Page 8 of Broken Hearted (Cursed Fae #3)

I was sitting on a stone, tossing pebbles into a circle I’d etched in the dirt to pass the time, when Zane all but stumbled from the cave. His face was pale, and he wore a dazed expression. I imagined I looked similar when I emerged as well.

Popping up to my feet, I hurried over to him. “Are you all right?” I asked when his gaze didn’t seem like it was focusing on anything.

Zane gave his head a small shake and looked at me. “Sorry,” he said and then ran a hand through the long strands of his hair on the top of his head. “That was just … a lot.”

“Did you get the answer you were looking for?”

He let out a shaky half-laugh that I didn’t know how to interpret. “I got an answer,” he said. “But it wasn’t exactly the one I was looking for.”

“I’m so sorry, Zane,” I told him, my heart aching for the kind lord.

“Don’t be,” he said as he straightened his shoulders, shaking off the last vestiges of fog from his mind. “I now know what I have to do.”

“And what do you have to do?” I asked, not able to keep my curiosity in check.

When he turned to me, there was a fire in his eyes I’d not seen from him before. Determination was etched on every sharp angle and curve of his face. “I have to go to Faerie and get my mate. Together, we will destroy the curse.”

* * *

By the time Zane and I started our trek back down the mountain, night had fallen. Zane told me more of the mission he said the Wise Ones had given him as we walked in the moonlight. After I unlocked the crystal, he was tasked with taking it to Lorelei in Faerie, and then both of them needed to bring it to the place where the curse was born and destroy it.

I’d asked how they were supposed to use the crystal to destroy the curse, and he said he didn’t know. When I questioned him about how he was supposed to get back to Faerie when the only way we knew to get there was through using the faestone dagger to cut out an Ethereum lord’s heart, he said he didn’t know that either.

On the one hand I was glad we knew the final step that needed to be taken to end this curse forever, but on the other hand, it was incredibly frustrating that it seemed like we still had more questions than answers.

We didn’t waste time sleeping but instead spent the night making our way back down the mountain, finding Orchid safely where we’d left her on the way. The sun was just starting to rise when we made it to the black water.

From there, it took us a full day to get back to the train station in Noreum. The water level was even higher than before, so I used far more power to get us back than I had to travel to the Wise Ones. I was already exhausted without sleep and doing this put me over the edge.

As far as I could tell, the ominous black water was slowly making its way to the capital city. When we finally arrived, I was shocked to see that even though it had been days since we left the train station, refugees were still piling on to make their way south. We caught the last two seats and collapsed into exhaustion the moment the train took off.

We had a loose plan. I wanted to travel to Soleum and see Adrien, and Zane had some books back in Windreum that he thought might help him get to Faerie. Since Windreum was on the way and the next train stop, we would part ways there. If Adrien was in fact my mate, I needed his help in unlocking the crystal, and I was sure Elisana was going to be a problem. But after using so much of my power to freeze the black waters, I was just too tired to figure out what to do with her. I would beg him to help me solve this puzzle to save all of our people. After that we could go our separate ways. Mates or not. It didn’t matter to me.

I set my head back for just a second and dozed off quickly.

The train jerked to a stop, and my eyelids snapped open. Had we reached Windreum already? The sun wasn’t yet out, but it looked like the sky was beginning to lighten.

Zane sat next to me as people stood and gathered their things.

“What are you going to tell Adrien when you see him?” Zane asked.

I opened my mouth to tell him I wasn’t exactly sure when someone cut me off.

“Your brother, Lord Adrien of Soleum?” a lanky female seelie asked beside us. She looked well-off, dripping with fine jewelry, and had light blonde hair curled and pinned up.

“Yes,” Zane told her.

She smiled. “Oh, you must be heading to his wedding, Lord Zane. How lovely. We are all so happy for him. Though moving up the date screams of a pregnancy to me,” she winked.

My stomach bottomed out. “Moved up the wedding?” I asked. Why did my voice shake? Why did I care?

The woman smiled as the train doors opened. “Yes, it’s tomorrow night. Have fun. You will just make it in time.” She waved as she exited the train with most of the people in the car.

The thought of Adrien marrying Elisana made me want to punch someone in the face. Anger and red-hot jealousy roiled through me.

“You have to stop it,” Zane said, bringing me back to myself.

I looked up at him. “What?”

“You can’t let my brother marry her. Not when he’s your mate,” he said in a lowered voice.

I swallowed hard, not sure how to tell him that whether Adrien was my mate or not didn’t matter. I still didn’t plan to marry. But without having to utter the words, Zane seemed to know what I was thinking and reached across the seat and grasped my hand. “Regardless of how you feel right now about being mates, please stop my brother from making a huge mistake. Something isn’t right there. No one can understand why he’s with a woman like that.”

His words lit a fire under me because it was true, and I was the only one who could save him right now.

“Now I kind of wish you were coming with me …” I said.

He chewed his lip. “I will if you need me too, but I have some books on portals back home …”

I nodded. “No, it’s fine. That’s more important.” Maybe he could figure out a way to make a portal back to Faerie without having to cut out his or one of his brothers’ hearts with a faestone dagger.

He stood, eyeing the open door of the train that was likely going to shut soon and head for Soleum.

“You are sure you’re okay alone?” He peered around the car, worried. It had always been the plan that I go on to Soleum alone, but now that there was a wedding to break up, that task felt monumental.

I chuckled. “I have my powers. I’ll be fine. Go, together we can end all of this.” I motioned around at the refugees clinging to their belongings in the car.

He reached into his coat and deposited a small sack of coins in my hand. “If you run into any trouble, just use my name, and that should get you out of it. I’ll also take care of any bills that come up.”

“You are incredibly kind,” I told him and I meant it.

He nodded and then headed for the open doors. Taking one last look at me, he gave me a radiant smile. “Adrien is a lucky guy.”

I blushed, taking the compliment to heart. “So is Lorelei.”

Zane seemed like he’d been looking for love for a long time and Lorelei was such a perfect match for him. Sweet yet strong, loyal to her people and humble.

He stepped onto the platform just as the doors closed and I exhaled a deep breath.

I was on my own now.

I had twelve hours to figure out how to stop the wedding and convince Adrien he needed to help me.

Stars be my guide.