She Stole My Curse novel · Chapter 23 of 32

Chapter 23: Free

"Fifteen days," I said. "Count them carefully."

Isveth laughed and turned back toward Pearlmere.

We watched her go until her glow was a violet speck in the dark.

"She's going to be very surprised," Corwen said.

"Yes," I said.

"Should we feel sorry for her?"

"No," said the old nurse from her basket.

Aurek slept until the middle of the next afternoon.

I sat by the bed and watched him.

He didn't twitch. He didn't mutter. He didn't wake every hour with his hands clenched all summer.

When he finally opened his eyes, he looked at the porthole, and the daylight in it, and sat bolt upright.

"What happened? What did I break?"

"Nothing," I said. "You slept."

He stared at me.

"All night?"

"All night and half a day."

He lay back down slowly and looked at the ceiling.

"I haven't slept a whole night since I was fourteen," he said.

Then he started to laugh, and he couldn't stop.

The first week was strange for everyone.

He kept reaching for currents that weren't there.

He'd push off from the hull to swim to the Shallows and drift sideways into the kelp sheds.

The girl with the torn fin had to tow him back twice.

Corwen strung a guide rope from the gate to the kitchen door and hung a sign on it in big letters.

"For the king," Corwen said. "Since he swims like a drunk eel now."

"You can't read," the old nurse said. "Who wrote it?"

"The maid. I told her what to write."

The sign said FOR THE KING. The maid had added, underneath, in smaller letters, AND CORWEN.

Aurek was cold, too.

He'd run warm all his life, the dragon blood, and now he shivered in the morning water like everyone else.

The old nurse knitted him a sweater out of kelp wool.

It had a fish on it.

He wore it every day.

And he was hungry. He was hungry all the time.

"Where does it go?" the old nurse demanded, watching him eat his third bowl. "Where does it all go, boy?"

"I don't know," he said, with his mouth full. "It used to go to the dragon, I think."

He laughed every time he said that word now. Like it was a joke he was still getting used to.

But on the fourth evening I found him on the hull roof, alone.

← Chapter 22 · All chapters · Chapter 24 →

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