The silence in the room was no longer just cold but heavy with the weight of a secret that should not have existed outside the cramped pages of my old diary.
As I sat there on the freezing floor, rubbing the blooming bruises on my neck, a wave of dark irony washed over me. Xander being cursed was never supposed to be in the finalized plot.
In the published version, he was just a cold, distant prince, a powerful obstacle for the leads, but during those late nights, fueled by bitterness toward my sister and a need for something more visceral, I had scribbled an afterthought in the back pages.
The reason that it never made it to the final plot was the backstory, how he got the curse. Xander's mother, Karina Valmont, was a spellcaster who helped people overcome poverty and deadly diseases. She was one of the reasons that the Valmont family got where it stands today, but one wrong step and everything came to the verge of collapsing into ruins.
Love.
When King George Alarc Acturus got her eyes on her, he made his goal to keep her by her side. They met, and the king made her fall in love with him. As a result, they had Xander. Karina started to notice people's gaze changing towards her and Xander, she asked the king to marry her.
The aristocrats were not because of the holy rule of the kingdom that a King could have two queens at most. The rest can have the position of mistress, but Karina never wanted that future for her and her child.
Surprisingly, King accepted her request for the first time, which made her really happy, but at one condition that she would need to do a spell that would maintain his and the upcoming heir's wealth and power over the kingdom for centuries. That no other king could defy them.
She accepted gladly, but during the spell, she made a mistake and died, and Xander got cursed as he too participated in his mother's spell. Though the king got the wealth and power that he wished, Karina and Xander had to pay the price.
I never thought those messy, half-baked notes would become the very air I was breathing.
I felt a shiver that had nothing to do with the temperature. To what extent had my stray thoughts become reality? If the curse was real, was the End I had envisioned also coming?
The curse engulfed him, making him a humongous beast that would destroy the kingdom and the lineage ruling it. My memory was my greatest weapon right now, but it was also my most terrifying ghost. I was playing a game with a monster I hadn't finished creating.
I forced the uncertainty deep into the back of my mind. It didn't matter if I was the one who broke him; I was the only one who could fix him.
I looked up at Xander with an undefined guilt. He was still on his knees, his face inches from mine, his breathing labored. The obsidian vein was still pulsing, a living line that seemed to mock both of us. He was supposed to be just a normal human being, so why?
The question was unanswered with dead silence settling between us. I took in a deep breath, jerking all those thoughts out of my mind.
"Gold can't buy a cure for something that wasn't made by man, but spell?" I repeated, my voice steadying. "Your physicians are looking for a suppression, but the solution they should be searching for you is...a cure. "
Xander's hand twitched toward my throat again, but he stopped himself, his fingers curling into a fist. "You speak as if you were there when the curse was cast," he hissed, but I didn't waver and replied.
"The medication you're taking... It's liquid silver mixed with crushed moonstone, isn't it? It's meant to reflect the light, to 'blind' the darkness, but the darkness isn't blind anymore, Xander. It's grown used to the light. That's why the doses are doubling. That's why your skin feels like it's being peeled off every time you swallow it."
The look that crossed his face was worth every bruise on my neck. It was pure, unadulterated shock. He hadn't told a soul about the silver. Not even his personal alchemist knew the exact proportions.
"I have a better way. A method that doesn't involve poisoning your blood with silver. A way to actually... ease your pain, but...." I paused for a moment, taking in his expression to see if he believed the words coming out of my mouth, and continued, "I don't work for free," I whispered, the manipulator in me taking the lead.
Xander let out a short, jagged laugh that sounded like breaking glass. He stood up, towering over me once again, the tower returning to its full, intimidating height. He straightened his collar, hiding the black vein, though the cold aura remained.
He asked, his eyes narrowing at me as if he wanted to get into my soul and rip the truth out of me, "You, a girl who almost died three minutes ago, want to bargain with the man who held your life in his hand?"
"No, but with a man who is currently in unbearable pain," I corrected, slowly rising to my feet. I had to lean against the wall for a moment as the room spun, but I kept my gaze locked on his. "I don't want your gold, and I don't want your titles either. Instead, I want your protection and your influence."
Xander paced the room like a caged animal, the shadows coiling around his boots. He stopped by the window, looking out at the moonlit grounds. "Many have promised cures, Irene. Many have died for failing. What makes you think I won't just lock you in a dungeon until you scream out every secret you have?"
"Because if you force it, the mana won't align," I lied with a straight face. As the author, I knew the narrative required consent for certain magics to work, a trope I had always loved.
The only thing I prayed was for him to believe this lie.