Withering Rose (Once Upon A Curse Book 2) (21 page)

The corners of his lips twitch. "Sure."

His voice sounds undeniably intrigued. I
follow him inside, and we pause by a glass display. Cole opens it,
grabbing all twelve of the porcelain plates arranged inside,
handing them to me in a stack.

I lift one. It's beautiful, painted with
delicate flowers.

But that's the wrong image.

It only reminds me of my magic. And of my
anger. And of the rage I've been suppressing that is suddenly
undeniable.

I hurl the plate, watching with satisfaction
as it crashes into the wall and shatters into a thousand
pieces.

Then I throw another.

And another.

My arm is sore, but I don't care. It feels
so good to just embrace the anger for a little while, to use it all
up and let it drain away.

The plates are gone before I even realize
it.

My hands feel unsatisfyingly empty.

"Is it wrong that I find all of this
incredibly sexy?"

I turn to Cole.

The air around him simmers.

His eyes travel all the way up and down my
body, slowly, taking in every curve. But when he finds my eyes, he
pauses. "You're not done yet, are you?"

I want to give in to the temptations dancing
in his sizzling silver eyes, but my fingers itch to keep causing
some destruction. I don't really know what's gotten into me, but I
kind of like it.

"Hit me," Cole orders.

"What?" I step back, shocked. "No."

He rolls his eyes. "You're not going to hurt
me. And I'd rather take a bruise or two than destroy the entire
castle."

"But," I protest.

He steps closer, squaring his shoulders. I
always forget how much he towers over me, how truly intimidating he
is—long limbs, broad chest, hard muscles.

"Just do it," he orders, totally amused.

I can tell he thinks my rage is adorable. I
latch on to that annoyance.

Oh, I'll show him adorable.

I throw my fist into his chest.

Cole doesn't even flinch. Doesn't move. He's
a wall of stone. The side of my hand stings.

I do it again. And again.

Blinded by the fear and frustration, I keep
releasing all the pain. Has my life always been one big inescapable
trap? I can't escape the magic. I can't break the curse. Will I
ever just be free?

So I let go.

I lose myself.

I scream and shout and yell.

I let the wildness take over.

I embrace this brief sensation of
freedom.

And when I finally return to myself, I
realize Cole's arms are wrapped tightly around me, and he's
whispering soothingly into my ear. My tears soak his shirt. I'm
trembling. And when I hug him back, pulling him closer, he runs his
fingers through my hair.

"It's okay," he whispers. "We'll be okay.
We'll figure everything out."

I nod against his chest, sniffling, trying
to regain control.

But control isn’t what I want.

So I lift my head, searching for a different
sort of abandon. Our lips find each other immediately, colliding
fast and fierce. I run my hands up the contours of Cole's chest,
searching to close any distance between us.

The sound of a gun being fired stops me
cold.

Cole and I freeze. The bullet ricochets off
the wall before burying into a book, but the echo of that blast
lingers, ringing through my ears, making the hairs on my arms stand
straight up. A deadly sort of quiet permeates the air, stretching
dangerously on.

I'm afraid to move.

The sound came from over Cole's shoulder,
but he's too broad for me to peer around. So I glance up, only to
realize his eyes are hard and edged with the promise of
violence.

And then a girl's voice breaks the
stillness.

"Let her go, or the next one goes straight
through your skull."

Or the next one goes straight through your
skull.

The words repeat in my head. Twice. Three
times. Four.

Each time, they sound more threatening. More
dangerous. Cole's body trembles beneath my hands, and I know it is
taking every ounce of control he has to hold back a shift. We're
too close. He won’t risk changing into the bear when his arms are
still wrapped around me, when his claws could very easily dig into
my skin.

But my magic hums.

Aches to be used.

And I'm still too high on the wildness that
coursed through me, too eager for destruction, so I give into that
pull. I let the recklessness wash over me, and I surrender to the
power coursing through me.

The windows behind me shatter.

I push my way around Cole as the vines break
through glass and soar across the room, roping around the
stranger's gun and tossing it to the floor. I bind her arms and
legs before propelling the ivy into the wall, knocking her head
hard against stone. She blinks as though seeing stars, but I don't
pause. I'm too consumed by the magic and by her words. Before she
has time to fight back, the twisting vines are latched to the wall,
growing steadily around her, securing her so she can barely
move.

Everything is over in seconds.

I pant as I force the magic to shut off,
gritting my teeth as the pain takes over. Fire and ice consume my
heart. Cole catches me as I fall against him, watching me with
concern and confusion. He still doesn’t know exactly what my curse
is, just that it hurts. But the way his fingers run soothingly up
and down my arms makes the ache the tiniest bit easier to bear.

Another petal falls.

Another chunk of time slips away.

Seconds I could have spent with Cole.

Minutes I might have lost with my
father.

Maybe even days, I have no idea.

All I know is that some of my life is gone,
and this girl is to blame.

"Who are you?" I spit through my clenched
jaw.

She doesn't say anything. She just stares at
me.

I find myself mesmerized by the emerald
color of her eyes. So brilliant, as though backed by fire. And
right now they're full of an odd mix of hate and confusion that I
can't even begin to understand. Her lips purse as the stare turns
into a glare. Something about her reminds me of the sun, maybe the
golden glow of her skin, made all the brighter by the dark, nearly
black color of her hair. Or maybe it's her attitude, angry and
blazing.

Steps echo from the hall. The loud pound of
boots.

Everything about this hard girl softens at
the sound.

And I realize why a moment later as a boy
comes running into the room, crashing against the door frame,
panting.

"Why." He wheezes. "Are you." He takes a
deep breath. "So much." He exhales loudly. "Faster than me?"

The girl smirks arrogantly.

And then he looks up, searching for her.

It's my turn to gasp.

Something about him is so incredibly
familiar. The icy blond hair. The fair, pale skin. The gentle smile
that is rapidly turning to a frown as he looks around the room,
eyes landing on the girl latched to the wall by my ivy. When his
glance turns to me, my jaw drops. I would recognize those indigo
eyes anywhere.

I used to imagine them in my dreams.

I used to imagine him in my dreams.

"Asher?"

The question falls from my lips, thick with
disbelief.

His wide, light-hearted smile is back. "In
the flesh." He bows deeply, just like the prince I remember him to
be. And then he shrugs. "We're, uh, well, we're here to rescue
you…?"

"She doesn't need rescuing," Cole growls
from behind me, voice rumbling dangerously.

Asher jumps a little, laughing uneasily.
"Yeah, well, it seems I was a little misinformed. Now, if you would
kindly let Jade down, maybe we can all talk this out."

"Jade?" I ask. Isn’t that a stone?

Asher just points to the girl on the wall
who is glaring at all of us. If it were possible for her to cross
her arms, I imagine that's what she'd be doing. And maybe tapping
her foot impatiently as well.

Two can play at that game.

I step forward, cocking my hip. "Will she
promise not to shoot at us again?"

"Jade!" Asher rolls his eyes and throws a
sidelong glance at the girl, who is suddenly looking up at the
ceiling as though it's the most interesting thing she's ever seen.
"I thought we talked about this," he teases. "Speak first, shoot
second. Or, you know, shoot never." And then he turns to me, still
grinning easily, as though his face doesn’t understand any other
sort of expression. "We're still working on it, but she'll play
nice, I promise."

"I can hear you, you know," Jade chirps,
still latched to the wall. Though I notice her muscles are strained
as though she's trying to break through the binds. Then she sighs
exasperatingly. "Besides, we both heard her crying and screaming. I
thought he was hurting her."

Cole snarls quietly. "I would never hurt
her."

"Well, you could have fooled me," Jade
retorts.

They glare at each other. Stormy eyes
meeting fiery ones, equal in strength and fight, neither going to
back down anytime soon.

I look at Asher, unsure what to do. But he
pleads with me silently, imploring with his plum-laced eyes. And I
relent, using a smidge of magic to loosen the vines, remembering a
time when those violet-hued eyes were the only thing giving me hope
that someday I would eventually find a place where I belonged. At
the time, I thought it would be by his side. But—

A thought bubbles to the surface.

"You died!" I exclaim suddenly, remembering
the announcement back at the base, the one that made me realize I
couldn’t spend my life in hiding any longer. New York City had
fallen, the magic holding it hostage had disappeared, Queen Deirdre
and Asher had been defeated. So how is he standing before me now,
very much alive?

I jump closer to him, pulled by a magnetic
force. My fingers find his, latching onto his hands, yanking on him
until I know I have his full attention.

"You got rid of your magic, didn’t you?" I
ask, begging for more information. "You released it? How? When?
How?"

I'm too excited to think clearly. Too
overwhelmed to realize how close I'm leaning into him. Too stunned
to notice that two sets of furious, jealous eyes are now watching
the spot where my hands clutch Asher's.

But he's not.

Gently, he shakes free of my hold, glancing
quickly toward Jade with a hint of guilt clouding his
expression.

I don't understand why until the thunderous
voice behind me asks, "How, exactly, do you two know each
other?"

My eyes find Cole's.

My mouth goes dry. My tongue feels heavy.
For some reason, I feel the sudden urge to apologize, to explain
myself, even though I know I didn’t really do anything wrong. But
before I can answer, a different female voice chimes in.

"So I wasn't the last to know?" Jade
comments lightly, too soft for a girl I already know is made up of
hard edges.

"To know what?" Cole asks darkly.

Jade glances pointedly from me to Asher,
then back to Cole, smiling sharply. "Omorose and Asher," she starts
slowly. Her voice simmers, and I can't help but notice a protective
edge to it, as though she's silently claiming her ground. "They're
engaged."

Oh, for the love of—

"What?" Cole growls.

I jump in immediately, reaching for his
trembling arms, getting close enough that I force him yet again to
maintain control. His gray eyes are little more than churning storm
clouds, dark and tumultuous as they look down at me. "We were," I
say quickly, emphasizing the word
were
. "But that was a
million years ago, in a different world, before the earthquake,
before everything changed, before I met you."

His brows twitch, and instantly I know it's
not fury he's feeling, but hurt. Deep, painful hurt. "Why didn’t
you tell me?"

I swallow. "Because I thought he was dead. I
didn’t think there was anything to tell. And even if he was alive,
I didn’t think it mattered. Not anymore. Not with everything that's
happened, not with everything we've been through together."

"Ha!" I hear suddenly, and it's Asher's
triumphant cry. "I told you!" he exclaims. Jade frowns. But at the
same time, the corners of her lips are pulling up, as though she is
secretly thrilled. "I told you she would say that. I told you she
wouldn't care. I win. You lose. Next time we're home, you owe me
one movie of my choosing. Something with a little less explosive
destruction and a little more warm, gooey feelings. Ha!"

I blink a few times, utterly confused.

Jade doesn’t respond, but her grin takes
over. With her face soft and joyous, she looks so beautiful,
radiant even. And so does Asher. The space between them fills with
something palpable, electric, making me feel like the intruder.