A Curse So Dark and Lonely

A musician asks if Rhen and Harper wish to dance, and Harper refuses because dancing is difficult because of how cerebral palsy affects her leg. She and Rhen argue, and Rhen storms away, angry that Harper thinks he’s mocking her. Harper follows, and Rhen confesses he wanted to dance because the music in the city is different from the songs he’s heard repeating at the palace throughout the curse. Harper agrees to dance, and they sway for a bit until they go still in each other’s arms. Harper is starting to have feelings for him, but she doesn’t trust them or him because she doesn’t know if they’re true. Rhen feels the same way, and though the night grows cool, Rhen barely feels it because “inside [he’s] warm, and [his] heart wants to sing” (286).

Back at the palace, Rhen lingers outside Harper’s room, wanting to go inside with her but fearing what will happen if he does. Instead, he goes to his room, where Lilith waits. She offers herself as a solution to the curse, but Rhen refuses her. In payment, she shows him image after image of his monster tearing his subjects apart.

The next morning, Harper wakes still swooning about the night before with Rhen, thinking, “I half expect cartoon butterflies to start flitting around” (293). She finds him in the arena battling Grey and looking as closed-off as he was when she first arrived. Before she can convince him to tell her what happened, word comes that a crowd has gathered outside the palace. Thinking it’s an attack, Rhen and Harper rush outside, where they find a cheering crowd ready to fight for Emberfall.

Despite the support of his people, Rhen is still lost in the images Lilith showed him. With Harper at his side, he maps out a strategy to make their army appear bigger than it is and hopefully scare off the attacking nation. All the while, Harper can tell something is wrong. In an echo of something Rhen said during their dance the night before, she asks him not to run from her, and before he leaves the room, Rhen says he won’t run but then says, “[F]or now, my lady, perhaps you could avoid pursuit” (305).

Days pass in a blur of preparations. Harper sees little of Grey, and Rhen remains distant. When he goes on a diplomatic visit without her, Harper goes after him, finding a member of his guard dead in the courtyard of the grand marshal’s home. Inside the house, Harper and Rhen confront the marshal, whose second-in-command had Rhen’s guard killed to prove Rhen is weak. Rhen has the man killed to send a message to others who would oppose him and then returns to the palace with Harper.

After a tense argument where Rhen calls Harper reckless and Harper begs him to confide in her, Rhen admits Lilith shows him images of the kingdom’s suffering every night. Though he continues to put on a show of defiance, he’s given up on saving the kingdom because “[he] do[es] not know how to lead [his] people when all [he] see[s] are [his] failures” (321). Remembering that Lilith swore not to interfere in Rhen’s courtships, Harper invites him into her room for the night, hoping it will keep the enchantress away.

In Harper’s room, Rhen is amazed to find her so passionate about helping him and angry at Lilith. Harper offers to dance if it will make Rhen feel better. He agrees, and she helps him take off his armor, the air between them thick with emotion. For the first time in days, Rhen feels safe, and when Harper asks if he’ll stay every night so Lilith can’t hurt him alone, he says, “I will stay as long as you wish” (331). Weeks pass, and Rhen starts to feel something he’s never felt for a girl, though he doesn’t know if it’s love.

While Harper trains in the arena with Grey, Lilith appears. Harper’s mother may not last the night, and her brother has until the morning to pay his father’s debts. The enchantress grants Grey the ability to cross between worlds at any time, meaning Harper could go home if Grey will bring her. Harper begs him to take her back, citing how he broke his oath to Rhen once when he let Lilith into Rhen’s room, which infuriates Grey, who snaps, “If you think I have not regretted that moment for every minute of every single one of these seasons, you are wrong indeed” (341).

Grey tells Rhen about Lilith, and Rhen goes to Harper’s room, where he finds her sobbing. Though it means the curse won’t be broken, Rhen has ordered Grey to bring her home. He tells Harper the story he and Grey have created about her persona’s ill mother, which he believes will convince the people of her absence. Harper is grateful and amazed how he has planned for everything, to which Rhen thinks that isn’t true because “[he] had not planned on how it would feel to let her go” (346). They kiss, and Harper runs her hand along his skin, cutting herself on something sharp. It’s scales, signifying the beginning of Rhen’s change into the monster.

Harper feels betrayed that Rhen didn’t share this with her and fearful that he will kill everyone in the palace once he changes. He assures her all will be fine and sends her home with jewels and gold to pay off the creditors, giving Grey private orders to return immediately because the queen of the warring nation wishes a meeting.

After the weeks she spent in Emberfall, Washington, DC, feels foreign. Grey walks Harper home, leaving her with two knives, and on impulse, Harper asks him to return the following night so she can come back to Emberfall and try to break the curse. Grey agrees before disappearing. Harper goes to her apartment, where her brother is both glad and frustrated at her return. Harper suddenly remembers how he always used to shove her aside and be overprotective “because [she] never had anything to offer” (359). As her brother tells her to leave for her own safety, Harper shoves the money from Rhen at him and says they need to make a plan.

Grey returns to Emberfall and goes to Rhen’s room, where Rhen reminds Grey of his oath to kill him once the change has begun. He also asks Grey to go back for Harper afterward because the two could be happy together, and though the thought makes his heart ache, he finds solace in the fact “that they might find each other as part of [his] downfall” (366). Grey reveals the plan for Harper to return, and Rhen shows Grey the scales, saying she’ll be too late. Grey is angry because Rhen refuses to see everything he’s accomplished and acts like he’s lost when there’s still time. Rhen argues that he can’t plan a way out of the situation. Grey pulls out a deck of cards, saying, “Perhaps now it is time for you to think on your feet” (369).