Chapter 858: 858-The True Curse
Helanie:
"Come on, Emmet, don’t be fooled," Maximus grunted, complaining. "Say something to him, Helanie," he urged, looking anxious. But I shook my head.
"I’ve said whatever I wanted to say to him. Now Emmet has to realize it himself, who he is going to believe." I finished, letting him make the decision.
"Emmet, why don’t you show her what you know and what you really think?" Azura said. "Here, I have a dagger. You can kill this evil bitch and then this will be over. All the people under her trance will finally be free."
Azura pulled a dagger from her sweater and handed it to Emmet. He stared at it, then at her, then gripped it and turned his glare on me.
"So you have nothing else to say for yourself?" he asked.
"Come on, Helanie. We need to go. We’ll come back later," Maximus urged, taking my hand and trying to pull me away. I jerked free.
"No." I walked toward Emmet. "I said what I had to say."
"If you come close, we will kill you. I will kill you," Emmet warned, his finger pointed straight at me, telling me to back off.
"No, I’m not leaving." I kept walking. "I’m just going to get closer, kiss you one last time, and then you can kill me if that’s what you want." I said it stubbornly.
"Helanie, have you lost your mind?" Maximus snapped, reaching for me. Azura moved faster, gently touching Emmet’s back to remind him that she was still there.
"I told you to stay back. It won’t end well for you," Emmet repeated as we closed the distance.
"Then why don’t you kill me?" I challenged, standing on my tiptoes. Azura hissed a low warning at him, "She is evil and uses her beauty to seduce and fool others. Don’t let her kiss you."
My eyes landed on Emmet’s lips and I leaned in, brushing mine against his. A shock of heat ran through me. I refused to believe he felt nothing.
Before the kiss could deepen, Azura shoved me. Her hands slammed into me hard enough to try and send me to the ground. I almost fell, but Maximus was behind me and caught me, steadying my weight.
Emmet growled, spun toward Azura, and slapped her across the face. She hit the floor with a thud. Even the gray woman gasped.
"Emmet, why would you hit your princess?" Azura complained dramatically, one hand on her cheek. Big tears pooled in her eyes.
Maximus patted my back and moved behind me, watching the gray woman to make sure she didn’t try to run. Even I was a little confused. Why the hell did Emmet smack her?
"That is because when I speak with my mate, when I interact with my Helanie, nobody else intervenes," Emmet hissed, and my eyes widened.
I looked at Maximus and we shared a glance.
"You remember?" I asked, gently touching his hand. He turned to me.
"The minute I saw you, I remembered you, Helanie," he mumbled, then blushed. "Sorry. I just enjoyed having all your attention to myself." He pouted and shrugged.
"Wait, you—you remembered me?" I stammered. I didn’t know why I felt so lost, his claim was wild. If he really remembered at first sight, that meant I hadn’t had to remind him. He’d just remembered.
"Then why didn’t you tell me right away?" I snapped, slapping his chest, feeling ridiculous and thrilled that we could speak normally.
"Because I told you, I was enjoying it. I wanted to see how much you remember," he said.
"Wait, what is going on?" Azura demanded, getting to her feet, her voice breaking. "She’s manipulating you, and you’re falling for it."
I guessed it was her last attempt to pry him away.
"Oh, fuck off, Azura," Emmet spat. "I should have known something was wrong with you from the way you suddenly appeared in our lives, from how you refused to let go, from the way you came back. So tell me again, it wasn’t any sacrifice that brought you back, was it?"
Emmet finally confronted her, relaxed and almost pleased. It had been years of her manipulating him, forcing him to stay. I could only imagine how exhausted he must have been.
"I don’t know what you’re saying. I’m innocent. If anything, I’ve been the only one who cared about you," she insisted, trying to rise, but Emmet kept her at arm’s length.
"Really? Daughter of the gray Woman? Daughter of the x-Codex’s father? And you’re still innocent?" His stare hardened.
She shot me a brief, angry look before turning back to him.
"It’s not my fault who I was born from. But trust me, I don’t agree with my father. I’m not with him." Now that the x-Codex link was out in the open, her denial sounded false. "My mother and I were kicked out of my father’s life," she added, trying to sound wounded. "You must trust me, we’re innocent."
I folded my arms. Emmet slid his arm around me and pinched my back gently, then turned his attention back to Azura. It was a subtle claim that I belong to him.
"And you want us to believe that? That you had nothing to do with anything evil around here? Your mother is the reason everyone suffered so much. She was the one who filled our mother’s ears to ruin and damage Helaine’s mother. She could have genuinely helped, but she didn’t. She wanted blood," Emmet hissed.
"That is not true, my mother didn’t do that. She tried to help. You were conceived on the wrong night, it wasn’t her fault," Azura yapped.
"No," I cut in. "Even the curse became worse because your mother cursed the well with her tears."
Emmet turned to look at me, puzzled.
"What are you saying, Helanie?" Emmet asked.
I turned to the gray woman. Her eyes bulged. She looked shocked that I’d figured it out. Even Maximus looked confused.
"You told me the well was filled with your tears," I said, pointing at her. "I put it together. It wasn’t the Moon Goddess who cursed that night. You did."
Azura gasped at my claims.