Page 82 of Broken Hearted
I glanced at Zane and he saw the fear in my eyes. “Let’s make this quick. You take upstairs, and I’ll search down here,” he said.
I nodded and then took off. The upstairs consisted of three bedrooms and a small bathroom. I flew through each room like a tornado, looking in every drawer, under each of the beds and mattresses, behind the curtains, and even checked for loose floorboards, but I didn’t find what we were looking for.
My only hope was that Zane hadn’t come up empty-handed as well, but my heart sank when I returned to the kitchen to find him standing in the middle with his hands on his hips, looking grim.
“Anything?” I asked, but he shook his head.
“I found her potions room.” He pointed to the end of the kitchen where an open door led to a narrow room filled with what looked like ingredients for her potions and spells, books, and even a wall of vials. Before I could get excited about the vials, Zane said, “All the bottles and vessels in there are labeled. None of them are what we are looking for. And I checked every drawer and hiding spot inthe kitchen and the rest of the floor. I don’t think the vial is here,” he said, his voice filled with regret.
A ball of frustration and anger swirled in my chest, growing bigger and bigger until it detonated. Throwing my hands out toward Elisana’s potion room, I released my magic, freezing everything in the room. With a scream of frustration the ice then exploded, destroying everything in there. Her potions room wasn’t the target I wanted, but it did make me feel a measure better knowing I’d destroyed all her things.
“Wow,” Zane said, blinking at me after my show of power. “That was impressive.”
“Thanks, but that was nothing compared to what I’m going to do when I get my hands on Elisana,” I told him.
“I believe you,” he said.
“Come on.” I waved Zane over to the back door. “She must have the vial on her. Let’s go check in with Dawn and Zander.”
Zane nodded and followed me out of the house. This wasn’t how I wanted it to happen, but I wouldn’t let myself lose hope. We could still attack and stop the wedding. I just couldn’t hurt Elisana until I’d burned that vial.
As quickly as possible, we hurried to where we’d agreed to meet up with Dawn and Zander. They’d beaten us back to the designated meeting spot, and Dawn was pacing when we arrived.
“Did you get it?” she asked immediately.
I shook my head. “It’s not in her house. She must have it on her.”
Dawn and Zander exchanged a look.
“What?” I asked.
“We think it’s around her neck,” Zander answered. “We caughta glimpse of her going to the ceremony location, which is an outdoor amphitheater on the other side of the village. She’s wearing a gold chain with a small vial hanging on it.”
“That has to be it,” I said. “It’s not ideal, but at least we know where it is now.”
Dawn stepped forward. “That’s not all.” The look on her face and the tone of her voice said that I wasn’t going to like what she said next.
“Is Adrien all right?” I asked, because that’s all I really wanted to know at this point.
She bit her lip, but nodded. “He seems unharmed, but they have him tied up. It’s obvious he’s not a willing participant, but it appears they are going to go on with the ceremony anyway.”
“Can they do that?” I asked. “To get married, both parties have to say, ‘I do’, right?”
“Perhaps not,” Zane said, speaking up. “This is a blood witch ceremonial wedding. They might be able to bind Adrien to Elisana without his consent. We just don’t know.”
Fear wanted to pull me under, but instead I strengthened my resolve. No. I wouldn’t let that happen. Adrien was my mate, and I wasn’t going to let Elisana keep us apart for even one more day.
“It’s time,” I said. “Take me to the ceremony site. We have a wedding to stop and a groom to save.”
* * *
We made it to a hill overlooking the open-air amphitheater just before the ceremony appeared to be starting. Seats were filled withwomen dressed in their finery on both sides of an aisle that led to the lowest part of the structure, which served as a stage. It was eerie to see no men, and it made me wonder how the women had children. And where were their husbands or lovers?
I assumed this was a site they used for rituals as well as wedding ceremonies, but I couldn’t know for sure. I tried not to think too hard about what a group of blood witches would need a place like this for, or the flat stone structure that looked an awful lot like an altar on the stage below.
I spotted Adrien right away, standing at the end of an aisle, a little ways from the stone altar. He was tangled in vines that came up from the ground and wrapped around him from below his knees all the way up around his arms to his shoulders, completely incapacitating him. There was a gag in his mouth, keeping him from crying out as he thrashed against his bindings.
Everything about this sham of a ceremony was sick. From the unhinged bride to the unwilling groom.
