Curse of Shadows and Light by Penelope King Read Free Book Online Page B

for later. First I want to understand what exactly it is you want from me. What you think I can do for you.”
    I bite my lip and stare at the ground. I can hear it in her voice. She knows exactly why I’m here and what I want. She just needs to hear me say it.
    “ I…we… I was hoping there was a way you could help break my curse. Help to reunify Lucky and me as one again.”
    She looks at me quietly for a moment, and when she does speak I’m taken aback by her intensity. “Is that truly what you want?”
    “ Yes. I think so. I mean, I’m not sure how it will all work. But ideally, I suppose, just to go back to how things were before—”
    “ But things never go back to how they were ‘before’. Once things change, they change. You’ve evolved… you’ve created your own identity, your own memories, your own personality. You want all that to just disappear? For what end?”
    I frown. “What do you mean, disappear ?”
    Anastasia clucks softly under her breath and shakes her head. “My dear child. When you became divided, the old you ceased to exist. In its place are two new identities. One soul split in two.”
    “ Yes, I know this. That’s the problem. Lucky and I need to be one soul again. We need to be the same all day and night, not one person during the day, and a whole other separate one at night. It’s not right.”
    She raises an eyebrow and walks back over to her rose bushes. “I agree it’s not right, and yes, there might be a way to fix it.” She clips another Shadows and Light rose and holds it to me. “Here, take this.”
    I take the long stem, careful to avoid the thorns. It is no ordinary rose. The single stem at the base splits about half way up, creating two new separate stems, each with its own full bloom.
    “ You, my dear, are very much like this rose,” Anastasia says. “This is the beginning of your life.” She points to the bottom of the single stem. “And here is where you are cursed. Two separate stems, two separate roses.”
    I let out a sigh. My patience is wearing quite thin at this point. “Yes, I know all this, Anastasia. I was there.”
    She looks at me solemnly and holds up her clippers. “There is a spell to create a single personality, day and night. A very powerful and dark spell that requires the deepest level of sacrifice.”
    I frown. “What sacrifice?”
    “ In order for one to live, the other will need to die. The surviving personality gets the body full time. The other will disappear forever.”
    “ Wait—either Lucky or me will die, and the other will stay alive permanently? Night and day?”
    Anastasia nods. “Yes. And it must happen in the form of a sacrifice. One of you must be willing to die in order to let the other live.”
    She lifts up her clippers and snips one of the duel stems at its base.
    We both watch as it falls to the ground.

Chapter 7. Liora
    Anastasia’s words swim through my mind as I slowly make my way down the grassy slope toward the shore. Corrine and Kieron are standing near the water, deep in conversation. I pause for a moment and admire them from afar. The two people in the world closest to me, other than Tatiana. They’ve both done so much for me in ways I don’t think they’ll ever really understand. Corrine by being my friend despite what a freak I am, and Kieron by loving all of me unconditionally. How did I get so lucky?
    Kieron says something to Corrine, and she laughs. It’s a perfect day; the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and waves are crashing on the glistening white sand.
    But I am numb to it all.
    Only one of us will go on. Her, or me.
    Whichever one lives, the other dies.
    And it must be a sacrifice. Either I decide to let Lucky live, or she sacrifices herself for me.
    Ha, fat chance! Lucky has always considered me to be nothing more than an unfortunate side-effect of a botched demon attack. Never in a million years would she ever give up her supernatural existence for my pathetic human one.
    So this