Page 47 of Potion of Deception (Potion of Deception #1)

Dante's eyes twinkled in the dim light, already speaking for themselves. Maybe she didn't know him long enough, but she'd already realized one thing: when Dante needed to find something he was very determined, they were similar in this .

“Good night,” was the only words that left his mouth – a calm velvet voice that felt like a night itself.

Violette was sitting in the living room at the round table by the window, to the sounds of hearth’s crackling. Her fingers wrapped around the cup of tea, gaze went into the distance and the darkness outside returned her thoughts to Dante.

She hadn't seen him since she woke up – he didn't leave his room or left it and sneaked out back before she could notice it.

She didn't know what he was doing the whole day but it was clear – he couldn't be out, their recent trip after the Vampire Kingdom proved to her it's a bad idea to let a vampire out in the daylight.

Dante was pretty reckless and unbothered by many things but she doubted he'd want to repeat that experience again.

Dante’s voice burst into the air, causing Violette to choke on her tea.

“Waiting for someone?” He leaned on the doorframe, his white teeth flashed through the mask.

The cup clunked over the saucer, the question immediately left Violette’s mouth, “Did you find something?”

The corners of his mouth tugged upwards and he quickly made his way to the table and sat down opposite her.

“There's a legend about a magical cavern with magic trophies which belonged to one witch. Want to guess what it's called? ”

“The Grotto of Spells and Relics?” Her gasp curled into a smile.

“Exactly.”

The sparks danced in her eyes. “And you know where it is?”

“The legend says it could be found only with a special enchanted map,” he uttered.

“And you think Adrogans have it?”

He drew a hand along his jaw. “There's a reason for their coat of arms in the book and I'm aiming to know what it is.”

“But what about the moonstone? How does it come in hand?”

“There's one more thing. See this crescent moon,” he handed her the book with open pages. “And the keyhole. The legend says: To open the cavern you must ask the moon for help .”

Violette beamed.

“It's a key! That's brilliant,” she spat out. “So what will we do then? How do we get the map?”

Dante delightfully let out a breath. “Every first Friday of December Adrogans throw a winter ball. Luckily for us, we are just in time.”

Violette counted days in her mind, it was already the day after tomorrow.

“So you want to attend the ball?” she asked, her brows and the corners of her lips lifting in surprise.

Dante's face didn't evoke the same enthusiasm. “I didn't say this is what I want. But we are going. ”

Violette assumed Adrogans were a very important and famous family – Dante almost immediately recognised their coat of arms and the Queen drew their sign a few centuries ago. It was probably hard to arrange a meeting with them, perhaps, this ball was their only chance to talk with them.

“And what then? What is the plan?”

“The mansion is run by the young Lord Adrogans,” Dante started, “his father passed not long ago and it will actually play a good hand for us.”

Violette frowned. “Someone's death?”

“It's easier to trick a young guy who has a reckless desire to show up than an old nerd.”

‘A reckless desire to show up’ sounded a bit weird, but it awakened her curiosity.

“What do you know about him?”

“I heard he is vainglorious, adventurous and haughty. Like most of the nobility so there's nothing new. However, he has an interest in magic things.” His eyes almost inflamed as he looked at Violette – he already found a role for her in his plan.

Violette felt the tugging of an invisible thread, reminding her to be careful. “What kind of magic?” she asked.

“He loves artifacts, rare curiosities and things similar to it.” He carelessly waved his hand, relaxing in his chair. “He is not a wizard, but I believe he has interest in anything magical, including people as well. ”

“I might not like where you are leading me.”

“Oh, of course, you're not.” The corners of his eyes raised. “Not like someone asked you about it.”

“Careful,” she warned. “We were talking about it. You have to be respectful.”

He cracked his neck muscles as the words “You are no fun” left his mouth and it earned him a side-eye from her. “Relax. I'm joking. There's nothing extreme in my plan. Lord Adrogans has a collection of magic gizmos, I believe he might have a map that will lead us to the grotto.”

“What is my role in this?”

“You just need to make him give it to you.”

“It's very unlikely he'd just hand me the map, especially if he really treasures his stuff,” Violette doubted.

“Ask?” The vampire nearly snorted. “I'm not saying you should ask him. I want you to charm him.”

“To charm? With magic?”

“With your skills in seduction.” His expression turned serious.

“My what?” She drew back, her brows creasing. “You want me to seduce him?”

“What, fear you won't cope with it?”

Oh, she knew what he was doing – trying to test her. To hurt her pride. The jerk .

She'd much like to prove him wrong but there was one thing: she knew nothing about how to talk romantically to a guy.

She was pretty confident in her speech while talking with males but she'd never flirted with any or dated someone.

It felt strange to imagine she had to seduce someone when she barely knew how to get a romantic conversation going; how do people even… start it?

She might read about it in the books but she'd never felt enormous attention from boys.

She actually didn't remember if someone tried to flirt with her before, even if so, she was thinking they were just being nice.

It came to her mind that she possibly never was really attentive to the guy's behavior.

And while it'd be nice to feel cared about, romance wasn't really bothering her mind that much before.

“Is there any other way?” Her brows twisted in incertitude.

“What is it? A ghost of doubts?”

She swore he looked kind of surprised that she didn't jump in with refutations of his words. No, he was right, she will not give him such satisfaction. There's nothing hard about charming a guy. It's just a guy after all.

“And what do you want me to do then?”

“Charm him, talk about magic things and then make him take you to his collection,” he said with such ease as if it was indeed that simple.

She had an urge to ask why he wouldn’t try to lure him as it was not ordinary for his behavior – never would she believe Dante would choose a more difficult path .

“Weren't you saying it's a bad thing to do?” He raised his gaze, mystery played in his eyes and the corner of his mouth yanked upwards, she couldn't read what was that about.

Her brows pulled together. “Of course it is. But it's something you'd do.”

Dante's face slightly twisted but his voice remained calm.

“How many people I lured for that time you were with me? Aside from that couple I didn't use my vampire ability to charm others. As you can see I don't do it as usual.”

It was true though. He didn't use his luring powers, as she assumed.

And though Dante wasn't a person to believe, somehow it felt like the truth – she didn't notice any strange behavior from the people they had any contact with.

That woman and man he lured to stay the night wasn't the best memory of their journey, though she couldn't continue to blame him so she'd decided to close this chapter.

“Wasn't it an easier thing to do?” Her fingers brushed the saucer edges.

“Why are we not arguing where you’re suggesting to lure him and I am trying to dissuade you, reading you a full moral speech about how it is wrong to take someone's choice and you can't do it to people?” Her eyes raised to him again.

“Yes, I decided to skip that part,” his lips curved into a selfish smile, “I thought it would save us time.”

Leaning back in the chair, he continued, “To be honest, I'm with you on this, Little Witch.

I don't like the concept of taking away someone's choice, I think it's not fair as well.

However, sometimes there are rare occasions when it can be useful.

Although even if I decided to choose an easier path, it won't be that easy to meet the young lord.

I need eye contact to lure him and he is too aloof to speak with everyone.

It's much more clever and easier to send a girl to him. He likes women's attention.”

Violette surveyed him. It was hard to say she believed him but she wanted it to be true – it would be for the better.

“And why do you think he'll listen to me ?” She raised a brow.

She thought it's too presumptuous to hope he would want to speak with her when there would probably be many other guests, some of which would be much more beautiful women in grandiose dresses possessing the skills to charm men with a smile and a single sway of a fan.

“I'll be honest,” he said, leaving the back of the chair and moving closer, his elbows pressed on the surface and fingers clasped together. “You are pretty, attractive, smart and a witch. You are the bearer of all qualities he values and extols the most.”

She glared at him, trying to catch a ploy in his words.

Violette considered herself a pretty and fairly attractive woman but it was bizarre to hear it from Dante.

He tried to turn her cheeks scarlet several times, however she took it as an action to annoy her.

No doubt he was messing with her then but he sounded serious now .

“And I'll make it easier for you to get his attention,” he continued, his gaze not leaving her.

“I sent a letter to his estate that a certain duchess, Lady Nora, from distant magical places will arrive at the ball. It must intrigue him: he loves guests from high society, especially ones from new magic places.”

“And how might it help me?”

“Don't make me take my words about you being smart back, Little Witch.”

“I have to pretend I am a duchess?” She almost chuckled at this thought. “It's ridiculous.”

“Perhaps you are not behaving yourself as a duchess. There is some work to be done here. But you have a great personal trait most of the nobles share, which can help you to make him believe you're one of them – your pride. So don't be afraid to be a little bit arrogant to him. Can you handle this?”

Violette softly snorted, a smirk curled her lips. “Don't worry, I have a great example in front of my eyes. I was watching you for weeks, finally it'll come into use.”

“Careful with your words, Little Witch, I can think you're obsessed with me.” His eyes brightened with an unusual tone she'd never seen before in his eyes.

“Only in your dreams,” she huffed.

Leaning back in his chair, Dante summed up in a perfunctory manner, “So that's what we have.

You'll charm this boy – make up something about the magic lands you came from, about its extraordinary spells so that it makes him talk about his own interests in magic. Then casually mention you heard about a magic map to an enchanted place and make him show you it. Get as close as you can.”

“And what’s next? It's not like he'll gladly lend me the map to use.”

“That's where your extraordinary talent will get the use.” He threw his head back and folded his hands behind his head.

Violette's back straightened in surprise. “My talent?”

“Potion making.”

She lowered her brows with a grain of salt, waiting for an explanation.

“We'll put him to sleep. I was thinking about some potion or sleeping powder. Can you make something like this?” He gazed at her.

“Of course I can,” she reproved. “You can doubt me, but never my potion skills.”

“Great. I'm glad we came to an agreement with this.”

“But I do need ingredients for it,” she warned.

“Fine, then we'll go to town to visit a potion shop.”

Violette's brows rose. She didn't expect there to be magic shops after all these stories about how people don't trust magic here .

“If they have potion shops, why can't we buy some sleeping powder there? Don't they have ready to go potions?”

As much as she was happy to hear she will have a chance to brew a potion and use her talent for something useful, she couldn't understand why to choose such a hard way if it can be bought from the store.

“They have problems with some potions here, especially with sleeping ones, too many stories involving magic poisons,” he said vaguely. “It's forbidden to sell something that can harm other people.”

“Harm?” This way of wording took her by surprise. “There's many sleeping potions with different effects, some of them completely harmless and can be used just for a better sleep,” she retorted.

“I know. But people here are familiar with the bad side of said potions. You can sell flying potions or any other silly things like that but you can't sell something that can put a person in a suspended state.”

Her frown deepened. “But not all sleeping potions and powders do this.”

It was hard to believe someone could claim a sleeping potion as something dangerous when it was one of the most easy and available things to buy where she'd lived. Every other wizard knew how to brew it and it could be easily found in any healing store.

“On my land, people use sleeping powder if they have problems with insomnia. It's like some kind of medicine, even if it's magic itself,” she remarked.

“I think it's possible to get sleeping powder here but it'll be a hard long journey.

All the more, I'll finally get a chance to see you in work.” A faint grin appeared on his face, though his words seemed sincere.

Was he interested in how she was brewing potions or did he come up with a trick she is yet unaware of?

Her gaze fell to the empty cup as Dante said at last, “We'll go to the shop tomorrow as the sun settles down.” With that he got up, not bothering himself to say something else.

Violette supposed it was all for today, this night she could just sleep. It was so unusual now: for the last week she was only able to go to bed in the morning and by the evening she had to be ready for a new trip. She had no idea what to do, and yet she still got up to her room.