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

She smiled. “The host, of course. That’s the difference between their thinking. The Dark Avenyts believe that the host is flawed and must be tightly controlled for their own well-being. However, the Light Avenyts do not believe in directly interfering with the decisions of the host. They also believe the host is flawed, but that the only way they will improve is to make mistakes and learn from them.”

She paused, and her eyes flicked to the right. “Uy says I’m getting off track. I do tend to do that. Oh, and Uy is my Avenyts. Her full name is Uylendiseeizna.” She nodded. “So tell me about this charm that is causing you so much trouble.”

“Well, Zofie has lost her will, and Abe has gone silent. But they have spoken to me when I’ve been in trouble. For instance, right before your people found us, Abe, speaking through Zofie, warned me to be nice to you. During one of those times, he mentioned that Zofie was working on him from the inside.”

She looked up as her daughter returned and again sat behind her. “That is interesting. Perhaps we should go visit them.”

I looked up in surprise. “Go visit?”

She glanced over her shoulder to the girl behind her. “Keep watch.”

The girl nodded.

Kaleefah looked back to me and gave one of those toothy smiles. She held out her hand.

I gingerly took it. Not sure what I was getting myself into.

To my surprise, she held out her other hand toward Cabrina. “You too, child. You must see the damage you have wrought.”

Cabrina gave the hand a look of loathing. Her eyes briefly flicked toward the door as if she was considering running.

Kaleefah wiggled her fingers. “Are you afraid to meet those you’ve injured?”

Cabrina stared at her a moment. “Yes.”

Kaleefah gave a broad smile. “Good, there’s hope for you yet.”

Cabrina slowly stretched forward, but the elder quickly reached forward and snatched her hand.

Kaleefah looked to the others. “We’ll be back in five heartbeats.”

The hairs on my neck rose as I felt a powerful surge of myst, and for me, the world suddenly changed. I found myself standing in a place of all gray: everything around me, for as far as the eye could see, was a dull light gray. I had been to this place before. It was the realm of curses.

In front of me stood Kaleefah, and even though she was of a different species, I could tell this was a younger version of herself. All her wrinkles were gone, and she was a brilliant yellow color. She was dressed in a pale robe of a similar shade. It was painful to look at her because of how she contrasted with the gray world. While she was beautiful, it was obvious she didn’t belong here. Like me, she was visiting.

Looming beside her was the stick figure of a curse—arms and legs nothing more than simple lines, with a large circle for a head. Uylendiseeizna. And like the other curses of this realm, this one had a symbol inside her circle head—a tropical flower I was unable to identify. And as I had with other curse figures, I sensed movement inside her head from tiny gears rolling about and giving off specks of light, rapidly whirling and flashing. It was almost hypnotic.

Beside her stood a very surprised Cabrina. She was looking around wild-eyed and seemed ready to panic. On her shoulder sat a smaller version of a curse stick figure. Like the others, this one had a circle for a head, but there was no symbol inside it. It had to be No-name.

She patted Cabrina on the head. “Be calm. There is nothing to be frightened of here.”

“Oh yeah,” Cabrina answered. “Then w-w-why are you scared too.”

I felt a presence behind me and turned to see someone I was completely unprepared to see. Zofie. She had both hands balled into fists and was beating on some kind of invisible barrier. She was yelling at me, but there was no sound.

And beside her stood a curse I knew instantly. It was Abe—a stick figure with the single eye of his curse anchor in his round head. Only, he was frozen in place. If I looked closely, I could see that the tiny gears in his head were motionless.

I ran to Zofie and placed my hands against the barrier. “I can’t hear you,” I yelled.

She stopped pounding on the invisible wall and gazed at me forlornly. So close and yet so far.

“This is interesting.” Kaleefah came up beside me. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

She reached out with a single finger and touched the barrier. The tip of the digit glowed, and when she pushed, the barrier stretched slightly, but it did not break.

Uy leaned to Kaleefah and whispered something in her ear.

Kaleefah nodded. “You’re right. This is some sort of charm.” She looked back at it in puzzlement. “But why is it here? Curses are blind to charms. And why is Princess Zophia in there? A charm can’t do that.” She gave a very snakelike hiss.

Uy again leaned down and whispered.

She looked to Abe and stepped to stand in front of him. “Can you understand me?”

Abe remained motionless.

Kaleefah gave another very snakelike hiss. She suddenly reared back, her right hand starting to glow, and smacked the barrier hard. The entire wall quivered and took up the glow, but like the surface of a lake, it quickly settled.

Uy leaned down and whispered to her again.

Kaleefah turned in my direction and gave me a considering look. “Didn’t you say that Princess Zophia had talked to you?”

“Yes, but it was only briefly and usually at the worst possible times—like when we were going to be killed.”

She growled deep in the back of her throat. She looked over to Abe and