The Curse

A Heart That Shouldn’t Beat Faster

Chapter 5 – A Heart That Shouldn’t Beat Faster

"I could face a blade without flinching, but the way he looked at me felt like a wound."

The black ash clung to my sheets like it had soaked into the fabric overnight, though when I brushed my fingers over it, it vanished into smoke. My heart was still hammering from the dream — from the way Kael had looked at me before he shattered.

Dreams weren’t supposed to leave proof behind.

I dressed quickly, my hands trembling in ways I didn’t like, and shoved the memory to the back of my mind. But by the time I stepped out of my apartment, Kael was already waiting.

---

He leaned against the wall like he had all the time in the world, his coat dark against the pale morning light. “You dreamed,” he said, not a question.

“How do you—”

“You have ash on your sleeve.”

I brushed at it, but it only smeared darker before fading. “I thought you said not to dream. Guess what? I didn’t exactly have a choice.”

His gaze was steady. “They’re pushing harder. They’re trying to blur the line between your world and theirs.”

“Well, it’s working,” I muttered. “What now?”

---

“Now,” Kael said, “we find the heartstone.”

The words were simple, but the way he said them felt heavier, final. Like something that would change the course of whatever this was.

I followed him to the edge of the city, where crumbling warehouses leaned against each other like drunks. Inside one, the air was stale with dust and rust. At the far end, a massive iron door sat in the floor itself, circular and etched with symbols like the ones on Morwen’s door.

“This is a crossing point,” Kael said. “One of the few left that hasn’t been destroyed.”

“Crossing to where?”

“To the realm where your curse began.”

---

The iron was cold under my fingertips. “And you’re sure the heartstone is there?”

“I’m sure the first piece of the trail is,” he said. “The stone itself will be guarded. The Pact doesn’t give up its bait easily.”

He crouched and pressed his palm to the centre of the door. The symbols flared faintly — not with light, but with shadow, as if they were drinking in what little daylight reached them. The metal groaned, and then the door opened… down.

---

The staircase was narrow, the walls closing in. The air smelled faintly of snow, though no cold touched my skin.

When we reached the bottom, the space opened into a vast cavern. Black water lapped at the edge of a stone platform, and far across the surface, a faint blue glow pulsed like a heartbeat.

“That’s it?” I asked.

“That’s where we start,” Kael said.

---

A small wooden skiff was tied to the platform. I stepped in first, the wood creaking under my weight, then Kael followed, his presence making the boat settle low in the water.

As we rowed toward the glow, the air grew thicker, heavier. I could feel something pressing at my thoughts — not voices exactly, but impressions. Memories.

The first time my father lifted me onto his shoulders. My grandmother’s hands were braiding my hair. Leo is laughing by the lake.

I gripped the edge of the boat until my knuckles hurt. “They’re trying to distract me.”

“They’re trying to weaken you,” Kael corrected.

---

When we reached the far shore, the glow resolved into an archway carved into the rock. Through it, I could see snow falling, even though the air here was warm.

Kael stepped through first, and I followed — into a forest of black trees, their branches sharp as claws. The snow here was silent, muffling even our footsteps.

I’d barely taken ten steps when something moved between the trunks. Not the faceless creature. Not the mimic.

A man.

Tall, broad-shouldered, with eyes the colour of stormlight. My breath caught before I could stop it.

---

“Selene,” he said, his voice warm in a way I hadn’t heard in years. “It’s really you.”

“I don’t—” I started, but Kael’s hand closed around my arm.

“It’s not real,” he said, his tone sharp.

The man smiled sadly. “Not real? You used to dream about me.”

I blinked — and then I remembered. A face from half-formed memories, a boy from my earliest childhood before the curse took my parents. The neighbour’s son. I’d been four, and I’d followed him everywhere.

I had loved him in the way children love — without fear.

And two weeks later, he’d died.

---

The snow thickened, curling between us like a veil. I couldn’t tell if he was getting closer or if the forest was moving around him.

Kael stepped in front of me, his voice low. “This is what Morwen meant. If they can’t kill you, they’ll give you something to love enough to kill yourself for.”

The man’s stormlight eyes softened. “I would never hurt you, Selene. Come with me, and it ends. No more running. No more fear.”

For one dizzy moment, I wanted to.

---

Kael moved fast, pulling me back as the man lunged — and this time, I saw his teeth. Too sharp. Too many.

The thing hit Kael hard, driving him into the snow. I grabbed a fallen branch, swung it with everything I had, and the creature hissed as black smoke burst from its skin.

Kael drove his blade into its chest. The thing writhed, then collapsed into nothing, the snow beneath it untouched.

---

He was breathing hard as he stood, brushing frost from his coat. “We need to move. Now.”

We pressed deeper into the forest until the trees broke into a clearing. At the centre, half-buried in snow, was a stone altar. Resting on it was a shard of something crystalline, glowing faintly blue.

“The first marker,” Kael said.

I reached out — and the moment my fingers touched it, the world tilted.

---

Snow vanished. Trees dissolved. I was standing in my own apartment — except it wasn’t my apartment. Everything was wrong. The walls pulsed faintly, like they were breathing.

In the centre of the room stood a shadow figure, its form shifting and rippling.

“You will love him,” it said in a voice that was every voice I had ever known. “And when you do… You will die

The shadow stepped aside — and Kael was there, standing in the room, blood dripping from his hands.

But when he looked up, his eyes were no longer black.

They were silver.