Assassin of Curses: (The Coren Hart Chronicles Book 3) by Jessie Eaker (best novels in english TXT) 📕

But I stopped when I noticed Cabrina frown and flick her eyes toward my bed. Did she want me to sit too?

“Please,” she begged. “Just something simple. Mistress Fumiko and I were playing a staring game earlier. How about that? I bet you can’t outstare me. She couldn’t.”

What was she up to? I sat on the bed a respectful distance away from her. “All right. But just for a little while.”

She grinned. “First one to blink loses. On three. One... two... three!”

Suddenly, we were surrounded by a glowing blue myst barrier. She smiled smugly.

I pointed to the barrier around us. “What are you doing?”

“It’s so we can talk in private,” she stated matter of factly. She grinned and bounced over to the glowing blue wall. “Pretty good, huh? On the outside, it looks like we’re quietly staring at each other.” She put her hands behind her back and rocked on her heels. “Cabrina thought it up. She’s getting better at using her myst.” I detected a note of pride from No-name.

“Won’t they know what you’re doing?”

She shrugged. “They might, but it’s the best we could come up with.”

I nodded. “What did you want to talk about?”

“That advisor’s myst working.” She sighed. “While it may have looked impressive, it wasn’t really. He only adjusted the princess’s charm and didn’t even touch yours.”

“I suspected as much.”

“But he did do something to mine.”

I looked up at her in surprise, and she turned away.

“What did he do?”

She sighed deeply. “Sir Coren, please don’t hate me,” she looked up at me in apprehension. “But I lied to you.”

My eyes went up in concern. Had I trusted her too much? While she looked and acted like a girl, she was still a Dark Avenyts. “In what way?”

She grimaced. “Cabrina knows what I’m about to tell you. It’s what we were talking about a few moments ago. She’s been saying we should tell you ever since you saved us from Mistress Fumiko’s questioning. But I was afraid, and we held off.” She looked up at me. “You see, the charms I placed on you and the princess are quite powerful and require a lot of myst to activate. So much that it would have completely depleted our myst.” She gazed at me levelly. “After I activated the charms, Cabrina and I were supposed to die.”

My eyes widened. It explained a lot. “That’s why you don’t have any directives. You weren’t going to need any.”

She looked down and nodded. “The entrapment portion never included me. It was only for you and the princess. I lied about it because I was afraid you would kill Cabrina. And I couldn’t allow that to happen. You could have cut mine off at any time, killed me even, and nothing would have happened.” She licked her lips. “Only now, Advisor Yonge activated it. I can’t take it off now.”

Which meant Yonge was likely behind Zofie’s strange behavior. But one more thing bothered me. “You said the charms were supposed to drain you. But they didn’t. How did you survive?”

Cabrina took a deep breath. She stepped close and gazed at me for a moment before answering. “Someone saved us. It was in that fraction of a second that the spell was activating. All of Cabrina’s myst was draining away, and we were dying. The pain was horrible. I remember telling her I was so sorry, but I had no choice. I could only do what I was made to do.” She grabbed the front of my shirt and looked up at me with tears in her eyes. “And you know what she told me? She said she forgave me. I couldn’t understand why, still can’t understand. What I did was killing her. And yet she forgave me.” She released my shirt. An expression of wonder came over her. “And then I felt a presence behind me. A big presence. It was nothing like I had ever felt before. And this deep booming voice spoke to me saying, It’s not yet your time, little one. You are everything I hoped for.” Cabrina gazed into my eyes. “It was Abhulengulus. He did something. Opened some hidden gate, and myst flowed through us. A lot of it.” She looked away. “That’s when we passed out.”

My mouth gaped open. I remembered the event. At the time, I had thought Abhulengulus was speaking to me. But it had been to No-name. He had not only acted to provide her myst, but had simultaneously deflected whatever harm the charm had intended for me, taking it on himself. I sighed. There was no doubt, Abe had saved us both. Not for the first time, I wondered at Abe’s depth. He was much, much more than he appeared to be.

Which meant I had another reason to confront Yonge. I wanted Abe back.

“We need to find Zofie and Fumiko.” I looked toward the door and the guards that were standing outside it. “But we have to get past them first. A direct assault won’t work. We have no weapons, and their armor is likely myst shielded.”

Cabrina shrugged. “Easy. Just be ready, and don’t worry about me. I’ll catch up to you later.” She sat back down on the bed in the same spot she’d been in before erecting the barrier. She grinned. “Now play along.” The blue glow suddenly vanished.

She rubbed her eyes. “I don’t believe it, you beat me,” resuming the ruse she had started. “Maybe we can have a rematch. But first, I need to visit the bath.”

Cabrina rose and strode into the common room but paused in its center...

And gave a blood-curdling scream.

Both of the guards immediately stepped into the room, alert for any attackers. She ran to the nearest and put her arms around him. “I’m so afraid! I saw someone heading toward the myst light. He