Page 67 of Between Ghosts and Gods

“What are you…?”

The demon ignored her. A terrible croaking chuckle, like the creak of a rusty door hinge, escaped her throat. “The damn heavens…”

Kasu had never seen a demon lord die. It was horrific. It was beautiful. As the Pale Lady lay there, her body slowly transformed into a swarm of moths. Velveteen wings brushed past Kasu’s face, leaving behind nothing but a set of empty robes.

“Sunan?” Kasu turned to face the curse.

The white wolf stared back at her. Every blood-red eye that dotted the curse’s body stared back.

Arun dropped the fake sword.

“M–Mother?”

Chapter Thirty-Three Kasu

Kasu grabbed Arun by the arm as he took a faltering step forward.

“That’s not your mother. Curses are born from human emotion, from their resentment and hatred. They come from people, but they’re not the people themselves!”

Desperation and hope warred in Arun’s expression. His eyes remained pinned on the wolf.

“How…” A whisper escaped his lips.

Kasu’s grip tightened.

“Whatever Lady Camellia did to your mother to create the elixir must have been painful.”

Torturous, in fact, though she didn’t want to say it aloud. Arun had already been through enough. She wanted to spare him from any further hurt.

Nothing could be created from nothing. To give birth to a curse, you had to burn with the kind of resentment that consumed your every waking moment, to bleed on the fishhooks of your own spite until, finally, you died mired in anguish and hatred. Those who created curses always suffered in equal or greater measure to the ones they cursed.

Kasu didn’t want Arun to have to think about his mother’s suffering.

“Can’t it tell me anything about my mother? About her last days?”

“It won’t remember,” Ruo purred. “A young curse is a being of instinct. You’re born with only a mission and a sensation. Thoughts come after. For me, that sensation was hunger. I remember hunger like a chasm. A woman I had to kill. Mother, mother, you betrayed me. Mother, I hate you.”

The cat’s voice wrapped around them like a curling snake. Kasu shivered.

She wasn’t sure how long they all stood there, frozen in place as Arun and the wolf stared at one another.

Then, the curse began to tremble.

“No… No…” A strange, hollow voice echoed from deep within the wolf’s chest.

“Mother – whoever you are – talk to me!” Arun looked stricken.

The curse shook harder. Something was wrong. “Pain… Pain…”

Kasu glanced at Ruo. If anyone knew what the wolf was going through, it was a fellow curse, but Ruo simply shook their head and flicked their double tails.

Silently, the wolf backed away until they were teetering on the edge of the platform. Their body faded, the tip of their tail and the tufts of their fur crumbling away like dust.

Of course. After spending so much time with Ruo, Kasu had almost forgotten.

Most curses disappeared after killing their targets.

Her gaze darted to the Pale Lady’s remains.