Page 19 of Broken Hearted (Cursed Fae #3)

A fter exiting the underwater cave, Marlin used his magic so we could breathe underwater again and we rode to the surface. There were a few dead sirens in the water but Kira and her people had handled it and all lived to tell the tale. Once we got to shore they had a small, weathered sailboat with Adrien’s surviving crew members already aboard waiting for us. We thanked them for their kindness and help before pointing the boat toward Soleum and leaving. Adrien assured me that since he had not checked in back home, there would be an entire second crew and ship coming to look for us as pirate encounters were so common. Sure enough, after just three hours one of his ships found us and took us on board.

“We found Beatrice twenty leagues north and flying a pirate flag. Got her back for you, but she’ll need some work,” the captain of the new ship told Adrien as soon as we’d boarded.

Adrien nodded. “Glad to hear you got her back, Haron. Any other news I need to be aware of?”

The man glanced at me and then back to Adrien. “A rumor that might interest you perhaps … in private.”

Adrien frowned. “Then let’s step onto the captain’s deck and speak.”

The man started toward the back of the ship, and I prepared to wait for Adrien while he talked with his man when his hand slipped into mine, and he tugged me along with him. We were led onto the captain’s deck where the helmsman was steering the ship. The fae, Haron, dismissed him and then took hold of the wheel himself.

Once the helmsman left, we were alone.

Haron peered at me and swallowed hard. “My lord, are you sure you don’t want this conversation to be private?”

Adrien nodded. “I’m sure. You can say anything in front of her. What is it?”

Haron sighed. “One of your spies got word to me via raven that someone with ice magic, who looks very similar to Lady Isolde, was seen at the southern tip of the kingdom.”

It felt like lightning struck the top of my head as shock rushed through my body. Someone with ice magic that looked like me? That … that wasn’t possible. Right?

Adrien peered at me with confusion. “How many sisters did you say you had?”

My stomach sank. No. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t. Right?

“Seraphina,” I breathed. But how could she be here? I guess it might be possible. She was a Winter princess, and the portal was technically still open. I just hadn’t expected Seraphina to do something so rash and dangerous. Nor for my mother to allow her.

Queen Liliana . Of course. When I didn’t return right away she would have sent Seraphina, probably against my mother’s wishes.

I prayed that she wasn’t brainwashed by Queen Liliana’s lies and didn’t actually try to kill an Ethereum lord while she was here. She might only be seventeen years old, but she was very capable and well-trained in the art of fighting.

“I need to speak to this spy right away,” I said, my heart hammering in my chest.

Haron dipped his head to me. “Of course, my lady.”

“Thank you, Haron.” Adrien took my hand and squeezed it before leading me below deck.

We entered the level where the cabins were and Adrien led me into one of them. I was in a state of shock, just following Adrien through the halls as I thought of my poor terrified sister walking through that mirror portal with zero training on the Ethereum realm.

“I’m sorry to hear about your sister,” he said when we were alone in the room.

My mind was frantic with worry for her.

I reached up and rubbed my temples and Adrien stroked my upper arms. “What do you need? How can I help?”

I was on the verge of a panic attack. My little sister was here. All alone.

“Your men wouldn’t kill her, right?” I dropped my hands and looked up at him.

He shook his head. “Not if she looks like you. Not even if she tries to kill them. They will detain her. How powerful is she?”

I swallowed hard. “Not as much as me, but … enough.”

He was being so supportive and yet this was overwhelming. The kiss we shared, the mate confirmation. It was real. He was my mate and even though that felt so right, it terrified me. Now that my sister was here, I had to focus on that. But I couldn’t until we’d talked over what happened back in that labyrinth.

“Adrien, about that kiss,” I hedged.

He just peered at me adoringly. “Yes, Isolde?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “The truth is, I went to a dark place after my parents’ divorce and I’m terrified of the idea of marriage.”

His gaze softened and he took my hand in his. “I can be a patient man if I have to. But please know that there is nothing more I want in this world than to call you my wife.”

It was the sweetest thing he could have ever said, but when he uttered the word “wife” a small spike of fear raced through me that I tried to hide, but Adrien was perceptive enough to see it.

He cupped my face in his hands. “I would never pressure you to do anything you weren’t ready for. Just being by your side is more than enough for me. But there are more important things we have to focus on. We will find your sister. Together.”

I knew then that I’d never have to be alone in anything and that was comforting. Love, marriage, it all terrified me, but I also couldn’t ignore this bond between us and having him at my side, going at my pace, brought me comfort.

After a rough night’s sleep we reached the shores of the Southern Kingdom and docked back in the same wharf we’d left from. One of Adrien’s spies was waiting for us because we’d sent a raven from the ship to alert the castle that we were on our way back. The spy was wearing a black hooded cloak that was coated in dust, from the desert area, I presumed.

I ran over to him, charging ahead of Adrien. “Do you have her? My sister?”

Please say yes.

He pulled back his head covering and a puff of sand fell to his shoulders. His face was scabbed and bruised.

“I do not, my lady.” Then he met Adrien’s gaze. “She was taken by Elisana, who is very much a blood witch. They went north. Robbick is dead.”

Dizziness washed over me, and Adrien caught me as I fell against his side.

“What are we going to do?” I asked Adrien.

He glanced at his spy. “The north is nearly completely taken over by the curse. Why would she go there?”

The spy spoke softly as some passersby walked near us. “Her village sits away from the curse for now. On the Midlands border. We think Elisana went to check on her mother who still lives there and once she gets her to safety, she will … do whatever she has planned with the girl.”

“No,” I whimpered.

We did our part. We unlocked the crystal and got the vial inside, and now we needed to bring it to Zane, not go on a hunt for my little sister. Yet, there was nothing that would stand in my way of rescuing Seraphina. Not even trying to save two worlds.

“My lord, there is one more thing.” The spy looked like he didn’t want to deliver the next blow. “The curse has begun to creep over the border. The date trees are dying.”

“The curse has struck the Southern Kingdom?” Adrien asked, his voice laced with confusion. But then he looked down at me and his gaze cleared.

“What?” I asked, seeing that he’d figured something out.

“We assumed the curse would hit the Western Kingdom next because we thought you were Zane’s mate, and the curse seems to be following the lord who finds his Faerie mate. But—”

“I’m your mate, not Zane’s,” I finished for him, filling in the blanks myself.

Adrien nodded. “But even so, it’s weeks earlier than was expected. The curse must be speeding up.”

A look of determination settled over Adrien’s features, and he turned back to his spy. “And the people?”

“Okay for now,” the spy reported.

“Prepare a contingent of two dozen men to ride north with us and get Isolde’s sister back,” Adrien said. “And send a letter to my brother Zane that we need to see him.”

The man nodded. “And the curse on our lands?”

Adrien sucked in a deep breath. “I will not sit by as things get worse and risk lives. Evacuate the northern refugees first. Send them to Windreum. Once they are safe, begin sending waves of our people west as well. It might take a week but I want everyone out before the real damage starts.”

My heart bled for him. As a leader, to make such a decision was so hard. But it was the right thing to do.

“Hopefully just a precaution,” I told him, indicating my bag and the vial inside for Zane.

He nodded but didn’t seem fully convinced.

Adrien then reached out and grasped my shoulders, determination etched into every feature. “Zane’s trains don’t run to the border where Elisana’s village is. If we skip taking a carriage and ride on horseback as fast as possible straight through the Midlands, we can reach Elisana in just under two days. We can leave right away.”

He was choosing to help my sister first over his own people.

I nodded, feeling relieved. “Thank you.” I was tired from all that had happened on the sea, but of course I wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

Adrien jumped into action, sending a messenger before us to the castle to ready the horses and prepare travel packs for us. By the time we returned to Soleum, two horses were already saddled and ready, loaded with supplies. We mounted immediately and rode through Soleum as quickly as possible. We rendezvoused with the spymaster and the two dozen he gathered outside of the city.

Adrien didn’t bother dismounting his horse as he spoke to the group, quickly telling them where we were headed and why. I was such a ball of nerves I barely heard what he said, really only catching the part about how we were only going to stop when we had to in order to rest the horses and ourselves for a few hours at a time. We were trying to cut a four-day trip in half in order to reach Seraphina as quickly as possible.

My heart softened to him a little more in that moment, seeing him work so hard to help me find and save my sister. He was a good man. And so were the other Ethereum lords I’d met. Queen Liliana was so wrong about them. We all had been.

A swell of thankfulness that I’d found him rose inside me, threatening to destroy the mountain of fear I had built up about the future of our relationship. But I’d carried the trauma of my parents’ divorce for too long to let it go easily.

After that, the whole group of us took off, galloping through Adrien’s kingdom at a breakneck pace for as long as the horses could. Eventually we had to slow, and then long after the sun had set we stopped to rest, although only for a small handful of hours. We were up again before dawn, racing through the sandy terrain.

There was a stark beauty about Adrien’s kingdom that I could appreciate. The sand, the palm trees, the small blooms that managed to spring up despite the lack of water. I found myself comparing his land to my own court. Most fae would consider the Winter Court a harsh environment as well. But the one big difference here was the heat.

The sun was unrelenting, and seeing me struggle around noon on the second day, Adrien insisted I drink part of his ration of water as well as my own. I would have refused, but there was a serious chance that I might pass out, and I didn’t want anything to slow us.

“We’ve made good time,” he said as he watched me drink and our horses walked next to each other on one of our rare breaks from traveling at top speed. “The temperatures will drop soon since we are leaving the Southern Kingdom. We should be well into the Midlands by late afternoon and then with luck, the border of the Northern Kingdom by nightfall. Elisana’s mother lives in a small town just beyond the border.”

I didn’t miss how Adrien’s eyes hardened when he mentioned his ex-fiancée.

I handed him back his canteen and our fingers brushed. Even that small touch sent a thrill through me, and the hardness was wiped from Adrien’s gaze and replaced with heat. Heat that we could do nothing about because we were riding to save my sister with an audience of over twenty of his men.

“How did you even meet Elisana?” I asked because I was both curious and needed a distraction from the desire growing inside of me and knew that nothing would douse the fire in both of us as quickly as talking about Adrien’s ex.

I could see that it worked on him as well as it did on me. His mouth pinched, and I suddenly felt bad that I’d brought it up. Of course he didn’t want to talk about the blood witch that had kept him under a love spell.

“I’m sorry,” I started. “I shouldn’t have asked. Just, never mi—”

“No, it’s okay,” Adrien said. “It actually has to do with where we are going, her home village. I met Elisana when I was traveling through the Midlands to get to the Northern Kingdom. The Midlands can be a hostile territory, especially for Ethereum lords.”

My eyebrows raised at that.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he was quick to add. “Most of the Midlanders are peaceful, but there are those who live in the land between our kingdoms because they are fleeing crimes, and it’s a hotbed for fae who would like nothing more than to overthrow one of the lords and take the kingdom for their own.”

“Then why were you traveling through the lands if they are so dangerous?”

And why are we? I thought.

“Well, not much is truly dangerous for an Ethereum lord. Our power is unparalleled in this realm.” The way he said it didn’t make it sound like he was boasting, but rather just stating a fact. “And I was also traveling incognito, so I didn’t think I’d be recognized.”

“But you were?” I guessed.

“What I was,” he said, “was distracted.” Some color suddenly appeared on Adrien’s cheeks that made me think he was blushing. “A group of bandits snuck up and managed to unhorse me by slapping a nasty dampener rune on me. I fought hard, but there were a dozen of them and eventually they knocked me out.

“When I woke, I was in Elisana’s home just over the Midlands’ border and looking into her eyes, already under her love spell, I guess. She told me she’d come across the group in the middle of the night and saved me. I hadn’t thought to question how she got me away from so many men and transported me to her village because I was already besotted with her.”

He shook his head, a sour look on his face. “In hindsight, Elisana most likely arranged the whole thing.”

Sympathy for what Adrien had been through pricked my heart. Elisana had used him in an awful way. I didn’t even know how you would trust someone after something like that happened to you, but Adrien, as amazing as he was, didn’t appear to be letting that stop him from opening his heart to me. Maybe I needed to follow his lead?

“I stayed with Elisana for three days while I recovered from my injuries. Drinking a painkilling tea each morning.” He emphasized the word painkilling because we both now knew what that tea was. “At the end of the three days, we were engaged and she traveled back to the Southern Kingdom with me. She kept me drinking her potion after I’d complained about how poorly I was resting. I don’t know how I’ve been such a fool.”

I wanted to lay a hand on him to offer him comfort, but we were too far away so I used my words instead. “It wasn’t your fault, Adrien. You were enchanted. Even a mighty Ethereum lord isn’t immune to magic like that.”

“Thank you,” he said, giving me a small smile, and clearing his throat. “But there are a couple of things you need to know about the village we are traveling to. First, it’s very remote, and second, it’s populated by only women.” He gave me a pointed look.

“Only women? Is that normal?”

Adrien shook his head. “It’s not. Elisana told me that the men had been killed in a mining accident two seasons before I met her, but now that I know what she is, I have to assume that’s a lie as well.”

“Why would she lie about that?” I asked, not understanding.

“Because it is a convincing cover story for a coven.”

I gasped. “Of blood witches?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but I think we should be prepared that they might be.”

Sudden fear for Seraphina quickened my heartbeats. A whole town of blood witches. If they were all as powerful as Elisana, they’d be almost unstoppable. “Is that why she’s taking my sister there? For backup.”

“I don’t know that either. It could be just as my spymaster thought, that she’s gone to check on her mother and bring her to safety, but I think we’d be foolish not to prepare for anything to happen once we get there. I’d like to move into the village covertly. If it is teeming with blood witches, our best chance at saving your sister will be to get her out as quietly as possible.”

I nodded and even under the blasting sun, a foreboding chill swept through me. But I would do anything, anything , for my sister. And that included facing a village full of blood witches if I had to.

I hardened my resolve. We would find Seraphina and get her to safety, or die trying.