A Curse So Dark and Lonely (Cursebreakers, #1)

by Brigid Kemmerer

I need to keep convincing myself that this forced companionship is false, that he’s the enemy here.

This feels like the moment when I crossed a line in my head and wrapped my arms around Rhen’s waist.

“I know the Royal Guard forsakes spirits.”

Grey stares at me. “That is how you escaped? You climbed down the trellis?” “Fell,” I say. “I fell down the trellis. I took most of it with me.”

With one question, Rhen has tripled the tension in the room.

This tension reminds me of how it felt when the loan sharks would come to hassle my father.

So you will forgive me for careless words, but it seems that the king has no sympathy for the people who make up this kingdom, and cares only for those in his own circle.”

I’m finding that Grey has a dark sense of humor hidden under the formality. It’s subversive. I like

“He’s on his own playing cards,” I mutter. No wonder people recognize him on sight. “Wild.”

“Your own leaders are on your currency.” Grey gestures for the card I hold, then deftly shuffles it into the deck. “Is this so different?”

The curse began on the first day of autumn in my twentieth year, and lasts one season. When it is not broken, the season begins anew.”

It is more like a dream than a memory.”

“How old is Rhen?” “You arrived on the eighteenth anniversary of his birth.”

But I have seen the curse go unbroken for so long that I’m not sure there is anything you can consciously do.”

I don’t want to feel sympathy for Rhen—but thoughts of Jake and my mother are so consuming that I can’t help it.

“If the people were to discover their rulers are dead, the problems could be far-reaching. Revolt. Civil war. The kingdom could be attacked, and we have no army with which to fight.”

“That is a complicated question, my lady. Likely for the same reason I never found need to face them with a weapon.” I study him. “Are you insulting me?”

“Have you not figured it out yet? The curse torments us all.”

Five years, the innkeeper said. It is truly a miracle that my subjects will still kneel to me—especially since I have nothing to offer them.

She has an uncanny talent of pricking every nerve ending I have.

As soon as I have the thought, I feel childish. Petty, the way I felt when I ordered Grey out into the snow.

Harper speaks in a manner that leaves no room for disrespect. Like a ruler, not a subject.

He plays well, but his moves are never calculated in advance, and are always in response to mine.

I wonder how Harper plays. A part of me hates that Grey already knows.

For the first time, I wonder what it must be like to live in a place that resets over and over again—minus his family.

I have laid the truth at her feet, and I am no more sure that she will accept it.

I have not laid the entire truth at her feet. Not about what I will become.

“I have found that revealing the nature of the task is the quickest way to assure failure.”

“Why? What am I supposed to do?” she says, her expression piercing. “Fall in love with you?” I almost drop the glass.

“The season begins again if I die.”

still with her hand on a new twist of dough. “So I could kill you and get to go home?” “I have no way of knowing for sure. The seasons begin again. The girls are gone.”

“Any other season and I would hand you a weapon and invite you to try.”

“Do you not understand that she was the cause of the damage you found on the third floor?” My voice is low and vicious and full of remembered pain.

People are quick to kneel before him—but he’s also quick to expect it.

I’ve never fallen in love with anyone, much less someone who snatched me right off the street.

He was handsome yesterday, but that was nothing on this. All he’s missing is a crown.

I hate that my heart flutters, just a little, sending warmth to my cheeks.

“The longer I know you, the less I see your acts as those of bravery.

I’m not used to fear, at least not this kind. I have never met someone so reckless.

She is the first girl to force me into situations requiring armor and weaponry.

Rhen is so confusing. He doesn’t act like a man who’s trying to fall in love.

Somehow, despite the fact that he trapped me in Emberfall, his distrust seems to run deeper.

“Lord Vincent Aldrhen, Prince of Emberfall, son of Broderick, King of the Eastern Lands.”

“This land will be under the rule of Karis Luran soon enough. I’ll take what I came for.” He steps forward. “Burn it. Kill them all.”

“You would dare threaten the first daughter to the King of Disi?”

Fascination that this reckless, maddening girl stood up to them.

Nor can I. Everything she does is so unexpected.

“If I knew no better,” I say, “I would have believed you myself.” I give her a sideways glance. “Are you born of royalty? In your world?”

“Why would I have need to invent a name? I truly am the Crown Prince of Emberfall.”

“Karis Luran is not a what. She is the Queen of Syhl Shallow.”