A Curse So Dark and Lonely

In modern-day Washington DC, Harper hides in an alley and waits for her brother, who is out shaking people down for money. When their dad died, he left behind debts and a group of angry creditors. Now, debt collection is the only way to pay the debts and their mother’s medical bills for cancer treatment. From her hiding spot, Harper watches an unrelated man and woman outside a bar. The woman falls unconscious, and the man grabs her. Though Harper knows she should stay hidden, both because she can’t risk the police finding her and because her cerebral palsy makes her vulnerable in a fight, she attacks the man, getting in a few good hits with her crowbar before he drops the woman to the pavement. His hand comes up just as the sky begins to lighten, and though Harper is sure her last sight will be sunrise, “instead, the sky disappears altogether” (9).

In his family’s castle, Rhen sits alone in the throne room. The curse restarts the same way every time—a fire crackling low in the hearth, the floor swept, and no one else alive. Instead of returning with the typical unconscious beauty, Grey reappears mid-fight with Harper. Stunned by the novelty of the scene, Rhen needs a moment before ordering Grey to stop his attack. Harper seizes the opportunity to hit Rhen with the crowbar before running away as fast as she can, and Rhen despairs because “if she fights to run so fiercely now, there is little hope for later” (13).

Harper runs until she finds a giant entryway, sprinting past instruments without musicians playing by themselves, which she assumes is a trick. Outside, a foreign landscape greets her. When she tries to call for help, her phone has no service. She steals a horse from the stable and makes a run for it, only to be stopped by Rhen. When Harper demands information about where she is, Rhen gives names and locations she doesn’t recognize before offering her food and shelter. Harper doesn’t want to trust him, but after running, she’s exhausted. She agrees to stay, reasoning Rhen can’t be too dangerous because “[she] know[s] men who take what they want. They don't act like this” (23).

Harper is nothing like the other girls Grey has brought, most of whom have been more interested in the palace finery. Harper is calculating and distrustful, which makes Rhen want to know her better, even though he knows there’s no point. Back at the castle, Harper examines the instruments before Rhen brings her to his sister’s old bedchamber. Full of reluctant wonder, Harper asks if the castle is enchanted, to which Rhen says it’s not—it’s cursed.

Later, as Rhen spars with Grey, their fight is interrupted by the arrival of Lilith, the last enchantress in the kingdom. Rhen’s father banished all the others, and seeing her is a painful reminder for Rhen that “[he] was too stupid to know [he] should have done the same” (31). Five years ago, when Rhen refused to marry Lilith, she cursed Rhen to relive his 18th autumn over and over again, at the end of which he turns into a ferocious, deadly monster at the onset of winter. Lilith tortures Rhen, using magic to inflict unbelievable pain with no wounds. As he slowly loses consciousness, Lilith tells him this season will be his last, and if he doesn’t break the curse, he will become a monster forever. In the past, Rhen has blamed Lilith for the destruction of his kingdom and people, but turning completely into the monster means Lilith’s words will be true: “You alone will destroy them all” (36).

Harper searches for something to use to pick the lock on her door, finding only jewels. After changing into a set of riding clothes, she waits for Rhen to return and unlock the door. As she waits, she brings up a picture of her brother and mother on her brother’s phone, which she accidentally brought with her. Swiping through his pictures, she finds months of photos of her brother with a guy he seems to be romantically involved with. A text message conversation reveals the two are in love, and while Harper is happy for them, she feels betrayed he never told her.

Grey arrives and neatly sidesteps when Harper tries to attack. After a scuffle where he easily pins her against the wall, he shows her the proper way to hold a dagger and how to inflict harm with the weapon, leaving Harper feeling “caught in this space between terror and exhilaration” (45-46).

When Rhen wakes, the pain is less but still bad. Grey relays that Harper is well and admits he finds her interesting, which is unusual. Thinking about their lives before the curse and of how the curse will end, Rhen orders Grey to kill him at the first sign of the monster’s appearance. Grey argues that there is still hope. Rhen may yet find a woman to love him and break the curse. Rhen has lost all hope, however, sure that “the true curse has been the thought that [they] might find escape” (51).

Still keen to escape, Harper climbs out her window onto a trellis that splinters and breaks, and she crashes to the ground, reflecting that “this was a spectacularly bad idea” (55). When she catches her breath enough to realize she isn’t badly hurt, she steals a horse from the stable and rides into the woods, where it suddenly becomes winter. At the other end of the woods, she reaches a road, at the end of which a house is burning. Harper hurries toward the fire, only to find an armed man attacking a woman and her children. Harper fights him off, killing him. More men attack, stopped only by the arrival of Rhen and Grey, who take them down easily. The combination of death and tragedy makes Harper accept that Emberfall and the curse are real.

While Grey entertains the children, Rhen pulls Harper aside, furious at having to chase her down. Harper ignores his anger, determined to get the woman and children out of the cold. While Grey shepherds the group, Rhen and Harper ride ahead to secure rooms at the nearby inn for the family. At Harper’s continued shivers, Rhen gives her his jacket and offers his body heat. Harper wraps her arms around him, grazing the injury Lilith gave him earlier. He winces and adjusts her hands, telling her the pain is from an old injury. Rhen immediately regrets the lie because he wants Harper to trust him, and he found that earning the small bit of trust she just displayed “feels a thousand times more satisfying than plying women with pretty falsehoods and empty promises” (72).

The inn is a two-story house staffed by a family that’s willing and eager to offer rooms. As Harper and Rhen dismount to enter, Harper’s leg buckles; Rhen catches her before she is hurt. Though the gesture is kind, and he truly seems concerned about her well-being, Harper can’t get past how he locked her in her bedchamber at the palace. She cautions herself “to keep convincing [her]self that this forced companionship is false” (76). That said, convincing herself gets more difficult as she watches Rhen help the woman and her children.

While Rhen handles arrangements with the innkeeper, his wife tells Harper about the threats of invaders from the north and the monster that terrorizes the kingdom. The innkeeper’s family believes the royals have gone into hiding while the monster rampages and kills, rumors Rhen doesn’t dissuade. When Harper questions him about it, he admits his entire family is dead, killed by the monster.