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

offered the flower her radiance, as if the color red had never been so perfect before. It was a true blood red.

    My head started spinning and my ears started ringing. The length of thread slipped from my hand as I closed my eyes and barely noticed how I slid from my chair into the darkness.

    Pain spread like wildfire through my arm all the way to my fingertips, which were completely numb. I gasped for air. The smell of copper filled my nose and mouth, making me sick to my stomach. Then slowly, as feeling returned to my fingers, I opened my eyes and stared down at my hands. Blood, hot and slimy, gushed onto the dagger—and onto me. I clutched the knife in my hand. I had thrust it in so deep that my fist touched the man’s lifeless chest, and I could tell that the heart beneath my fingers had stopped beating. A single word flashed through my addled brain: betrayal .

    With a panicked cry, I came to. I found myself lying on the floor with my head in Payton’s lap. My heart was thumping, and I was sweating all over.
    I had to blink several times to get rid of the powerful images in my head. I didn’t understand what had just happened or why I was so queasy. Somehow my arm still hurt, and I tried to massage away the pain.
    “ Mo luaidh, are you all right? You passed out.”
    I swallowed hard. Was I all right? I had no idea. What I really wanted to do was cry. All eyes were fixed on me, with Alison holding out a glass of water. Because I still felt unable to get up, I took a sip. My hand around the glass was shaking, and Roy wore a worried frown.
    “Should we call a doctor?” Alison said.
    A doctor? Oh God, no. It was hard enough to recall the images that had been so vivid only a moment ago. They had faded as quickly as they had come, and a second later all I was left with was a nervous tightness in my chest. I clenched my teeth and scrambled to my feet. Payton held my arm and wouldn’t let go, even after I assured him that I felt much better, thank you very much.

    After the good fright I had given everyone, we all seemed almost glad to turn to something as morbid as a curse. At least nobody found himself in immediate danger anymore, so we allowed Alison to pour us another cup of her delicious Earl Grey tea.
    Roy kept his eyes glued on me, and his worried, wrinkled forehead did not bode well.
    “Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked.
    I gave him a reassuring smile because I really was feeling much better. The images I’d seen when I fainted were still there, hidden deep inside the recesses of my mind, but I couldn’t seem to grab and hold on to them. Oh, I was fine all right. Only my nerves were acting up. All that talk about blood, curses, and dying would give anyone nightmares. I wanted Roy to concentrate all of his energy on Payton instead.
    “Don’t worry, Roy, I’m okay. But where were we? Did I miss anything?”
    “No, you didn’t miss anything,” he replied. “There is no solution. Vanora is dead, and all hope of saving your boyfriend has died with her.”
    I saw the pain on Payton’s face—that sense of hopelessness and dread he’d been hiding so well.
    “Roy? Is that true?” I asked, my gaze fixed on the great scholar.
    But it was Alison who spoke. “I think you’re giving up too quickly. Vanora has been dead for a long time. And Payton should have died long ago, too—or am I wrong?”
    “What exactly do you mean?”
    “Well, I might not be familiar with Roy’s mysteries, but I have ears. People from the Highlands have been telling one another legends for as long as I can remember. And this young Scot right here who looks like he’s in his early twenties—when exactly was he born?” With her eyebrows raised and finger extended, she demanded full disclosure.
    “In 1721,” Payton replied with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
    “So there you have it. That’s the stuff legends are made of. There are gaps in the fabric of time, ken? Roy, how many legends talk about creatures from