# CHAPTER 14: The Snowfall Kiss and the Price of a Crown
Hello everyone, it's me again! How are you all doing? Today I will continue to walk with you and review CHAPTER 14 of "Of Curses And Kisses free digital audiobook". This is the chapter where the fairy tale almost happens—then reality arrives with a voicemail and a royal duty that cuts deeper than any curse. So bundle up, because we are stepping into the snow, into a stolen kiss, and into a heartbreak that feels far too real.
The chapter opens in the hush of night. Jaya and Grey wash quickly, bundle up, and step outside together. The world is asleep, and there is something decadent and mysterious about being out at this hour with a boy who feels like he walked straight out of a fairy tale—whole and breathing and impossibly close. Jaya tips her head back, catches a snowflake on her tongue, and laughs softly. She tells Grey how much she loves the way snow makes everything sound quieter.
Grey asks when she last saw snow before Aspen. Jaya remembers a Swiss chalet two years ago, a cozy holiday with her family. No phone calls, no meetings, no outside world. Just the four of them reading by the fire, drinking creamy hot cocoa, feeling closer than they ever had while saying almost nothing at all. The memory makes her ache. It also makes her wonder what her family would think if they saw her now—outside in the middle of the night with an Emerson.
Grey’s voice carries a masked but undeniable yearning when he says that sounds nice. Jaya hesitates, then puts a hand on his and tells him she is sorry he never had that with his father. He doesn’t pull away. He simply says thanks. Her heart thuds at the look in his eyes.
Then she tells him he is different now. Grey agrees. She asks what changed, and he says, “You know what changed.” He means telling her about the curse. And more than that—he means her. He tells her she has changed too. After their blow-up in Aspen, she is less “blinky.” It is not a flattering word, and Jaya feels a little revolted at herself. She knows exactly what he means: all her faux flirting, all her calculated charm, all the times she was trying to trap him. Even Grey had felt it.
For a moment, she considers telling him the whole truth—that she came close to him in the first place to shatter his heart. But how can she? He has just told her he is changing because of her. How could she take that fragile, hopeful thing and crush it? Before she can decide, a sudden wind tries to steal her scarf. She shrieks, and Grey grabs it just in time. He slowly drapes it back around her neck, his blue eyes holding hers, his fingers setting her skin alive. They gaze at each other. Jaya’s eyes fall unwittingly to his lips.
She asks if he knows the one thing she has missed most about snow. He shakes his head. Then she bends down, rolls a snowball with lightning speed, and lobs it straight at his torso. It explodes into a shower of white. “Snowball fights!” she yells.
What follows is pure, breathless joy. Grey dumps handfuls of snow on her head. She threatens him. He hits her chin with another snowball, and ice slips down her jacket and shirt. She rolls an epic snowball and catches him in the shoulder. They chase each other through the trees, hearts racing, cheeks flushed, the darkness alive with laughter and crunching snow.
Then Grey grabs her around the waist and whispers, “Gotcha.” Jaya spins in his arms and grinds her snowball into his beanie, her hands resting on his shoulders, her fingers brushing the back of his neck. She declares them tied. He concedes. She leans back against a tree, breathing hard, and he steps closer, his arms still around her waist. He tucks a loose lock of hair behind her ear, his fingers lingering just below her ear. The wind whistles through the trees, and she shivers. Grey steps closer still, blocking the wind, his body heat wrapping around her. The embers in his eyes catch fire.
When their lips meet, embers turn to flame. Jaya wraps her arms around his neck, and he pulls her tight against his chest. His stubble scrapes her lips, her jaw, her cheeks. Where he was once reticent and withdrawn, now he nips at her lips with his teeth, pushing hard, claiming her in a wild, feral way. Every hidden craving he kept behind his immovable mask floods out at once. He has finally lost control, and the knowledge drives Jaya mad. Their tongues clash, two sworn enemies from feuding clans overcome with desire. Her blood sings. She is liquid fire in his arms, and in the swirling snow, she almost believes she is on a tropical island with the sun blazing on her skin.
They pull back at the same time, eyes wide. Jaya steps out of his arms, then immediately back closer, apologizing. Grey says apology accepted. They study each other in the near dark. She inches closer, and soon she is back in his arms, kissing him again, hungrily, deeply, letting herself be lost. Then something buzzes between them. It stops, starts again. Jaya finally pulls back, her voice husky, her lips swollen. She checks her phone. Appa is calling. Her father, calling so early? She frowns, thinking he must be confused about the time change.
Grey asks if she needs to get that. Jaya looks up at him for a long moment, searching his eyes, weighing something. Then she rejects the call, slides the phone back into her pocket, and steps back into his arms. Grey’s heart leaps with a happiness he did not know was possible.
They stand forehead to forehead, snow covering them like confetti. Grey tells her that when he first found out she was in all his classes, he thought it was a weird coincidence—maybe even suspicious. But now he thinks it was fate. A sign of something really, really good. He smiles so brilliantly that he lights up the dark. Jaya forces herself to smile back. How can she tell him the truth and snatch his joy away? Instead, she kisses him again, soft and slow, letting her body tell him what she cannot: that although she came with bad intentions, she genuinely cares about him now. She lets her mouth say how much she wants him. She lets her heartbeat promise that she would never, ever hurt him.
Grey asks what now. Are they dating? Jaya laughs softly and says she doesn’t know. How could she ever explain this to her father? An Emerson and a Rao? Her parents would never understand. No one would. It is a terrible idea for so many reasons. And yet all she wants is to call everyone she knows and tell them how she feels about Grey. Grey says they don’t have to make decisions right now. He is smiling a smile made of hope and excitement. Jaya takes his hand and says, “I guess for now we could just walk together.” He repeats it in wonderment. Just walk together. That sounds good.
Later, Jaya lies in bed, smiling. She has to be up in an hour, but she doesn’t care. That kiss—her first-ever kiss, then her second and third—keeps replaying in her mind. The way Grey looked at her, hungry and languid. The way he pressed his hands against her lower back. It is ridiculous and bizarre. Grey Emerson and Jaya Rao do not belong together. Not on paper. But over the last two months, she has begun to see how much they have in common. In many ways, they are cut from the same odd cloth.
Still, how could she tell people they want to date? What would Mysuru think of their heiress running around with an Emerson? What about the alliance the Raos and Hegdes have counted on for years? How could she be a revered ruler if she did something so outlandish? She couldn’t. It is madness. But then a quieter thought arrives: it could work, couldn’t it? She doesn’t have to choose Grey over her family or her kingdom. She could show them that Grey is innocent, that he had nothing to do with the scandal. Isha likes Grey. Perhaps Isha could be her way in with their parents. Jaya could show Mysuru that she can date an Emerson and still be the heiress they need. It would be difficult, but she is not afraid of hard work. Grey needs her. And she needs him.
She laughs quietly in the dark, one hand over her mouth, as if afraid someone might steal her joy. She has no idea how this could work, only that she desperately wants it to.
Then her phone buzzes again, reminding her of an unheard voicemail. Right. Appa called. Guilt flares at the memory of rejecting him to keep kissing Grey. Calling so early is unusual for him. She picks up the phone and hits listen.
And grows still.
Her father’s rapid words fill her ear. The journalist published another piece about Isha—about how she is supposedly pregnant. The story won’t die. Their people are angry. An invitation Amma had to a major political event in Mumbai is being rescinded. They are losing footing. The Hegdes are getting cold feet. Without their confidence, without their partnership, the Raos stand to lose everything—their political position, everything generations have stood for. Because of a complete lie. Appa even asks if it is a lie. Jaya assures him it is. But the damage is already spreading.
When she finishes listening, she lets the phone drop to her lap. The early morning light is rising, and her mind fights what she has heard. There has to be a different way, her inner critic insists. Some workaround. But there isn’t. There is only one right answer, and she must be brave enough to choose it.
On Mount Sama, Grey waits for Jaya, smiling. He imagines taking her into his arms and kissing her again. His eighteenth birthday is only a month away, and his days are limited. But the idea of spending his remaining weeks with someone he truly cares about feels indescribable. A tiny part of him wonders if the universe might give him a pass on the curse. What if his life doesn’t end on his eighteenth birthday? What if Jaya is a sign of good things to come? It might be wishful thinking, but it is the first time in a long time he feels anything close to optimistic.
Jaya walks out onto the plateau, breathing hard. Grey steps forward, smiling. “Hey.” She doesn’t smile back. Dark circles sit under her eyes, and her hair is not as neat as usual. She thanks him for meeting her. He asks if she is okay. She huddles into her coat and walks a few steps away, leaning against a granite boulder. The space between them grows.
Then she says it: “Grey, what happened early this morning can’t happen again.”
His stomach drops. “You changed your mind? About me?”
She flinches. “No—I—I can’t…” She takes a deep breath and controls her voice. “We can’t be together.”
He asks why not, his voice rough as the rock beneath them. Jaya says they come from different worlds. She was foolish to forget that. She lost her head this morning, but family news from home has made her realize that what they were doing was childish. Selfish. He is an Emerson. She is a Rao. It could never work.
Grey says quietly, “That’s it? You’re just going to give up on this because we’re from different worlds? Don’t you think we’re worth it, Jaya?” His words are detached, but she hears the tremor underneath. She knows he is masking his pain, just as she is masking hers. It takes every ounce of strength not to run to him and bury her face in his chest. She looks out over St. Rosetta, metal and glass glinting in the sunlight, and says, “I’m sorry. My first duty is to my family and my people.”
There is a long pause. Finally Grey says, “Right.” He looks down at the town too, jaw hard, posture stiff. He is shielding himself from her because she is hurting him. The thought makes her want to scream. He turns back and says, “Well, thanks for the courtesy of letting me know.” Then he walks away, down the mountain path, without waiting for a response.
“I’m sorry,” Jaya whispers to his retreating back. But the wind snatches her words and flings them into the empty sky.
She calls in sick to the rest of her classes. Back in her room, on legs like cement, she calls her father. He is alert despite the middle-of-the-night hour. He asks if she got his message. She says she did. Her voice sounds robotic, as if her brain has shut down all feeling to survive the pain. Grey’s blue eyes, full of hurt and rejection, flash in her mind. She stares at the snow-covered hills and tells her father she has been thinking about everything he said.
Appa explains the situation again. The journalist published another piece about Isha’s supposed pregnancy. The people are angry. The Mumbai invitation is rescinded. The Hegdes are getting cold feet. They stand to lose everything because of a complete lie. Jaya tells him she has a solution. Her engagement to Kiran Hegde.
Appa is taken aback. She tells him to announce that preparations are underway. Let the papers talk about the lavish engagement ceremony, the feast, the clothes. Have someone interview the Hegdes. People will get sidetracked. It will show everyone the Hegdes are still on board with the Raos. It will keep them from changing their minds. The announcement must be immediate.
Appa protests that she is still in school. Jaya says they won’t actually be engaged until June, after she graduates. They will need that long to prepare the palace. But the buzz needs to happen now. She insists she has known she and Kiran were meant to marry for years. They are just speeding up the timeline. It is for the family, for the kingdom. It is the right thing to do. There is no other solution. Appa finally agrees, sounding less stressed. He sees what she does: a royal engagement will turn the tide. Isha’s scandal will be buried in the avalanche of engagement and wedding talk.
Jaya ends the call and places the phone on her dresser. Only a week ago she was worried about bribing a journalist for information to continue her revenge plan. Now that is the least of her worries. This is triage. She must stem the blood and revive her dynasty, even if it means binding herself to Kiran forever. She studies her reflection—bloodshot eyes, dark half-moons, unruly hair. She barely recognizes the haggard young woman staring back. What weapons does she have? Nothing except her engagement to Kiran. She looks utterly resigned to an end she doesn’t want, like someone with a grave and incurable illness. Like Grey had looked when she found him in her room.
Her gaze drifts to the ruby pendant, nearly half emptied. Was this how the curse worked? Had she been pulled into its orbit because of how she felt about Grey? Was it real after all? She can’t deny one truth: the rubies continue to fall. Only eight remain.
A week passes like a cold, flat copy of the day before. In physics, Grey sits diagonally behind Jaya. He keeps his eyes on the whiteboard, but sometimes his gaze drifts to her hair, her shoulders, the way she grips her pen. Her posture gives nothing away. He has no idea how she feels, or if she feels anything. But he knows the answer. If she felt even an iota of his pain, she could never have done what she did. He was dispensable to her, just like he was to his father. There must be something inherently wrong with him. Was it the curse? Or had he been born this way?
When the bell rings, Jaya watches Grey get up abruptly and cut through the crowd without looking back. The entire class period, she held herself stiffly, feeling his gaze on her skin like a touch. She wanted to turn, take his hand, place her ear against his chest, and listen to his heartbeat. To ask if his world, too, was soaked in tears and going up in flames.
She checks her phone and reads the email from her father: the engagement announcement that will run in the Mysuru papers that weekend. It announces the upcoming engagement of Rajkumari Jaya Rao to Kiran Hegde, heir of the Hegde house. The ceremony will take place at the Rao palace in June, on an auspicious date chosen by the palace astrologer. There will be a grand feast. Arrangements will begin soon.
This is it. This is what she must do. Even though her world is on fire, Jaya feels an innate calmness. She is doing what her obligations dictate. This will show her people the Raos are fit to govern. This will save the Rao estate. This will ensure generations after hers still know the joy of caring for their beloved city. She will save her family, her dynasty, and her name in one fell swoop.
She gets up slowly, packing her phone and books. She is at the beginning of a long, endless tunnel, with nowhere to go but forward.
On a Saturday in November, more than a week after her decision, Jaya sits at a sunlit table in A-caf-demy Bistro with Isha. It is time to tell her sister before the announcement runs tomorrow and relatives begin reaching out. Jaya feels raw, but she knows she must do it. She does not blame Isha. This is for the greater good, even if it hurts people she cares about. Grey’s face flashes into her mind, as it does dozens of times a day. She pushes it away. She wonders if this pain will haunt her forever, like an old broken arm that still aches when bumped.
Isha sips her cappuccino and wipes away a foam mustache. Jaya winces but says nothing. Isha says life has been crazy, but she loves St. Rosetta’s and has made so many friends. Jaya says she is glad. Then Isha asks, “So, how’s Grey?”
The ache is so exquisite that Jaya cannot speak for a moment. Isha frowns. Jaya says she is fine. She asks why Isha is asking about Grey. Isha reminds her that Jaya said she was keeping an eye on him, and she has seen them walking to and from class together. Plus, Jaya sits at his table and is friends with his friends. Jaya takes another sip of chai and says she has decided to stop all of that. Because she has important news. She tells Isha she has decided to get engaged to Kiran Hegde.
Isha stares. Her cappuccino crashes down, coffee slopping over the side. “What? Now? But why?” Jaya says it is as good a time as any. The Raos allying with the Hegdes was always the plan. Isha protests that Jaya is not even done with high school. Jaya explains they won’t be engaged until summer, but engagements in their world take planning. It is not just Kiran getting down on one knee. They are announcing it now to get the process started—and to get people talking about something besides Isha.
Isha asks why Jaya doesn’t wait a few years. Or never. Jaya will not tell her the truth about the growing scandal. Isha doesn’t need to know. Jaya doesn’t want her to feel at fault. This is about duty. She tells Isha she is ready now. She has given Appa the okay. Amma has already made about twenty calls coordinating things.
Isha takes a thoughtful sip. “You and Kiran.” Jaya nods. “Kiran and Jaya Hegde.” Jaya swallows the lump in her throat and agrees. Isha asks if she is happy with the decision. Jaya says she was the one who made it. Isha says, “But you and Kiran? Isn’t that like marrying your actuary or something?” Then she stops, abashed. Jaya asks what she thought. Isha shrugs and says she thought Jaya and Grey were…
Jaya looks away. Finally she says, “We’re not.” Kiran and she have commonalities that Grey and she don’t. This is what she must do as the heiress. It is what is best for the dynasty. Isha sighs and quietly says, “The rules are different for royals.” Jaya confirms it. It is the way their world is. They sit sipping their drinks, each feeling the weight of responsibility and expectation.
And that is where the chapter leaves us—two sisters at a café table, a crown pressing down on one of them, and a boy with a curse standing somewhere beyond the glass, probably breaking in silence.
Reader's Impressions & Star Rating: This chapter is an emotional wrecking ball wrapped in snowflakes. The snowball fight and first kiss are pure magic—playful, heated, and so tender that you almost forget the title has the word “curses” in it. Then the voicemail lands, and the story shifts from fairy tale to royal tragedy in a single breath. Jaya’s breakup with Grey on Mount Sama is devastating because neither of them is the villain; they are both trapped by family, legacy, and fear. Grey’s quiet “thanks for the courtesy” hurts more than shouting would. And Jaya’s decision to engage herself to Kiran to save her dynasty is both noble and heartbreaking, especially with those eight rubies still falling. The chapter balances romance, duty, and dread beautifully. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4.9 / 5 Stars
Next Chapter Prediction: The engagement announcement will hit St. Rosetta like a storm. Grey will likely see it or hear about it, and his fragile hope will turn into cold, bitter resolve—he may try to shut Jaya out completely or do something reckless before his eighteenth birthday. Isha, who clearly suspected something between Jaya and Grey, may not let the matter drop; she could confront Jaya or even seek Grey out, unintentionally pulling more secrets into the open. Meanwhile, the ruby pendant’s countdown suggests the curse is far from finished. I predict the next chapter brings a public clash, a private confession, or both—and maybe the first real sign that the curse is reacting to Jaya’s shattered heart.
To listen free the next reviews chatpers, please access website novelsaudio.com and search keyword: Of Curses And Kisses free digital audiobook or click the link in the description of this video or if you want to listen or read full the Of Curses And Kisses free digital audiobook please access website novelsaudio.com