Malice by Heather Walter (young adult books to read .txt) 📕

Mariel seizes Aurora’s wrist and slides up her sleeve, running her thumb over the spot where the thorn-riddled Briar rose once rested. “It’s truly broken. Oh, what wonderful news. Tell us what happened. We’ve been looking for you all night.”

“It is wonderful news.” There’s a slight hitch in Aurora’s voice, but she clears it. Steels herself. “And it’s true. I have found my true love.”

“The prince?” The queen claps her hands, beaming. A taste like charred deathknot fills my mouth. “I knew that kiss Elias gave you at the celebration was too chaste. You found each other later. That’s what did it.”

“Obviously she did,” Tarkin scoffs. “Showing up here in last night’s rumpled gown.”

Heat burns down my neck. Do they really not understand we were together? They must not want to believe it. They’re hoping she’ll feed them something—anything—that will contradict what’s before them.

Aurora’s cheeks color. She swallows, but does not look away.

“Don’t be silly.” Mariel’s garnet earrings glitter. “Aurora wouldn’t…”

But she trails off when Aurora finds my hand again, interlocking our fingers. “I did spend the night with Alyce. She broke the curse.”

All air is sucked from the chamber in a single, violent whoosh. Aurora’s pulse, pressed hard against my own, is rabbit-quick. Tarkin’s eyes blaze, cinders in the morning sun. He reddens, his nose the color of a ripe strawberry.

“What are you saying?” Mariel speaks first, her hand falling from her mouth. “You don’t mean…”

“I said exactly what I mean, Mother.” Aurora doesn’t even look at her. She looks at me instead, funneling strength from her bones into mine. “Alyce broke the curse. She is my true love. And we mean to marry as soon as possible.”

A mixture of horror and happiness twines tight around my soul. I feel the way I do when I stand at the top of the black tower, the sea stretching out before my feet, a strong wind away from falling. Or flying.

“Alyce?” The queen’s shrill voice sends me hurtling back to reality.

“That’s her name.” Aurora bristles. “Though you so conveniently forget it when you’re warning her to stay away from me and disinviting her to parties.”

“You are mistaken, my darling.”

“No, I understand very clearly.” She rounds on them both. “You’ve been dictating my life since the moment I was born. I won’t stand for it any longer. I am the future Briar Queen. You cannot stand in our way.”

“And what about children?” Mariel blurts. “Your duty to Briar is to provide the next heir to rule. You can’t possibly do that with—” She gestures wildly at me. “With that.”

The word strikes me like an arrow in my chest. My shoulders hunch against the wound. But Aurora is stronger. Her arm goes around my waist.

“My duty to Briar is to improve the realm—and there’s much to be done on that account, isn’t there?” Her silent accusation prompts raspberry blotches to erupt on the skin above the queen’s neckline. “We will establish the issue of succession later.”

“This is a new curse.” Mariel’s wrath homes in on me. “You’ve tricked her into believing she loves you. You’re trying to take the throne for yourself. You evil, malicious thing. Just like your ancestors. We should have put you down when we found you. I’ve always known what you are.”

My head spins. This was a mistake. A terrible, awful mistake. Aurora steps in front of me, protecting me.

“That’s enough. You will not speak to her that way.”

Hot tears track down the sides of my neck.

“Tell me, daughter.” Tarkin taps his signet ring against the arm of his throne, slow and deliberate. “You think you know the Dark Grace?”

A current of cold air snakes between us.

“What does that mean?” Aurora snipes back. “Of course I do. Better than either of you, blinded by your own ignorant hatred.”

At that, the Briar King laughs. The tips of his teeth gleam. Numbness fizzes along the base of my scalp and between my toes. No, he cannot mean to—I hadn’t had the chance to tell Aurora yet. I open my mouth to say something—anything that might prevent this from happening, but I’m rooted to the spot.

“Oh, Aurora. You think you’re ready to be queen? You can’t even see what’s right in front of you.” Tarkin rises, looming over us like the dragon doors of his war room. “Your precious Alyce has been working for me.”

“That isn’t true.” Aurora turns to me, searching for an answer. When I don’t respond, the first inky tinges of doubt bleed across her features. “Alyce?”

I cannot bring myself to reply.

“Filthy beast,” Mariel spits at me. “This is how you repay our generosity?”

The question brings me out of my stupor. Anger balls inside my chest, fanged and livid. “Generosity? Is it generous to be placed in a Grace house, ordered to produce elixirs for every noble nursing a grudge? To be neglected, excluded from every social event, gawked at like I’m a creature from a nightmare? Treated as an abomination my entire life?”

“Save your dramatics. You were paid for your services.” Tarkin waves me off. “Quite a sum, if I recall.”

“That’s not—”

“Quite a sum?” Aurora interrupts. Her forehead creases.

“Aurora, I…”

“The gold,” she breathes. “The gold I saw you with. It was so much. I thought perhaps that’s what every Grace earns, but…but it was from my father. Wasn’t it?” She is too still. Her skin too pale. I reach for her, but she bats me away. “You lied to me.”

Tarkin claps slowly and I recoil as though I’ve been struck. “I knew you were clever. Yes, Aurora. Now you see.” Sunlight dances on the jewels in his crown. “Let me show you exactly what the Dark Grace has been doing. Boy!” One of the servants scuttles over. “Fetch our subjects from Master Gray.”

Subjects? My insides curl.

An eternity passes after the gangly servant disappears through a side door. Tarkin strolls from one end of the room to the other, almost jovial. Aurora will not look at me.

Finally, there’s a distant shuffle and clanking. The door opens again and three