Verveville's Curse

Chapter46

Kael’s pov

I found him alone, sitting by the window with a cup in his hand, like he had been expecting me all along. Thorne always looked like that like nothing surprised him, like he had already seen the end before anyone else even thought of the beginning.

I hesitated at the door. My chest still felt heavy, sore, like the cough from earlier was waiting just beneath my ribs, waiting to break out again. I didn’t want him to see me weak, not him. But I needed answers, and there was no one else I could ask.

I stepped in. The floor creaked under my boots and his eyes shifted slowly toward me, sharp and quiet.

“You came,” he said, like it was a game.

I swallowed. My throat burned. “We need to talk.”

He nodded once, put his cup down. “About her. Or about you?”

I clenched my jaw. He always knew too much. “Both.”

I sat across from him, leaned forward, elbows on my knees. I debated if I should even open my mouth. Every part of me wanted to bury it down deep, to keep it hidden. But I couldn’t anymore. Not after slipping in front of Kaida, not after coughing out blood with my veins turning black. The wolf inside me had whispered it “she will eat you alive.” And I knew exactly who the wolf meant.

“The curse,” I said, my voice low, rough.

Thorne’s face didn’t move, but I caught it. It was flicker. A tightening at the corner of his mouth. His shoulders drew back, just slightly. Like a man bracing for a storm.

“You finally admit it,” he said, leaning back slow, almost lazy, but I saw the tension in his fingers where they gripped the arm of the chair.

I rubbed at my chest, the ache still sitting there, like the curse itself had made a home beneath my ribs. “It’s stronger. I slipped today. I said again, the words heavier this time. “Over nothing. I yelled at Kaida like a madman. She saw it…she saw something in my eyes. I muttered, dragging a hand over my face. “And I couldn’t stop it. The curse… it’s pulling tighter.”

Thorne let out a dry laugh, no humor in it. “You think you’re stronger than her? You think you can walk free when none of us ever did?”

I looked at him hard. “I’m not you.”

His eyes narrowed. “No. You’re worse. You carry her blood through the bond now. You marked the girl. I can smell it off her. It’s already inside you deeper than it ever was in me.”

I felt my stomach twist. I had known it, but hearing it from him made it real. My wolf shifted restlessly inside, pressing against my skin, wanting out, wanting to fight it but also whispering fear in my head.

“I had to mark her,” I said, my voice rough. “She’s mine. Without that bond, I’d lose her. And she…she’d be torn apart here.”

Thorne leaned forward, eyes sharp, dark. “And what happens when you lose yourself? When you’re the one tearing her apart?”

I clenched my fists. “I won’t.”

“You will.” His voice dropped, low and bitter. “Look at me.”

I did. And for the first time, I really looked at him. The scars that never faded. The way his skin seemed tired, older than his years. The shadow in his eyes that no fire could burn out.

“I was never freed from her curse,” he said, and it sounded like a confession he’d been holding in his teeth for years. “Not for one day. It eats. It twists. And when it takes you fully, you won’t even know what’s yours anymore. Not your thoughts, not your hands, not even your mate’s name.”

My chest went tight. I thought of Willow…her laugh, her stubborn way of staring me down, her warmth pressed against me when she trusted me enough to close her eyes. The idea of forgetting her, of hurting her.

I forced air out of my lungs. “There has to be a way.”

Thorne shook his head slow. “There isn’t.”

Silence stretched. Only the sound of the wind outside against the walls. My hands trembled on my knees, and I pressed them down hard.

Inside, my wolf whispered again, cold and low: she will eat you alive.

I didn’t know if it meant Lilith, or Willow, or the curse itself. Maybe all three.