Taken aback, Arabella's breath halted for a while. Her chest rose and fell in an uneven rhythm, her confusion breaking through the fragile calm she'd tried to maintain. The weight of what Cassius had told her sat heavy on her shoulders, as if the walls of the castle themselves were pressing down upon her.
She recalled vividly how Morpheus had always told her that undoing the castle's magic would take time, that it was a delicate and dangerous process. He had said it required more than just magical strength; it needed precision, knowledge, patience. He had said so with such conviction that she had believed him.
But now, with Cassius's words lingering in the air, those excuses crumbled like ash.
It wasn't that the curse was too complex. It was that Morpheus feared what would happen if it were ever broken.
