A Curse of Tooth and Claw

A Curse of Tooth and ClawThe Ozero Curse Nicolette ElzieNightshade Press Copyright © 2023 by Nicolette ElzieAll rights reserved.No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher or author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review and as permitted by U.S. copyright law.For more information, address:[email protected] is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either productions of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Contents Dedication Author's Note A Curse of Tooth and Claw Playlist 1. Welcome to the Show 2. Trouble 3. Disagree 4. Happy Together 5. Glitter and Gold 6. Darkside 7. Playground 8. Twisted 9. Doom Days 10. The Mighty Fall 11. Heathens 12. Sarcasm 13. Unsteady 14. Unconsolable 15. Demons 16. The Violence 17. Reaper 18. Dead Man Walking 19. The Other Side 20. Irresistible 21. Madness 22. Hurts Like Hell 23. Champion 24. Fear on Fire 25. When It's All Over 26. Start a War 27. Savage 28. Alone Together 29. Fake 30. Play with Fire 31. Toxic 32. Far From Home 33. Craving 34. Vendetta 35. Monster 36. Enemy Acknowledgments Bonus Scene About the Author For Audrey and Kevin Jr. May you fight relentlessly for one another as Kiki does. Author's NoteA Curse of Tooth and Claw is a dark fantasy romance.It is a fractured fairy tale of the Mexican folktale, The Bear Prince: not a retelling. A Curse of Tooth and Claw contains mature and graphic content not suitable for all audiences. Dark romance isn't black and white. What some readers may consider "light" may be "dark" for others. I HIGHLY prefer for you to go in blind, but if you would like a detailed trigger warning list, you can find it at https://nicoletteelzie.com/content-warnings/ A Curse of Tooth and Claw PlaylistEach chapter title of A Curse of Tooth and Claw corresponds to a song. I am deeply inspired by music and have several playlists over 8 hours long for the books that I write. Sometimes I have multiple playlists. One for each character! Most of these songs come from my "Villain" playlist, so that gives you an idea of the vibe I was working with while writing. I hope you enjoy these songs as much as I do. You can listen to the whole playlist on Spotify by searching for A Curse of Tooth and Claw in the app. "Welcome to the Show" by VOSTOK"Trouble" by Valeria Broussard"I Disagree" by Poppy"Happy Together" by Filter"Glitter & Gold" by Barns Courtney"DARKSIDE" by Neoni"Playground" by Bea Miller"Twisted" by MISSIO"Doom Days" by Bastille"The Mighty Fall" by Fall Out Boy/Big Sean"Heathens" by twenty one pilots"Sarcasm" by Get Scared"Unsteady" by X Ambassadors"Unconsolable" by X Ambassadors"Demons" by Imagine Dragons"The Violence" by Asking Alexandria"Reaper" by Silverberg feat. Jordan Frye"Dead Man Walking" by Chuxx Morris"The Other Side" by Ruelle"Irresistible" by Fall Out Boy"Madness" by Ruelle"Hurts Like Hell" by Fleurie"Champion" by Neoni & burnboy"Fear on Fire" by Ruelle"When It's All Over" by RAIGN"Start a War" by Klergy & Valerie Broussard"Savage" by Bahari"Alone Together" by Fall Out Boy"Fake" by The Tech Thieves"Play with Fire" by Sam Tinnesz "Toxic" by 2WEI"Far From Home" by Sam Tinnesz"Cravin'" by Stileto & Kendyle Paige"Vendetta" by UNSECRET"Monster" by Willyecho"Enemy" by Imagine Dragons, JID & League of LegendsListen on Spotify Chapter One Welcome to the ShowKIKIThere were three things Quirera Xochicale hated most in life. The first was the sound of her real name. It was her mother’s name and one she didn’t want to be reminded of daily. She preferred Kiki, though the Commander of her regiment seemed to relish in Kiki’s discomfort and used her real name anyway. The second thing Kiki hated was Solana Ramirez, the very Commander responsible for Kiki’s assignment on the Wall tonight despite it being her ninth night on Watch in a row. Kiki stood along the ramparts of the single most treacherous stretch of Wall closest to the Cicatrix, a strip of darkness that stretched the length of Ozero and split it in half, north to south. The third thing Kiki hated was the monsters that crept from the shadowy depths of the Cicatrix. As an Attendant in the Demon Corps, it was Kiki’s job to kill whatever traipsed out of the Cicatrix. Her hatred of the wraiths that occasionally ventured out of the depths of hell shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone. Kiki, however, had a burning hatred for the divide that had ripped across the kingdom fifteen years ago. She’d lost her parents to the divide and the rest of her family with them at the tender age of five. To make it worse, it wasn’t like her family was simply on the other side of the darkness and all Kiki had to do was pay a couple of hundred pieces of gold to charter a boat through the southern sea to go around the Cicatrix. In any case, such a sum would be nearly impossible for someone like her to scrounge. Still, at the very least, the task would be somewhat possible, if not probable. No. The problem was that the day the land was torn apart by the darkness, it took her entire family with it. “You’re doing it again,” said a voice nearby. Kiki glanced at her best friend. Yarixa’s cheeks were already pink from the cold and she wore her brown hair plaited into twin braids that ran the length of her spine and ended at the weapons belt slung low over her hips. Across her chest, Yarixa wore a bandolier of small obsidian tlazons. Each throwing lance was the length of Kiki’s palm with an arrow-pointed tip. Like Kiki, Yarixa wore the black leathers of an Attendant in the Demon Corps. Attendants were Slayers-in-training and were required to patrol the Wall along with the rest of