“I may be human, but you do not know me. To dismiss me because of my lineage is exactly what humans have done to your people for centuries. You have threatened me, and yet here I stand, willing to hear you out. All I ask is for the same courtesy.”
“Courtesy?” he drawled, as if it were some filthy word. The rest of the men sniggered. “Your kind are a blight on this island. A curse.”
My people were not—
Wait a minute.
A blight…
Acurse…
Bloody hell.
It couldn’t be that simple…could it?
All this time, we’d been searching for cures for poison when the land wasn’t poisoned at all.
It wascursed.
If the darkness plaguing this land was a curse, there was only one way to break it.
True love’s kiss.
I threw my arms around the pooka. His body went stiff as a board. “Thank you,” I said, meaning every word.
When I let him go, he stood there gaping at me as I hurried to the closest cell and unlocked the door. The men inside fell silent and still as the stones around us. I unlocked the second door, and the third. Aveen asked what I was doing. Wasn’t it obvious? “I’m letting these men go.” No good would come from their imprisonment, and I refused to let them become martyrs because of me. That would do more harm than good. Perhaps a bit of faith in their ability to change their minds and witnessing kindness from someone they hated would be enough.
“Rían will…”
“He will get over it.” And if he didn’t, he could take it up with me.
“Not likely,” she muttered under her breath.
The men started to gather outside the cells, filling the cramped space around us. I met Cormac’s wide stare with my own. “We aren’t all monsters,” I told him. “I hope in time that you can see that for yourself.”
With that, I whirled and caught my sister’s hand, dragging her up the stairs with me. Outside, the sun shone even brighter than before, as if it, too, had hope.
“What’s in your head?” Aveen asked, struggling to match my longer strides.
“Did you hear Cormac? It’s not a blight, it’s a curse. It’s a bloody curse!” We were running scared, abandoning our country, when we should’ve been doing the exact opposite: showing this beautiful place that we cared. That we were willing to fight. That we loved this land and these people with our entire being. “And what’s the only force strong enough to break a curse?”
Aveen’s lips lifted. “True love.”
“Exactly.” I hauled her to where the roses had dried and withered between their thorny stems.
This land wascursed.
It didn’t need more spells.
It needed love.
I removed my shoes and left them next to the blackened laurels. If my theory was correct, Tadgh’s ring on my finger would repel the curse. I’d have nothing to fear. I stepped onto the burnt, barren ground.
“Keelynn! You can’t—”
“I’ll be fine.” The curse writhed beneath my feet, searching for a way through the magical barrier created by Tadhg’s mother’s ring. One it would never find. Aveen remained on the patch of gravel, her gaze fixed on my toes peeking from beneath my skirt.
I knelt right there on the ground and buried my hands in the onyx dust. “I love this land,” I said to the cursed earth, the sky and the blazing sun high above. “This is my kingdom. My home.” From the rolling hills to the cliffs defying the sea and everything in between. I loved it all.