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

by Brigid Kemmerer

My father never had a quarrel with Karis Luran—but then, he was alive to prevent such a thing.

“Do you not understand that my entire staff, my entire armed force, consists solely of Commander Grey?

I’ve spent over three hundred seasons trying to save my people from a merciless creature, and it’s left me with no way to save them from outsiders.

“Well, aren’t you technically the king now? Can’t you do something?”

I find myself wishing that she truly was a warrior princess from a distant land.

She faced those men without fear. She faces me without fear.

I remembered what it was like to want to touch a girl, not as part of a carefully planned seduction designed to lure her into breaking this curse.

“I swore an oath. When I did so, I meant it.” I give him a wan smile. “I am certain the others meant it, too, Grey.”

“You are the first girl I’ve claimed from the other side who has such familiarity with horses. Why?”

My father was a farmer.”

“I grew up intending to inherit farmland.”

Over time, much of our land was sold. Much of our livestock. Our crops suffered.

You joined the castle guard and you earned the monumental privilege of guarding Rhen.”

“You know what really sucks about this curse? Whoever put it in place screwed a lot of people who did nothing wrong.”

“You have a lot more faith in him than I do.”

“I have faith in you, too, my lady. Put the blade in the ground.”

“If you have come to trust me, that means you may come to trust him.”

“Watch your tone, Commander. I seek your counsel, not your contempt.”

“But—for what purpose? Your obligation is to Harper—” “No. My obligation is to the people of Emberfall.” I take a step forward. “And your obligation is to me.”

I think His Highness will not like it. Well, that was patently obvious.

Why did she keep on provoking them for no reason other than pettiness?

Rhen’s eyes are full of empathy. Manufactured, I’m sure.

He's trying to be nice!

“You don’t get something just because you want it. Most people learn that by the time they’re six.” “Not most princes, clearly.” I keep my voice light, hoping she will open the door.

It’s so much easier to think of my monster as something separate.

I have no memory of their deaths—only the memory of their bodies, dismembered and scattered about the Great Hall.

“I never know when to trust you. Everything always sounds so calculated.” I jerk back, stung.

because fate seems content to surprise me this season,

“What’s wrong with you? Hasn’t anyone ever given you a hug?” I feel so off balance. “Not—not in recent memory.”

“My father once said we are all dealt a hand at birth. A good hand can ultimately lose—just as a poor hand can win—but we must all play the cards fate deals. The choices we face may not be the choices we want, but they are choices nonetheless.”

“Grey has grown skilled at finding girls who have no family, no one to miss them.” I pause and look at her. “Often there is no trickery to it—they come willingly, with little more than the promise of a safe place to sleep. You, I suspect, would not have been lured so easily.”

Make sense they are looking for those without a home

“But failure seems such a certainty that I have learned to guard myself from disappointment.”

We’ve formed a truce. Sort of.

because he’s stopped talking about being cursed by something—and he’s started talking about doing something.

“This is now my kingdom. I may not be able to save myself—but I may be able to save my people.”

I began joining my father on matters of state when I was ten years old. I had my own advisers by the time I was sixteen. I may not be able to find a path out of this curse, but I was raised to rule this kingdom.”

When I was ten, Mom was throwing my blankets on the floor to wake me up for school.

She finally trusts me—and just as clearly wants nothing to do with me.

“You should be more worried about Lady Lilith. Grey can do nothing to stop her.”

“What you have heard is correct. The royal family has fled Emberfall.”

frightening—I remember worrying that they would fall to earth one day, that we’d be surrounded by dead bodies.

Now I find it shameful to think that my father and mother could be looking down, watching my failure season after season.

They were good at being hidden in more than one way. Or maybe I was good at not noticing what was right in front of me.

Grey is nothing if not honest.

“You did not force me.” He sounds puzzled, almost incredulous.

“I do not deserve your loyalty, Grey.” “Deserved or not, you have it.”

Now that he has a plan in mind, he’s a man on a mission.

Seeing him in the sun with bare forearms and sweat on his brow makes my eyes want to linger.

“Do you fear providing enchanted food to your people?” “I fear not feeding them more.”

“Commander Grey likes to feel necessary.”

Grey pushes sweat-dampened hair off his forehead and says, “Commander Grey is going to regret saying that.”

“Because I sense that you feel every move you make must be an act of aggression.