Page 24 of Broken Hearted (Cursed Fae #3)

Adrien

L aying wide awake on the lumpy couch, I strained to hear Elisana across the room, waiting for her breaths to lengthen and even out to confirm she was asleep. The couch in her bedroom was the only concession she’d allowed me. She wouldn’t let me sleep alone last night or tonight, claiming that our separation had caused her trauma, and now she wanted me close all the time. I hadn’t been able to come up with a way to convince her that we should sleep in separate rooms without tipping her off that I wasn’t fully under her love spell.

Thank the stars we hadn’t shared a room before, because I was at least able to stay out of her bed without raising suspicion, claiming that I still wanted to wait until we were wed to share that intimacy. She’d pouted but relented.

The last day and a half had been torture, pretending to be infatuated with her as she paraded me in front of her friends and fellow blood witches in the village. Her touch made me shudder, yet I had to act like I was utterly besotted.

There were times when her magic had swelled, threatening to pull me under thanks to the rune she’d put on my chest, but I always fought against it. Time and time again I brought up Isolde’s face in my mind’s eye and focused on my mate, and the effects of Elisana’s magic had dimmed. But it was a tricky line to walk, keeping Elisana believing I was in love with her while searching for a way to break her soul-tie with Seraphina so that I could kill her.

Especially since the witch barely let me out of her sight.

I was running out of time. The only thing keeping Elisana from insisting we take our vows immediately was the return of her mother, who’d been blessedly absent since I arrived.

I’d never met the woman but apparently, as the leader of Elisana’s coven, she was the one who would preside over our nuptials. Elisana was anxious about the delay, but determined to have her mother marry us. She didn’t say anything directly, but I got the impression from little things she said here and there that her mother would be able to bind us in ways that were more permanent and deeper than simple marriage vows.

A fact that horrified me.

According to Elisana, her mother was expected to return any day now.

There was no way that I would ever betray Isolde and utter vows to another woman, much less the blood witch who had enthralled me, so once her mother appeared, it was only a matter of time before Elisana discovered I was faking my affections for her.

As restricted as I was right now with the rune on my chest, I would no doubt be in chains or worse when my deception was discovered. I had to find a way to break this soul-tie before that happened, so I was waiting for Elisana to drift off so that I could search her home for something useful.

It was well into the night when I was finally confident Elisana was deep in sleep. Her breaths were slow and even as she snored softly.

I held my own breath as I carefully sat up and slid off the couch. I padded to the door in my stockinged feet, my gaze fastened on the lump underneath her covers the whole time. The door squeaked as I pulled it open and I froze, waiting for Elisana to jump out of bed. But she didn’t wake and only turned in her sleep.

Opening it just wide enough to fit me, I squeezed through the doorway as soundlessly as possible and crept down the stairs.

There was one place in Elisana’s house that she’d been careful to keep me out of. It was a small room off the kitchen that I’d only gotten a glimpse of once when she ducked in to return her wand. From the brief look I’d gotten, I’d seen jars, vials, ingredients for her potions, and stacks of books. If there was information somewhere in this home about how to break a soul-tie, I was willing to bet it would be there, but when I reached the room, the door was locked.

I let out a quiet groan of frustration. If I had my powers, I could easily send shadows into the lock to pick it. Without them, I could break the door down with force, but that would undoubtedly wake Elisana.

I cast my gaze around the kitchen, looking for something I could use to pick the lock or unscrew the hinges, when I caught a set of eyes peering at me through the kitchen window. I almost shouted in surprise before recognition settled in.

“Eldon?” I mouthed, and my most loyal spy pulled back his hood to reveal the rest of his face to me.

So not all of my men had fled with Isolde. That was both comforting and terrifying. I hoped she and her sister had made it out okay.

I gestured for him to go around to the door that was off the kitchen, and he nodded again and disappeared briefly. It was late, so there was a good chance no one was walking around to see him, but I didn’t want to take any chances of being seen speaking with him.

“My lord,” Eldon said quietly as he entered the kitchen, his voice barely a whisper. “I’ve had to stay concealed during the day, but I’ve caught several glimpses of you from afar, and you’ve seemed … not quite yourself.” Concern was written all over the spy’s face and his gaze darted around as if he expected Elisana to appear at any moment.

I knew what he was trying to say. He wanted to know if I was under Elisana’s thrall again or not.

“I am in control,” I told him. “Now that Isolde and I have solidified our mate bond, Elisana’s magic isn’t strong enough to sway me. I can feel it trying to work, but I’ve been able to push it aside. I’ve been acting around her this whole time.”

“Mate bond? Congratulations, my lord. I’m so glad to hear you’ve only been acting,” he said, his voice infused with relief.

“Where is Isolde?” I asked, conflicted on whether I wanted her to be far away and safe, or close by.

“She fled with Leif and the rest of the men. They headed for the Western Kingdom to seek help from your brother, Zane. I stayed behind to keep an eye on you.”

Relief that Isolde was most likely safely tucked away in Windreum right now outweighed any disappointment that she wasn’t near. “Good, I’m glad she’s safe. My brother will take care of her, and thank you for staying behind to look after me.” Good men were hard to find. I’d have to promote him when I eventually made it out of this mess.

“We should leave, my lord, before the witch awakens,” Eldon said, casting a frantic look in the direction of the stairs that led up to Elisana’s bedroom.

“We can’t just yet,” I said and explained to him quickly that we needed to try to find something to help break the soul-tie between Seraphina and Elisana. Then we could flee.

After telling him that the door to Elisana’s secret room was locked, Eldon reached into a pouch at his waist and pulled out a small case that held long, thin pieces of metal. Some were straight and others had slightly hooked ends.

Lock picking tools .

Stepping aside, I let him attend to the lock and after only a few moments there was a click and the door popped open.

“Quick. Help me look for anything that might be useful to break a soul-tie.” I pointed to the rows of small bottles positioned on shelves across from me. “Check all the labels and I’ll check these books.”

We got to work right away. When Eldon had checked all the bottles, he turned to me and shook his head, telling me he hadn’t found anything. I pointed to another part of the room and he started examining the herbs and potion ingredients without having to be told, while I continued to thumb through the books as quickly as possible.

I was halfway through the stack when I came across a black leather-bound book. I could tell the tome was old because the leather casing was cracked and worn, and the pages within were yellowed with age. I knew exactly what I was holding the minute I opened it.

A grimoire . Either Elisana’s or perhaps her family’s.

A bolt of excitement shot through me. I didn’t know much about blood witches, but it was common knowledge that their spells were passed down to each generation through grimoires. There was a very good chance that the spell Elisana had used to bind her to Seraphina was in this book. And if it was in this book, the instructions on how to break it were most likely in there as well.

“Did you find something, my lord?” Eldon whispered, appearing next to me.

“Perhaps,” I answered quietly, without taking my eyes off the pages as I thumbed through it, looking for the soul-tie spell.

I was halfway through the book when I finally came across it, the spell for the soul-tie. And it was at that precise moment that a floorboard creaked above our heads.

Both Eldon and I froze, hoping it was just the groans of an old house. But then another creak sounded, making it obvious that Elisana was awake.

Without taking time to think it through or even check to see if there was something that explained how to reverse the spell, I ripped the page from the grimoire and shoved it at Eldon. After quickly replacing the book where I found it, I hurried him out of the room, closed the door which locked automatically behind us, and rushed him out the back door.

“Go,” I whispered frantically. “Take this page to Isolde in my brother’s kingdom. And tell her I love her.”

“My lord, come with me,” Eldon said. “You can escape as well. We can go to her together.”

I shook my head. I wanted to, desperately, but if Elisana realized I was missing, she’d go looking for me immediately, probably rousing half the village to help her. There was no guarantee I’d be able to escape a whole coven, but a good chance Eldon could because no one knew he was here. Getting that page to Isolde was now the priority. Not to mention the fact that I wouldn’t put it past Elisana to cause her own self harm just to hurt Seraphina. She was completely deranged. I had to wait until the soul-tie was broken.

“I can’t,” I simply said, and then shoved Eldon out the door. I’d only just closed it behind him when Elisana appeared in the kitchen doorway.

Her shrewd gaze swept the room. I didn’t miss how her eyes went first to the door to her potion’s room before anywhere else and was glad I’d thought to shut it.

“What are you doing?” she asked sharply, when she didn’t see anything amiss.

If I was going to keep my ruse with her going, I needed to think fast.

“What? Where am I?” I turned in a wobbly circle as if taking in my surroundings for the first time. “How did I get here?” I asked and then grabbed my head, pretending to be foggy-headed, like I’d sleepwalked my way down here and was confused.

“You don’t remember walking down here?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I was sleeping on the couch. I kind of remember feeling thirsty. I must have come down here half awake, looking for water.”

Elisana’s eyes narrowed, and I didn’t miss the suspicion simmering in them. Her gaze flicked to the back door behind me and I knew with a sinking feeling that I was going to have to do something drastic to convince her.

Up until now I’d gotten away with keeping Elisana at arm’s length. Some hugs and a few chaste kisses to her cheek and forehead had been enough to mollify her, but I hoped I wasn’t going to have to step it up now to convince her I was still under her magic.

Elisana walked toward me, her gaze fastened to the back door, but I couldn’t let her go out there to give Eldon time to escape. I sprung forward and gathered her in my arms. She stiffened a little, telling me that I was right and she wasn’t, in fact, fully convinced that I’d stumbled down here by accident.

“My love,” I said, the words tasting like ash in my mouth as I forced myself to lift a hand and softly stroke my fingers against the column of her throat. To me it felt like snake scales, and I had to ward off the shudder that threatened to run through me, but Elisana’s eyes fluttered and a flush pinked her cheeks. “Why don’t we return to your room?”

“We will. I just want to check the back door—” She started to pull away from me, but I tugged her back and ran the tips of two fingers over her bottom lip, back and forth, and Elisana started to look as dazed as I’d pretended to be a few minutes beforehand, the back door all but forgotten.

I smiled internally, even as my stomach roiled at having to continue to touch her and hold her near.

“Come sleep in my bed,” she said, her voice thick with seduction, but the sound didn’t rouse even a speck of desire within me.

I shook my head. “I can’t,” I made my words sound pained. “Being so close to you would be too great a temptation,” I lied. “You said yourself your mother would return shortly. We’ve already waited this long. A day or two more won’t kill us.”

Elisana groaned in frustration. “It’s one of the reasons why I love you so much, that misplaced honor of yours. But fine, we’ll keep our separate sleeping arrangements … for now.”

Taking my hand she turned and then tugged me after her, leading me back upstairs. Each step felt like a monumental task because all I wanted to do was rip my hand from hers and use it to squeeze the life from her instead, but I couldn’t because that would kill Seraphina.

Hurry, Isolde , I thought.

There’s no way I was going to be able to play along for very much longer. Because I knew next time Elisana would expect me to take her in my arms and kiss her passionately, and I wouldn’t be able to, even to save myself.