t one I’d planned to stumble on this soon. The stories said she was reckless, stubborn, reckless again. But stories had a habit of being wrong.Still, she’d surprised me, not many could stand their ground against me for that long.I leaned back, the sound of the river fading as my thoughts drifted elsewhere.Exile. The word lingered like a cur

Lyre’s POV I stared at him for a long moment before finally asking, “What do you want, Lucien?”He smiled like I’d just asked the most obvious question in the world. “Now, Princess, that’s hardly the way to greet a guest, is it?”“I asked,” I said evenly, “what do you want?”Lucien placed a hand on his chest dramatically. “What could I possibly want besides the pleasure of your company? Thornveil’s hospitality is legendary.”“Don’t play dumb with me.”He grinned, that same infuriatingly calm expression plastered across his face. “Fine, fine. You really haven’t changed. Always straight to the point.”He took a step forward, eyes flicking toward the open balcony where the banners of Thornveil swayed against the night sky.“I’m here for the trials.”The words hung in the air.Of course he was.I folded my arms, my expression unreadable. Sure, I thought bitterly, you’re here for the trials… or maybe to see if Orion will crawl out from the shadows.Out loud, I said, “That’s… generous of y

Mia’s POVIt took everything in me not to storm out there and tear Lucien’s smug face apart.What was he even doing here?I sighed, pressing my back against the cool wall of the Colosseum. Sitting among the crowd would’ve been suicide. Too many guards, too many eyes. So instead, I hid in one of the narrow halls behind the viewing stands, close enough to hear the cheers but far enough to stay invisible.In my hands, the small crystal globe flickered softly… glowing with faint, shifting light.Lena called it a dragon’s eye. Said it could mirror whatever I wanted to see, as long as the energy around it stayed stable.Stable…. Right.The image inside was a blur of sand and movement…. Orion, standing at the center of the arena surrounded by unconscious wolves. The camera, or whatever dragon magic this thing used, zoomed on its own, focusing on the balcony.And there he was. Lucien Silver.I clenched my jaw, the memory of what his pack did flashing through my mind.The crowd above me was a