🌟Happy #teasertuesday 🌟
Parting Worlds goes on sale in a little under a month, which means...it's time for some chapter reveals! Woohoo! I left you guys with a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of Chasing Midnight (teheehee), but don't worry, the story dives right back in where we left off!
If you're new to my Once Upon a Curse series, each book can be read as a standalone, so definitely keep reading :)
As a little reminder, Parting Worlds goes on sale on November 18th and it's available to pre-order!
Without further ado...
Here's the entire first chapter!!
***
💚💗💚
💚💗💚
Nine-hundred and ninety-three years ago, I died. Of
course, it doesn't feel like it's been that long to me, only a few days. But as
I stare across the meadow and meet my sister's eyes for the first time in a
millennium, I know she feels every missing second.
No wrinkles mar her shimmering sun-kissed skin. No white
hairs pepper her honey-colored tresses. She looks exactly the same as she did
the last time I saw her—faeries don't age the same way humans do. Yet deep in
her cerulean blue irises, I see the truth. Before that night when I broke my
promise and accidently destroyed our world, her eyes were so clear I could read
her every thought in a simple glance. Now, they're clouded over and obscured.
She's changed.
I think maybe I have too.
The only question left is, how much?
"Nymia?" I murmur across the divide. It's the
third time I've said her name—the first was a shout, drenched in excitement,
the second was a statement, softer and less sure, and now her name rolls from
my lips as a question, plagued by doubts.
So far, my only answer has been silence.
Does she hate me for what I did? Does she blame me for
everything? Can she ever forgive me? I never thought a day would come when I
questioned my sister's love for me, yet here we are. The worst part is, I
deserve it.
I broke her.
I broke us.
I broke everything.
"Aerewyn," she finally whispers, word nearly lost
to the wind, but I hear it and my soul lifts. Something in her gaze shifts. The
fog dissipates and I read hope in her eyes—the same fragile hope warming my
heart. "Aerewyn!"
"Nymia!"
She runs, so I run too.
Suddenly, I'm back in time, racing across the flowery fields
of a home that no longer exists. I'm a girl with no worries and no fears, a
girl without the weight of the world on her shoulders, a girl wild with
abandon. I'm Aerewyn, and she's Nymia, and nothing else matters.
We crash together, laughing and crying as we nearly tumble
to the ground. With our arms wrapped around each other, I'm light. I'm free.
Breathing in the lily scent always clinging to her magic, for the first time in
so long, I feel unburdened. That sweet perfume is home. She's home. And I won't
take her for granted again.
"I missed you," Nymia murmurs into my hair, relief
evident in her tone. But there's something else too—pain. Pain I know I caused.
How long has she been alone? How long has she been carrying the weight of my
mistakes for me?
Just like that, everything I've done comes rushing back.
"I'm sorry." My voice quivers as I speak.
"I'm so sorry."
"I know."
There's no judgement in her tone—no accusation, no spite.
Instead, there's something I never expected—understanding. Dare I say,
forgiveness?
Nymia squeezes me tighter, as though afraid I might not be
real, then pulls back. She steadies me, the way she's always done, rooting me
to the ground no matter how the wild winds in my mind blow. With her warm palms
on my shoulders, I find the strength to look up. In her eyes, my past and
present collide. As I hold her gaze, memories rush over me, an overwhelming
deluge oscillating between all the joy we once knew and all the hurt I caused.
Despite it all, she smiles. With that simple gesture, I know we can never go
back, but somehow, we'll find a way to move forward.
"I could throttle you, you know, for making me wait so
long," Nymia mutters, with a loving frustration I've heard many times
before.
I wipe the tears from my eyes and fall back into a role I
know how to play. "Good thing you’re the patient one."
She laughs softly. The sound makes my heart swell.
With her next words, I deflate.
"Where have you been?"
"Oh, Nymia," I sigh and shake my head. "You
won't believe what I'm about to tell you."
There's so much to explain, I don't even know where to
start.
So I go back to the beginning, before I woke to a land I
didn't recognize, before the night that changed everything, before the lies,
before the secrets, before I lit the match that caused the world to burn. I go
back to a time when I was just a girl, and he was just a boy, and we were two
strangers on the brink of becoming so much more.
I know humans like to start these sorts of stories with once upon a time, but I'm worried that's
setting the stage for false hopes.
Because we don't all live, and we aren't all happy.
Not every curse can be broken, after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment