Breath of Yesterday (The Curse Series) by Emily Bold Read Free Book Online

the few words spoken between the men—some in Gaelic, some in English.
    Finally, Roy reached for a piece of fruitcake, and I wondered whether I had just been imagining the whole thing.
    “Aye, very well, who’d have thought that Vanora’s daughter would be capable of that. Nathaira is what you said, right? Did you know that Nathaira is an old Celtic name meaning ‘snake’? It’s as if they’d known since her birth that she’d possess evil powers,” he reflected.
    “So what now?” I asked impatiently. “Can you help us, or what?”
    Roy leaned back in his chair and shrugged apologetically.
    “No, I won’t be able to help you. All I can do is tell you what I’ve heard and what I know. Whether or not you will find a way to change Payton’s fate…well, that’s not up to me. And, to be honest, I can’t imagine that you will find a way.”
    Payton’s body seized up.
    “All right, then, let’s hear it. We have no time to lose. Just tell us everything you know, Roy,” he begged.
    Roy nodded, wiped his fingers on his napkin, and closed his eyes. He seemed to be sorting through memories, digging up the required information. Then he spoke in a calm and quiet voice.
    “The power of the Fair Witches is transmitted from generation to generation. This is the only reason Nathaira was able to speak the curse in the first place—because a witch’s supernatural powers runs through her veins. But Nathaira’s blood is not pure. She lacks the purity of heart that the men of Fair Isle possess, and that is passed on only from father to daughter. Nathaira would never have been able to achieve Vanora’s strength without this purity of heart. Which is why she turned to evil. She did not have the control and guidance of a loving mother who could have taught her how to use her gift for good.
    “Having said that, it is lucky for you that she’s missing this important other half of her powers. I don’t know if you’re able to use this to your advantage, but I’m sure she was not as powerful as her mother. She carried within her Vanora’s blood mixed with Grant’s blood, and so she had the power to speak the curse. Vanora’s blood mixed with Payton’s blood—now that would probably be strong enough to lift the curse. Yes, I suspect that only Vanora’s blood can save Payton’s life,” said Roy, concluding his odd monologue.
    In the stillness that followed, all I could hear was the hiss of the teakettle Alison had put on again.
    “There’s no hope at all, then,” I established at last, because neither Payton nor Roy seemed to want to state the obvious.
    “I told you I didn’t know whether this would help, aye?” Roy admitted.
    “Vanora is dead. Her blood was spilled centuries ago,” Payton muttered flatly.

    This couldn’t be the end of it! There had to be a solution! Why would destiny bring Payton and me together if we weren’t allowed to live happily ever after? Or was there a way to save him, and we just couldn’t see it?
    Buried in thought, I stared at the colorful embroidery on the old-fashioned linen napkins. I couldn’t make sense of the play of colors. It looked like flowers that had been lovingly hand-stitched on the fabric. I carefully touched the fine needlework and followed one of the threads with my finger. It was the most conspicuous—a vibrant red and the highlight of the entire image, outshining the prettiest of all the flowers with its intensity. And then I noticed it—a faulty stitch, a rough, black thread overlying the delicate red one. It seemed to be jealous of its beauty and covered it almost entirely.
    Driven by an impulse I couldn’t comprehend, I traced the thread to the end. A small knot held it together. Gingerly, probingly, I pulled on it and—little by little—I loosened a faulty stitch. Then another one, and another one. I saw how the brilliant red unfolded its beauty. When the whole thread finally came away and disappeared inside my palm, it was as if the sun itself had