Page 64 of Broken Hearted
Adrien shook his head. “I have a bad feeling that she’s expecting that. She’s very cunning.”
Anger roared to life inside of me. I just wanted to kill this woman. Adrien said by his own admission that he wanted her dead too, but now he was telling me to wait?
Reading the anger on my face, Adrien squeezed my hand again. “Trust me, please,” he quietly begged.
He was asking a lot, but the look on his face told me he knew that. I had to take several slow breaths to regain control over my emotions, but I finally gave him a small curt nod. I wouldn’t kill her right away. I would trust him.
The corners of his mouth turned up in a sad smile of acknowledgement and he swiped his thumb gently over the back of my hand.
When we reached the small brick house with the porch light on and the door cracked open, Eldon slithered into the shadows, seemingly to watch from elsewhere.
Adrien gave me one final glance and then walked up to the open door and knocked on the frame. “Elisana,” he called. His voice was calm, but I heard the hatred in her name.
“My darling,” came an excited reply as the door was yanked open.
Elisana looked better than ever. She was wearing a pastel pink dress with her hair curled in waves over one shoulder and a full face of make-up.
And I immediately wanted to murder her.
Forget Adrien’s weird feeling and stupid plan. Instead of freezing her solid, I decided I wanted to see her suffer. With a flick of my wrist I shot a serrated icicle into her left shoulder. She cried out in pain, falling back against the open door, but then another scream rose up deeper in the house. One I recognized.
Seraphina!
Elisana ripped the icicle out with a grunt, and it clattered to the floor just as I rushed past her and to the sound of my wailing sister. I passed through a sitting room and into a larger living area where my Seraphina was sitting on the couch, holding her shoulder, blood pouring from a wound.
No.
“Sera!” I ran to her, frantically trying to assess what had happened,but there was no weapon, just an open puckered hole in her left shoulder, right where I’d struck Elisana.
How?
Elisana clicked her tongue behind me, and I looked over my shoulder to see her enter the room with Adrien behind her. “Naughty, Isolde. You hurt your dear sissy.”
I felt absolutely feral as I glared at the blood witch. There were dried herbs and crystals and small bowls littering the coffee table and I knew at that moment that she’d done something, forced my sister to drink one of her vile potions.
“What did you do?” I growled.
Elisana grinned. “My best spell yet. Little Seraphina and I are soultied. Now any harm that comes to me will be transferred straight to her.” She peeled her torn sleeve down to show me that her shoulder was unharmed.
No. That wasn’t possible.
I looked back at my sister who was whimpering in pain, and at the bloody hole in her shoulder. Knowing I caused that made me sick.
Adrien was right. Elisana was cunning and she knew what she was doing. Had I frozen her solid as I’d planned to, my sister would be dead.
“What do you want?” Adrien asked, his voice held a false kindness, one you used on an animal you were scared of that you didn’t want to spook.
Elisana looked at him and I could see the envy in her gaze. “I want my fiancé back. I wantyou. Isolde kidnapped you from our wedding, and she’s not even behind bars.” She growled the last part, shooting me a scathing look that bounced right off me.
Seraphina leaned into me and I reached out and held her hand, squeezing it, knowing we couldn’t speak freely here.
Elisana walked over to the table where there was a small cup of brown tea and my stomach clenched. “Adrien, darling, you’ve been without your tea for too long.” She picked it up and I stood.
“No!” I shouted but Adrien caught my gaze, and I paused. There was something in that gaze that told me to trust him.
“Yes, I’ve been sleeping horribly,” he told her. “If I drink this tea you’ll let them both go? Seraphina and Isolde?”
Elisana glared at us. “Of course. I don’t want them to stay here a moment longer than they have to. Look what she’s driven me to do to protect myself,” she said as she handed him the cup, giving me her back.
