Assassin of Curses: (The Coren Hart Chronicles Book 3) Jessie Eaker (best reads txt) 📖

How did he know my name?

“I’m not a murderer,” I said. “I merely seek the Griffin’s Key. I need it to restore my princess.”

The queen smiled cruelly. “Such a noble cause,” she said sarcastically. “But all villains say such.”

I spread my arms. “Then who have I killed? I have not harmed anyone.”

She sighed dramatically. “Lies already? Did you not kill your father? Cause him to be drowned, so you could live?”

My head shook in denial. “No, it was Abhulengulus. He...”

The queen waved her hand.

I found myself a child lying on the wet ground beside the swollen river coughing up water. A strange man knelt over me, and he was saying something, but I couldn’t make out the words. I turned my head to the side and saw my father lying next to me. Only, he was white and still—and he wasn’t breathing.

I looked to the man leaning over me in shock.

“You’re lucky to be alive, boy....”

I jerked as I came back to the present, my mind and heart reeling from the memory.

The queen did not pause in her accusations. “And did you not kill your mother’s unborn child. Your very own brother.”

I again shook my head, not understanding. “I don’t have a brother.”

She leaned forward. “But you would have, had you not killed him in the womb.” She smiled cruelly. “Your mother quickened with child right after taking her new husband. But she miscarried.”

“I didn’t...”

The whispers from the others on the wall grew around me. I could barely make out what they were saying, “Guilty...”

The queen waved her hand again.

I was my child self again, a year after my father’s passing. I was kneeling beside my mother. She sat on the edge of her bed with tears slipping down her face. “What’s wrong Mother?” I asked.

She merely shook her head.

I reached out to hug her, but she pushed me away. “Don’t touch me!” she yelled, obviously angry. “Just leave me alone!”

I found myself back in the queen’s chamber. I remembered the event, but at the time had no idea what had happened. My heart filled with guilt.

The queen continued her onslaught. “You stole your brother’s luck before he could take his first breath!”

“No, it...”

The whispers from the other figures grew in volume. “Guilty... murderer....”

“And what about the others. While you may not have killed them, you have certainly made it so they wished they were dead... like your step-sister.”

A man wearing the king’s livery had Docila pinned to a large oak tree, a big hand around her throat. Two others held her arms, bending her back painfully against it. I somehow knew it was Docila only a few months ago.

“Where are the goats!” he demanded.

His grip wouldn’t let her breathe, little alone answer. She shook her head.

The soldier frowned. “So be it.” He grinned evilly and leaned forward until his face nearly touched hers. “Then I’ll have to take something almost as valuable.” He then grabbed the collar of her dress and ripped it open to her waist...

I fell to my knees. “I didn’t...”

“Guilty... murderer... thief....”

But the queen didn’t stop. The scene changed.

Risten sat on the floor of the dungeon, chained to the walls, her face bruised and her lip bleeding.

Wynn was smiling at her. “I think I have just the one for her,” he said. “One that doesn’t require as much myst as some of the others.” He cocked his head to one side. “Send for Lilith.”

Wynn turned back to her. “I think this will be educational for both of you. Lilith tends to drive her hosts insane....”

I gasped for breath.

The murmurs from the figures on the wall continued to rise. “Guilty... murderer... die...!”

I shook my head.

It was laundry day, and Cabrina’s mother had insisted that everything be washed, including the bed linens.

The young girl stood outside, smoothing the white sheet across the drying line. She slid the clothespin into place and then reached for another, only to notice the world had gotten strangely quiet. Curious, she looked up to see a man and a woman standing next to her. The man smiled and unexpectedly grabbed her, wrapping his arms tightly around her and lifting her bodily off the ground. The woman then stepped forward and touched a dark red crystal to Cabrina’s forehead.

Cabrina suddenly felt another presence inside her mind. And that presence shoved her aside and took over her body—

“Please stop,” I begged.

“Guilty... he must die...!”

The visions came faster, rolling from one to another.

“Spraggel! Get back!” I yelled.

The horse stumbled and the girth holding the elder’s saddle broke, throwing him to the ground—

Mikney turned from the keg of ale he was moving to answer a question. He suddenly lost control of the barrel and it rolled back across his leg—

Fumiko stood in her master’s cottage and tried to free herself from the woman holding her. The woman grinned. “I curse you,” the woman whispered. “To become me.”

Fumiko screamed as the entity entered her mind—

I knelt on the ground, tears in my eyes. Had I caused that much pain? That much suffering?

The queen frowned. “There’s not a single one of your family or friends that you haven’t affected. Even the one you said was your true love, Princess Zophia—”

Wynn touched a finger to her chest. “Zophia Olwenna Xernow, Princess of Brethnach, I curse you. I give you the curse of Eternal Transformation!”

A blue glow surrounded her, and she began to change. She screamed in agony as bones crunched and warped, organs came undone and moved inside her, and her skin seemed to melt and reform.

And she felt the excruciating pain of each and every change—

Hot tears slid down my face to land in the dust before me. I couldn’t believe the pain