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He could almost feel her smile.

“What sort of enchantments are on these bars?” she asked.

“The kind that prevents someone from using enchantments to open them. They’re complicated, but I’ll have you know that I’d be able to break through them if it weren’t for these damned?—”

“I said, keep quiet down there!” the guard yelled again.

“What about a key?” Josephine whispered after a moment.

Alder’s lips stretched into a slow smile. Brilliant girl. “A key should work. Need a distraction?” he whispered back.

“Yes.”

“Excellent.” Alder knew just the song.

“Hey, there!” The guard stalked straight for Alder’s cell, but Alder didn’t break his singing stride. “I told you to be quiet,” snarled the guard.

Alder sang louder.

“If you don’t stop singing this instant?—”

“—my love to me, whilst she left me to my iniquity?—”

“I will rip out your tongue?—”

“Oh, ho, please bring my love to me, oh! Bring my love to me?—”

Keys jangled and metal creaked, but before the guard could take a step into Alder’s cell, Josephine appeared behind him and tapped on his shoulder.

The guard stiffened and turned around.

Josephine smiled and waved. “Hello.”

“How—?”

Alder slammed his cuffed hands on the back of the guard’s head. The guard’s eyes rolled back, he slumped to the ground, unconscious, and Alder looked at Josephine with a smile. “Thank you, darling.”

The color now splotching her cheeks was a wondrous thing to behold.

“You’re welcome,” she said with a smile that faded as she noticed the blood congealed upon his brow and trickling down his face. She sucked in a breath as she took a step toward him, reached out and—slowly, hesitantly—trailed her fingers along his brow.

Her tender touch arrested him, as if it carried its own sort of enchantment.

“Alder, you’re bleeding everywhere.”

“It’s really not…that bad.” He coughed again, his broken rib flared, and he cringed.

Josephine noticed. Of course she did. “Which one is it?” She was already lightly pressing along his ribs with that same, enchanted hand.

“Are you planning to heal it with a kiss? Because I could point out a few other places.”

She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. “I can’t believe you’re joking about this right now.”

“Who says I’m joking?”

Her gaze slid up to his then, her hand still on his ribs. She was so near, invading all of his senses, that Alder nearly forgot about the pain and the blood, and the fact that they were standing before hisopencell door.

It nearly killed Alder to say, “We need to drag him in before someone else comes.”