Brightly Woven

was because you sensed me, wasn’t it? All I ever wanted from you was the truth, and you couldn’t even give me that!”
    “I’m sorry,” he said desperately. “I never meant to hurt you. I needed to try, to see if there was any hope left for me. I didn’t want to bring you here, Syd. I didn’t want to even try to break the curse anymore. After you ran away, all I wanted to do was take care of you, I swear.”
    I would have given him my blood, I would have given him anything, if he had ever asked . All I could do was shake my head.
    His grip on my arm tightened as he hauled me closer. For a single, stupid instant I thought he might try to kiss me. Instead, he simply pinned me there, staring into my eyes.
    “All of those people, North,” I said. “All of those homes and families…How could you take me to those cities, knowing that I could destroy them?”
    “If I had told you that you were the cause of those storms, would it have made it any better?” he asked. “Would it have lessened your hurt or guilt? How do you feel now, knowing that you inadvertently caused your entire village to suffer for years? I never wanted you to feel that kind of pain.”
    “But it’s still my fault, if I hadn’t—”
    “If you hadn’t been born?” North said. “Syd, there was nothing you could have done about this! It is not your fault , and it has never been. Your powers, like the power of all magic users, manifested themselves when you were around seven years old. I believe those new powers fed into and worsened the dry conditions that already existed, so instead of a quake or storm, a drought occurred. You didn’t ask for it or even recognize it.”
    “You should have told me from the beginning!” I pressed my hands to my face, taking in a shuddering breath. People had died because of that drought. My parents, my grandparents, my friends—all of my loved ones had suffered from constant hunger and fear that they’d be forced to leave their homes. And why? Because I had been born with this curse, because I was that random anomaly in nature. Just by existing, I had caused them to suffer.
    I felt like throwing up more than anything. Leaning forward, I braced myself against one of the pillars.
    “How did I do it?” I demanded. “What did I do to cause all those horrible things to happen?”
    “It’s…complicated,” he said. “You have a kind of webof magic around you. You let off magic, rather than channel it for use. Before I was able to find a way to restrain it, your presence disrupted the natural balance of magic in the world, and when you were angry or upset, you let off more magic than usual, and it would set off a storm or a quake.”
    I shook my head. “Is that the real reason why all of the jinxes have been killed in the past? Tell me, if it hadn’t been for your curse, if you hadn’t needed a cure, would you have killed me when you realized what I was?”
    “Syd, no!” he said, taking my arm again. “How could you think that?”
    “I don’t know what to think!” I said. “I trusted you! If you had told me this before, I would have known to control my emotions, but instead you kept it secret, so you could do your little tests with my blood—”
    I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye, a flash of dark purple in the pillars behind us. North must have seen it, too, because it broke his concentration long enough for me to pull away.
    “Is someone there?” North called angrily. His only reply was his own voice, echoing back to him. For a moment we stood there staring at each other, breathing heavily.
    “And this bracelet?” I asked, feeling stronger now that I was away from him. “What does it really do?”
    North took a deep breath. “It suppresses your magic so that other wizards aren’t able to detect it.”
    “What else?” I demanded. His eyes fell to the ground, as if he couldn’t bear to look at me.
    “I put a spell on the bracelet to tie you to me. You won’t be able to go more than a certain distance away from me.”
    “So I’m your slave after all, then? Only now you’ve added the chain.”
    “That’s not true!” he said sharply. “I put it on you so you couldn’t be carried away or hurt by another wizard!”
    “Which makes me nothing more than your property,” I said. “Property you don’t want anyone else to use before you can.”
    “Is that really your opinion of me? Do you think I’m some kind of monster, that that’s the only way I think