Page 79 of Of Curses and Courtship

A worker leads us up the stairs to our promised bedchambers. My hands shake for reasons I cannot understand. Ophelia and I haven’t had time to speak privately since our departure, and now we’ll retire to our separate bedchambers. No matter how I long to keep her close, there is nothing else to do.

“Thank you,” I say to the employee. “I will send a letter if we need anything.”

The worker gives a slight bow and backs away.

“Don’t botherme.” Tibalt yawns and opens the door to his bedchamber. “We’ll rely upon the palace knights tonight, because I’ll be keeping watch of no one. My bones ache.”

I roll my eyes. “Good night, Tibalt.”

At last, Ophelia and I are alone. We stand outside our bedchambers, tension settling into the few feet of space between us. No matter how close we have become, spending an entire day in a cramped carriage, it always feels as though there’s still something in the way.

“What shall we do tomorrow?” Ophelia whispers. “I’m antsy. I’ve been this entire trip—which I’m sure seems short to a well-traveled man such as yourself, but it’s been long for me.”

“You could have fooled me, considering you spent half of it sleeping. You looked rather comfortable.”

Her brows furrow. “Emyr. I’m serious.”

Though the Mercury Palace brings me comfort and is a place I am familiar with, it’s not for Ophelia. I brought her to a strange land, and I suppose I can understand her reservations.

“I know.” I tentatively step closer. “We’ll not do anything to put you in danger. Tomorrow we are visiting a bookshop, and that is all we’ll do.”

The wrinkle in her brow disappears, and her lips tug up just the slightest. “Do you promise?”

“Yes.” I force myself to look away. How she gazes at me is so tender— I do not deserve it. “I’ll see you in the morning, little halfling.”

Something must be said between us, but I’m unwilling to acknowledge what it is. My heart and mind are torn in two directions. I need her—someone on my side, someone who doesn’t share my parents’ beliefs so blindly. But my dreams have been warning me against her. Each night, I toss and turn in the darkness of the curse, and she is there.

These dreams are a reminder of the prophecy. It’s a halfling who will bring great ruin…

But how can it beher? She doesn’t look like a ruin to me. She has become my peace and my friend. Perhaps that’s what makes her so dangerous. The distraction.

The more time I spend with Ophelia, the more I forget about the prophecy in its entirety. It must be wrong. Whoever wrote it is surely a false prophet.

I bid her farewell, though I wish to invite her inside.

The silent bedchamber greets me, and my heavy heart follows me to bed. Ophelia is still on my mind. Dinner is brought to me, and it should be a relaxing night after travel, but my mind is racing too fast for me to catch up.

Ophelia is just on the other side of this wall, settled into a matching bed. How does she look in her nightgown, with sheer white clinging to her chest?

No.

Sleep. I must sleep before my mind gets the better of me.

Hours of tossing and turning feel counterproductive to this desire, and before I know it, there is a knock on the door. My eyes fling open. It is not yet morning, is it?

With shaking hands, I amble from bed, worried about what I’ll find when I open the door. Never did I imagine it would be Ophelia standing there.

I lift a brow. “Do you need something, Miss Ophelia?”

“Yes.” She holds up a half-empty bottle of wine. “I brought this for us to share.” The moon magic book is tucked safely under her other arm.

“It seems you’ve already been sharing it withyourself.”

“Perhaps.” A soft giggle falls past her lips as she pushes past me, inviting herself inside. “I decided it’s not best to drink alone. It’s not very lady-like, after all.”

“But you are not a lady. You told me so yourself, many times.”

“I would have been a lady if my father hadn’t died, leaving me nothing.” This time, her laughter is anything but carefree. It’s wild, cackling until it crumbles into something soft and sad. The morose look only lasts for a moment before she perks up. “Besides, I need your help with this.” She drops the book onto my bed. “I’ve been practicing.”