A Heart So Fierce and Broken (The Cursebreaker Series) by Brigid Kemmerer Read Free Book Online Page A

takes a long breath. “I have two younger sisters, but I know what Worwick would have used them for. My brother is barely six. My family had nothing left to give. So …”
    I look back at the rafters. “I once swore my life away to save my family—but my oath was freely given.”
    “Mine was too,” he says.
    This doesn’t feel the same. But maybe it is.
    “Two years isn’t so very long,” Tycho says. “How long did it take for you to earn your freedom?”
    This conversation is dragging memories to the surface, memories that are better left buried. “An eternity.”
    Tycho laughs softly. “I know what you mean.”
    No. He has no idea.
    When he speaks again, his voice is halting. “Hawk, I don’t—I don’t tell anyone.” A note of worry threads between his words. “If people know I’m sworn to Worwick, they would … well, he might …” His voice trails off.
    I consider how Tycho tends to vanish once the nights drag on and sober men are few. It makes me think better of Worwick that he doesn’t work the boy into the ground. That he allows him to hide. “I’ll keep your secret.”
    He says nothing to that, and after a moment, I look over. The darkness is nearly absolute, but his eyes catch a gleam of light from somewhere.
    I wonder if he’s regretting sharing this. “You have nothing to fear from me, Tycho.”
    “I know.”
    He says it so simply. It’s a level of trust I envy.
    “Who were you sworn to?” he says.
    My eyes fall closed. Without warning, my thoughts conjure Ironrose Castle, the miles of marble hallways, the arching painted ceilings. I remember the training arena, the armory, the stables—so clearly that I could find my way around blindfolded, even now.
    Do you regret your oath? Rhen once asked me.
    I did not. I do not. Not even now.
    Tycho is still waiting for an answer. I shake my head. “No one of consequence.”
    “I’d keep your secret too, Hawk.” Tycho’s voice is soft.
    His intentions are good, and he may mean those words now, but he’d take my secret, turn me in, and buy his freedom.
    “No secrets,” I say lazily. I roll over, facing away from him. “Just nothing interesting to share.”
    He sighs, but I let my breathing go slow and even, so he thinks I have fallen asleep. Eventually, his own matches, accented by a tiny snore at the end of each breath.
    Our conversation guarantees I won’t fall asleep anytime soon.
    When Rhen released me from my oath, he told me to begin a new life on the other side—in Washington, DC, Harper’s home. My visits to her city were limited to one hour each season, so I am not ignorant of her world, but I could not imagine making my way in a place so very different from Emberfall. The customs, the clothing, the currency—I have seen it, but I do not know if I could mimic it.
    The blood of a magesmith. If I have magic in my blood, I have no idea how to access it. I stare up at the rafters and rememberhow easily Lilith’s magic used to transport me through the veil into Washington, DC. I close my eyes and remember the feeling of it. For an instant, the air around me seems heavier, and I hold my breath, wondering if I’ve done it.
    My eyes flick open. The stable rafters hang above me. Tycho breathes softly across the loft.
    Silver hell.
    I pick at the threading along the edge of my mattress, pulling slowly until the seam begins to come apart. I do this carefully so I can pull the threads back together later. I ease my hand into the opening, digging through the straw until I feel the heavy weight of silver.
    It’s a bracelet—or it was, until I traded a day’s worth of hard labor for a blacksmith to get it off my arm. Now I have a scar on my wrist and a crude three-quarter circlet of silver. When I was trapped in the curse with Rhen, Lilith bound it to my arm with magic to allow me to cross the veil to the other side.
    I have no idea if it still works. It’s the only magic I’ve ever been able to work, and it’s not mine, it’s