I Woke Up Married to the Cursed King

Elian waited.

He sat in the chair by the bed and watched the morning come through the curtains and waited for Caelian to wake up.

When he did, it was slow. The activation always left him heavier than normal sleep. He blinked. Pressed a hand to his forehead.

"My head," he said.

"I know," Elian said.

"What happened."

"You fainted. You’re fine now."

Caelian looked at him. Looked at the room. At the curtain sash sitting on the floor that Elian had not hidden well enough.

"Do you need anything?" Elian said. "Water. Food."

"I need to freshen up," Caelian said. He sat up slowly.

Elian watched him move to the washroom.

He doesn’t remember, Elian thought. He doesn’t remember any of it.

They ate breakfast in the dining room.

Normal. Quiet. The particular quiet of two people being careful around each other.

Elian ate half his food.

Then: "Do you remember what I said to you last night?"

Caelian looked at him.

"We talked last night?" he said.

"We did."

Caelian thought about it. Genuinely tried. Elian could see him trying.

"I remember you not coming to bed," Caelian said finally. "I fell asleep alone. That’s all I have."

"Okay," Elian said.

He went back to his food.

The snake ate it, he thought. Whatever the activation does to him — it takes the memory with it.

He ate in silence.

So he can’t tell me and he can’t even remember trying.

Perfect trap.

He found Sable and Riven in the small sitting room.

The state of things: Sable was standing. Riven was seated. Sable had her hands around Riven’s collar.

"It’s a demon," Sable was saying. Her voice was very controlled in the way that meant it was not controlled at all. "Do you understand what that means? Do you have any idea what happens when a demon of that age and that power decides to—"

"Sable—"

"I have studied this for twenty years. I have dealt with dark workings my entire career. I have never, not once, worked with anything at that level and I am telling you right now that what we saw last night is something I am not equipped to—"

"Sable."

"What."

"He’s here."

She turned.

Elian stood in the doorway.

He looked at her hands still on Riven’s collar. At Riven’s expression of mild suffering.

"Hello," Elian said.

"Hello," they both said.

She let go of Riven’s collar.

"You look terrible," Riven said.

"I know." Elian came in. Sat down. "I talked to him last night. He was about to tell me something. The snake activated. Choked him unconscious." He paused. "This morning he doesn’t remember any of it."

Silence.

"Of course he doesn’t," Riven said.

Elian looked at him.

"Snake curse," Riven said. "You know what a snake does? It poisons. You know what poison does over time?" He counted on his fingers. "Removes memories. Makes you hollow. Kills you. That’s the sequence." He looked at Elian. "The activation isn’t just a choking mechanism. It’s a dose. Every time the snake activates fully, it delivers another dose of the working directly. And part of what that working does is—"

"Remove the specific memory that triggered it," Elian said slowly.

"Exactly." Riven spread his hands. "So he can’t tell you. And he can’t remember trying. And every time he gets close, it happens again and takes another piece." He paused. "That’s not a death curse. That’s a cage."

The room was quiet.

"Someone built that specifically," Sable said. She’d sat down too. The fury had gone somewhere quieter and colder. "That’s not a standard working. Whoever designed this knew exactly what they were doing. They wanted him alive but silent. And slowly deteriorating."

"Until they were ready to finish it," Elian said.

"Yes."

He stared at the table.

Twenty years. A ten year old child. A cage designed to keep him alive and unable to speak and slowly breaking down.

What did your father do, Elian thought. And what do you know about it.

"For the last several days," Elian said, very evenly, "I have wanted to strangle you."

Riven looked at him.

"But you know things," Elian continued. "Useful things. Relevant things." He looked at Riven. "Which is the only reason you’re not currently my ghostly henchman."

Riven blinked. "Your—"

"I can see spirits," Elian said. "I can also communicate with them. Do you understand what I’m saying."

"You’re saying you’d kill me and use my ghost as a henchman."

"I’m saying the option exists."

Riven looked at Sable.

Sable looked at the ceiling.

"Noted," Riven said. "Very noted."

"Good." Elian put his hands on the table. "Now. The snake curse has a silencing mechanism. The activation removes the specific memory that triggered it. Which means I cannot get the information from Caelian directly." He looked at them both. "So we find it another way."

"The mother," Sable said.

He looked at her.

"You were thinking it last night," she said. "I could tell. The mother is the missing piece."

"Yes," Elian said. "Everyone says she died in childbirth. I want to know if that’s true. I want the real records. Not the official ones. The real ones." He paused. "Who she was. Where she came from. What her connection was to the network the father destroyed."

Riven was already reaching for his notes.

"That," he said, "I can find."

"How long," Elian said.

"Give me a day."

"You have it."

Elian stood up.

Looked at the sitting room door.

At the palace beyond it, going about its ordinary morning.

One day, he thought. And then we find out who you really were.

He went back to the dining room.

Caelian was still there. Finishing his tea — the new tea, not the old one. He’d been consistent about that since Elian asked.

He looked up when Elian came back in.

"You went somewhere," Caelian said.

"Briefly."

Caelian looked at him. "Are you alright?"

"Fine."

"You’re not fine. You look like you haven’t slept."

"I haven’t," Elian said. He sat down. Poured himself more tea. "The eclipse was last night. We were working."

Caelian was quiet for a moment. "Did you find what you were looking for?"

Elian looked at him.

No, he thought. We found something we weren’t looking for. Something seven feet tall that said peekaboo. And then the snake almost killed you. And you don’t remember any of it.

"We found something," Elian said. "We’re still working out what it means."

Caelian nodded.

He looked at the bracelet on his wrist. The three remaining whole beads.

"It got worse last night," he said quietly. "Whatever was happening. I felt it."

"I know," Elian said. "I’m working on it."

Caelian looked at him.

"I know you are," he said. Simply. Without question.

Elian looked at his tea.

I like you, he’d said last night. In anger, in desperation, blurted out because he’d run out of other options.

He’d meant it.

He still meant it.

Caelian didn’t bring it up.

Maybe he didn’t remember that part either.

Elian drank his tea.

One day, he thought. And then we find out about the mother.

He sat with the memory loss detail for a long time after Riven explained it.

Every time the snake activates fully, it delivers another dose, Riven had said. Part of what that working does is remove the specific memory that triggered it.

Elian thought about all the times Caelian had seemed to almost say something. Almost reach toward a topic and then pull back. He’d assumed it was stubbornness. Shame. Protection.

But what if it had happened before?

What if Caelian had tried to tell someone — a council member, a physician, a friend — and the snake had activated and the memory had been taken and he’d woken up not knowing he’d tried?

How many times, Elian thought. How many attempts at the truth has he lost.

He looked at the door.

Caelian was in the dining room. Finishing breakfast. Completely unaware that last night had happened.

He doesn’t know he can’t speak about it, Elian thought. He genuinely thinks it’s his choice. His stubbornness. His protection of his father’s legacy.

He’s been blaming himself for something the curse built.

Elian stood up.

He was going to fix this.

Not just the sending and the snake and the Varek. All of it.

He was going to find what happened to the father and the network and the mother and whoever was behind all of it and he was going to end it.

And then he was going to tell Caelian everything.

Including the things Caelian couldn’t currently remember trying to say.

He went to the sitting room.

He had work to do.

He looked at the sitting room before he left.

The sitting room that had been a ladies’ tea party room that nobody used. That he’d taken over for rituals and planning and late nights staring at notes that didn’t connect.

I’ve made this place mine, he thought. Without meaning to.

He thought about how long he might actually end up staying in a place he’d never meant to stay in at all. Years, maybe. Decades.

He thought about what that would actually mean. A life here. Not a job he could walk away from once the curse broke and the Varek was gone.

He thought about children.

He stopped thinking about that.

One thing at a time, he told himself firmly.

He went back to work.

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