Page 62 of Broken Hearted
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 itdidn’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 apainkillingtea 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 medrinking 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.
Chapter Twenty
We reached Elisana’s hometown by nightfall and Adrien sent his spies out into the village to learn what they could about my sister. Because this was a village of strictly women, they had to stay cloaked in shadows and only listen at the open windows of houses or taverns. Adrien and I began to stack ourselves with weapons as we awaited word from them. It was late and I was exhausted, but there was no way I was waiting even one more moment to learn the fate of my beloved sister.
“Adrien, I want you to know something,” I told him as I strapped a sword to my waist. He peered at me quizzically.
“I’m not sure of the laws of this land, but if Elisana has harmed a single hair on my sister’s head, I will kill her. Consequences be damned.”
He gave me a half-cocked grin that made my stomach flip. “Oh, Isolde, I’ll give you a full pardon to murder the blood witch, but you’ll have to get her before I do.”
I grinned. Okay, I guess that wasn’t going to be an issue. Now I just had to find the woman.
The sound of crunching rocks pulled our attention to the rightand I formed an icicle in my palm but dropped it to the ground when I recognized one of Adrien’s men dressed in all black.
