In the seventh year of my seclusion in the Blackpine borderlands, the mother-curse inside me suddenly began to stir.
That was when someone came down from the mountains bearing a gilt-edged invitation.
"The only son of the Sanchez family, richest in the land, weds next month. You are especially invited to attend."
The people of the settlement saw the card and crowded around, laughing their congratulations.
"Years ago Lorna Harding and the Sanchez heir fell for each other at first sight. She left the borderlands to follow him."
"And now the Sanchez family sends a wedding invitation. Surely happy news for Lorna is close at hand."
I smiled too.
I had raised my daughter soft, and yet she had gone and given her heart to that man from beyond the mountains.
But the moment I reached out and took the invitation, a tearing pain ripped through my chest.
The mother-curse churned violently inside me, and I coughed up a mouthful of black blood.
The smile froze on my face.
When the mother-curse spits blood, the child-curse has been severed.
Which meant my daughter was already dead.
And the life-guarding curse inside her had been carved out of her while she lived.
I stared at the words on the invitation, "Zachary Sanchez weds," and my fingers tightened around it, little by little.
If my daughter was already dead.
Then the woman about to marry Zachary Sanchez.
Who was she?
...
I raised a hand and summoned a few hundred curse-insects, and spoke quietly.
"I'm leaving the borderlands. I'm going to the Sanchez family."
The settlement people hurried after me.
"Won't you take more people with you?"
I looked at that little smear of black blood in my palm, and something like a smile crossed my face.
"No need."
"I'm only going to a wedding."
"And while I'm there, to bring my daughter home."
Seven years ago, when Lorna left the borderlands, she was only nineteen.
I had raised her soft her whole life.
Afraid of hardship, afraid of pain, weeping half a day over nothing more than a curse-insect nipping her finger.
And yet she was the one who fell for Zachary Sanchez, who had come from beyond the mountains.
Back then Zachary had run into danger in the borderlands, and it was Lorna who saved him.
She drew the poison out of him, fed him medicine.
She even cut out the snow-spider curse she had nurtured for three years and used it to hold his last breath in his body.
When Zachary woke, he knelt before me and swore he would protect her all his life.
I never really believed the oaths of men from beyond the mountains.
But Lorna clung to my waist, her eyes red from crying.
"Mama, I want to go with him."
"I believe he'll be good to me for the rest of my life."
In the end, I softened.
Before she left, I planted the life-guarding curse in her with my own hands.
That curse could ward off death three times for her.
As long as the child-curse remained, however grave her injuries, I would feel the life still in her.
But now, the mother-curse spat blood, the child-curse severed.
Unless someone had cut the child-curse out of her body while she lived.
Otherwise it could never have happened.
On the day of the Sanchez wedding, the entire estate was carpeted in white roses.
Everyone was praising how devoted the Sanchez heir was.
"I hear Miss Harding comes from the borderlands. For the Sanchez family to take her in, that's honor enough."
"A girl from the mountains, marrying into the Sanchez family. Good fortune earned over lifetimes."
I listened to it all, and my steps did not slow.
The Sanchez butler came forward to greet me, and his face shifted a little when he saw me.
He recovered quickly and piled on a smile.
"You've come at last."
"The young master and his bride have been waiting for you a long while."
Something in my eyes went cold, and I looked up toward the altar.
Zachary Sanchez wore a black suit, his features clean and handsome.
Beside him stood a woman in a wedding gown.
The veil hung down, hiding most of her face.
Her figure was much like Lorna's.
And around her wrist she wore a string of silver bells.
The very ones I had fastened on Lorna myself, the day she left the borderlands.
Zachary saw me, and the smile on his face caught for a moment.
Then he led the bride over.
"Mrs. Harding."
"Lorna will be so happy you could come."
