Cursed Beauty

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Aurora

Aurora Rose Brynhild never imagined the kingdom’s battles would come so close to her home. Since she was a child, she’d lived among the trees with only her grandmother for company. But her grandmother was gone now, and she’d been alone for over two years. Had it really been that long since she’d spoken to anyone other than the dark sorceress?

Her grandmother told her people were dangerous. When she was a child, the subject came up frequently in conversations with her father. He would leave her for weeks, and then one day he never returned.

She knew who’d taken him. The sorceress over the wall—the Draconian queen. She held Aurora’s life in the palm of her hand, never letting her experience true freedom.

Aurora pressed herself against the tree in her perch high in the branches as men trampled through her beautiful woods, leaving blood in their path. Most weren’t followed. Those they’d fought stayed at the edge of the forest.

Something caught her eye, and she leaped from one branch to another until she could get a closer look. Two men huddled over a third, trying to lift him. Their voices reached her.

“He’s dying.” One looked to the other.

A scream tore through the air, followed by a mass of large men in leathers breaking through the trees at the edge of the woods. Soon, they’d spot the dying man and his companions.

“They can’t find him.” The first man lifted his eyes. “We have to lead them away.”

The second shook his head. “And just abandon him?”

The first stood and gripped the injured man under the arms, hauling him into the thick underbrush. He covered him.

“He needs a healer.” The second man gripped his sword.

The first man met his eyes. “And we’ll get him to one. We won’t let him down. But we won’t be any good to him if we’re overrun. Don’t you think the Gaulean king would love to have him as a prisoner?”

Together, both men turned and ran back the way they’d come.

Aurora leaned against the tree, listening to the sounds of battle, waiting for the men to return.

After a few moments, she gripped the branch in front of her and dropped down onto a lower one before jumping to the pine-covered ground. She approached where they’d hidden the man and ripped aside the bush covering him.

The face that greeted her was younger than she’d expected. Dirt and blood streaked across his tanned skin and into his sun-bleached hair.

His eyelids twitched but didn’t open. Aurora bit her lip, considering the man. She felt for injury, finding a hole in his leather tunic. Wadded fabric lay pressed against his skin, bulging behind his shirt. Yet, blood continued to run free.

They were right about one thing. This man needed a healer, and he needed one fast. Glancing up to make sure no other soldiers remained in this part of the woods, she made a decision. Her father would scold her for her compassion. Her grandmother would worry, trying to hide the pride on her face. She could picture them now, waiting for her at the cottage.

Tears threatened to prick her eyelids, but there was no time for sentimentality. She dragged the man into the open, past thick pine trees, and across the clearing to where she’d hidden her only friend. Lea’s soft brown eyes bore into hers. The mule shifted as Aurora dug through the bags on her friend’s back, looking for the length of rope that was an ever-present companion to the girl who spent her days climbing trees looking for the freshest fruit and setting snares for rabbits.

She pulled the rope free and tied an end to each of the man’s arms before looping the middle around a hook on Lea’s saddle.

“Come on, girl.” She patted Lea’s neck before untying her. “I couldn’t just leave him.” She took the reins and led Lea into a deeper part of the woods where very few people ventured. It was too close to the walls of Dracon, and the only thing that frightened Belaens more than the hordes of Gauleans was the Draconian Queen, La Dame.

Aurora grimaced as the man’s body hit a bump in the road, but she reminded herself there was no other way home. It took the better part of an hour to reach the small cottage where she lived alone. Thick pine trees shielded it from anyone who didn’t know the way. A field of white lilies came into view before the stone structure.

Aurora breathed out a relieved sigh as she pulled Lea to a stop and got to work untying the man she’d brought to her sanctuary. It was probably a mistake. Her family wouldn’t have approved, not with the curse inside of her. They’d claim it was too dangerous, that she risked activating La Dame’s threat. But wasn’t it also dangerous to leave a dying man alone in the woods? Soon after she was born, her mother grew ill, and her desperate father turned to the dark queen of Dracon for help.

But her aid had come at a cost, a curse on the family.

On Aurora’s eighteenth birthday, she would fall into a magical slumber that would end when one hundred winters had passed.

She only had one short month remaining of her young life. Slumber wasn’t death, but the uncertainty of it might prove to be much worse.

Aurora looked to the stranger once more. At least with her final act, she could do something good.

* * *

Aurora stepped out her front door and turned to examine her home. The magic pooled in her fingertips just as it did for all Belaens. She’d inherited the same power her grandfather once had. Not all types of magic ran in families, but the power of growth lived strong in their line. Her grandmother called it a power over life. She didn’t know if she believed that, but it allowed her to remain hidden in the woods.

She curled her fingers in, pressing them against her palms as vines snaked up the sides of the cottage until she could only see the door. Someone would have to be looking for it to find it. The solitude suited her. If she had nothing in her life, then sadness couldn’t overwhelm her. No one would miss her while she slept, no one besides her would live with the anguish of her curse.

With a sigh, she brushed her hands down her pale pink dress. The laces frayed, but each time they broke, she repaired them. The only clothing she owned was that which she made herself or that which belonged to her long-dead family.

She picked up a bucket she’d left by the side of the house and smiled at Lea as she passed her. The walls of Dracon stood ominously close, but they’d never frightened her as they had most other people. Not even La Dame herself scared Aurora. She’d already done her worst when she set the curse on a newborn baby girl.

Aurora had resigned herself to her fate. Nothing in life could hurt her now.

The best berries hung on the bushes at the base of the wall. Purple and juicy, they were one of the few pleasures she had left to enjoy in her remaining days. She walked through the woods until a line of thick and thorny bushes stretched out before her.

A small smile played on her lips as she pulled the first berry and popped it in her mouth. An explosion of sweet juices had her closing her eyes. It had never taken much to bring Aurora joy. She didn’t need fancy clothes or a handsome prince to show her how lucky she was to be alive.

The fresh breeze stopped, and she snapped her eyes open. It was the first time she noticed the absence of birds singing overhead. The berry she chewed turned sour, and she spit it out before pivoting on her heel and coming face to face with the tormenter who’d become a frequent visitor in the woods.

“Oh.” Aurora crossed her arms. “It’s you.”

La Dame flashed her a smile. Aurora always got the impression she amused the sorceress, and it always irritated her.

“What do you want?” she asked.

La Dame’s long inky hair hung in waves down her slender back. Her beauty was no secret, but the stories said little else about her. She continued to stare.

Aurora bristled. “I asked what you wanted. You’ve already set my curse. Can’t you leave me alone and let me enjoy the little remaining life I have left?”

La Dame reached forward, and her icy finger wiped at Aurora’s chin. “It isn’t proper to let the juice dribble down your skin, my dear.”

Aurora pushed her hand away. “I’m not your dear. If you have no important reason for infringing upon my solitude, then I’ll be on my way.” She turned and walked away.

La Dame followed her. “But I’m not the only person interrupting your peace, am I?”

“Go away.”

“I think I’ll stay and meet your visitor.”

Aurora froze. “He’s not capable of conversation right now. Go get your entertainment somewhere else.”

For a moment, she wondered if the sorceress had listened to her because she heard no further pursuit. When she reached her home, however, La Dame stood at the door.

“How did you…?”

La Dame’s eyes danced. “You have no idea what I’m capable of, Aurora.” Without another word, she ducked her head and pushed through the door.

Aurora ran after her, stopping inside when she saw the strange man struggling to sit up in bed. When she’d brought him to her home, she’d removed his dirty, blood-soaked clothing and cleaned him as best she could.

He stilled when he saw them. “Who are you?” His voice was deep and rich and so utterly male it took Aurora a moment to realize he’d asked a question.

He didn’t wait for an answer as he lifted the blanket she’d covered him with. “And why am I n***d?”

A blush crept up her cheeks. “Umm…” She rubbed the back of her neck. “You…”

La Dame laughed. “I think what my dear Aurora is trying to tell you, young man, is that she found you injured and alone in the forest before bringing you here where she had to cut away your shirt to tend to your wound. And the rest of your clothing was wrecked from the battle.”

Aurora snapped her gaze to La Dame. “How do you know all of that?” The sorceress hadn’t been there when she’d brought the stranger home.

La Dame shrugged and stepped closer to the man. “I am watching you, young man. Nothing you do goes unnoticed in Dracon.” Before Aurora could stop her, La Dame uttered a few unintelligible words and placed her hand against the man’s head. He struggled against her touch, uttering a few curses that only made La Dame laugh.

“No,” Aurora gasped.

The man slumped back on the bed, his eyes closed.

“What did you do to him?” She dropped to her knees beside the bed.

La Dame walked toward the door. “He wasn’t needed any longer. Be careful, Aurora. One month.” She glanced back at the man. “This one might be the one.”

“What are you talking about?”

La Dame tapped her chin. “You’ll soon find out, I think.” Without another word, she disappeared as if she’d never been there at all.

A tear slipped down Aurora’s cheek. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, leaning over him.

When his chest rose, she sucked in a breath. Not dead. She closed her eyes, thanking the stars La Dame hadn’t taken this stranger’s life. He was only here because of her, and Aurora couldn’t stand to see La Dame take someone else’s life. She already had hers, but it gave her some comfort knowing the people of Bela would go on with their lives, never knowing she’d been there, never missing her.

La Dame required payments for deals she made. She didn’t want deaths. No, nothing so simple as that. She wanted lives. Aurora would sleep for one hundred years, and when she woke, she’d become just another servant of La Dame’s.

Sometimes, Aurora wondered if La Dame only wanted the entertainment her curses provided.

Aurora sighed. “Only one way out,” she whispered to herself. La Dame’s curses always held something twisted. There was a way to break the curse, but it was up to the curse bearer to figure it out, and, once she did, she was sure she’d regret it. No one ever liked the consequences of breaking a curse.

La Dame’s cruelty knew no ends.

She sat back on her heels, watching his chest rise and fall and wishing the world had let her fade into the sleep as her curse demanded. Instead, it had given her one final test.