Curses and Cures

CURSES & CURES THE DEANA-DHE DUET BOOK 2 BEA PAIGE CONTENTS Foreword CONTENT NOTICE BOOK PLAYLIST Part I Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Part II Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Epilogue Acknowledgments About the Author Also By Bea Paige Kelly Stock writing as Bea Paige to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format. This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Copyright © Kelly Stock writing as Bea Paige First published: 20th March 2023 Cover Design by Opulent Cover designs FOREWORD IMPORTANT AUTHOR NOTE Dear Reader, Thank you for continuing on this journey with Cyn and the Deana-dhe. Book two of their duet is darker than the first but in a different way. At the end of Debts & Diamonds, Cyn was taken by the Skull Brotherhood and as such will witness and experience some things that may be triggering to readers. Please visit the Deana-dhe series page on my website: www.beapaige.co.uk for a full list of those triggers (listed under the blurb for the book). Please also note that none of the terrible experiences Cyn goes through are between Cyn and the Deana-dhe. Ultimately, this is a story of trauma, and the healing strength of love that she finds with these three men. Please also note that the name of the main protagonist (and the leader of the Skull Brotherhood) has been changed after I became aware that I’d unknowingly used a name that is problematic and may cause harm or distress. This wasn’t something a reader made me aware of, but something I realised that could be offensive after publishing book one. I acted immediately to change it. If you want to update your version of book one, you can do that on your Amazon account by going to your account settings and hit the ‘updated version’ for Debts & Diamonds. Much love, Bea Paige CONTENT NOTICE As an author I think that it’s only right to warn you about some of the content within this book that you may find triggering. Curses & Cures has dark themes, some that are harrowing. I urge you therefore to visit the Deana-dhe series page on my website: www.beapaige.co.uk for a full list of those triggers (listed under the blurb for the book). Please also note that none of the terrible experiences Cyn goes through are between Cyn and the Deana-dhe. Ultimately, this is a story of trauma, and the healing strength of love that she finds with these three men. BOOK PLAYLIST You can find Curses & Cures on my Bea Paige Spotify playlist. I have a couple of favourite tracks. The first is You Put A Spell On Me by TikTok sensation Austin Giorgio and Fields of Gold by Sting. Enjoy! PART I CURSES “You give me fever. Drive me insane. You keep me going in circles with potions and battles, and I can't escape…” You Put A Spell On Me - Austin Giorgio PROLOGUE Cyn I lied. Or perhaps it was just an omission of truth. Either way by now Arden, Lorcan and Carrick would have uncovered my secret and I have to hope that they care about me enough not to punish me for it. But more importantly, not punish the people I love. My friends, The Masks, have been enemies with the Deana-dhe their whole lives, pitted against each other by the decisions their fathers made. Malik Brov, who ruled over The Masks with an iron fist, was a cruel and soulless man who sought out and murdered nearly the entire Dálaigh bloodline, including Arden’s father, Michael. Years after I left Silver Oaks Institute, I found out that Malik was also responsible for the murder of Nessa Dálaigh, my mother’s best friend and Arden’s aunt, fuelling the hatred between both families for decades. My own father, Niall O’Farrell, deliberately pitted me against the Deana-dhe by siding with Malik Brov. Their actions drew a line in the sand between the two families and made me and the Deana-dhe enemies before we’d even met. No matter how I look at it, my father was just as responsible for Michael’s death as Malik Brov was. Just like he was responsible for stoking the flames of hatred between his family and my mother’s. His decision to steal my mother and force her to marry him, eventually cost her her life. He may not have pulled the trigger, but he set in motion every single event that led to the moment of her death. My heart had known this truth all along. Deep down I’ve always known, even when I’d convinced myself otherwise. Nevertheless, I sought the help from the Deana-dhe who’d given me the name of the man who actually pulled the trigger, allowing them to later call in a debt. A path that Nessa Dálaigh believed would finally bring peace to all the warring families. The hatred, the pain, and the endless years of bloodshed have haunted us all like an oppressive fog, binding us together in a bloody cycle of murder and revenge. Families have been shattered, loved ones brutally taken, and deep-seeded resentments remain festering