The Cursed Blood novel · Chapter 11 of 32
Chapter 11: What He Knows
I stood in the doorway and looked down at him.
Four years of his breakfasts.
One night of his cider.
Every part of me that had been an omega wanted to haul him in by the stove and fetch a blanket.
Every part of me that had stood on the Line wanted to shut the door.
"Hettie," I said over my shoulder. "Get up."
She came out of the back room in her nightshirt with a rolling pin in her fist.
Then she saw who it was and lowered it about an inch.
"Oh, good," she said. "It's him."
We got him in by the stove between us.
He was heavier than he looked and colder than snow.
Hettie put a cup of hot water with honey in his hands, because that's what you do for anyone on a step in the dark, even him.
His fingers were black to the nails. The cup rattled against his teeth.
I sat across from him on the floor with my bare feet on the boards.
The post stood on the Line. The black in my wrists was gone. The ground under the floor had drunk it hours ago.
He looked at my clean hands for a long time.
"It doesn't hurt you at all anymore," he said.
"It hurts every time I go near salted ground."
"But you can come up here."
"So can you. It just won't help."
He laughed. It turned into coughing. There was blood on the back of his hand when he took it away.
"You said ask," I said. "So. What do you know?"
He stared into the cup.
"After you said it. Behind the stones. About your mother." He swallowed. "I went to my father's study. He keeps everything. Every sale. Every bride price. Every debt."
"And?"
"Eight years ago he sold the Gap's timber."
I didn't move.
Keep reading free with an account. Start The Cursed Blood from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 10 · All chapters · Chapter 12 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend