Page 11 of Broken Hearted
“Perfect. Just a quick stop in my capital, if you don’t mind. I have some urgent matters to deal with, and then we can leave tomorrow morning for the Northern Mountains. That’s where the Wise Ones live.”
I nodded. “Sounds good.”
He heaved a book out from under the table. It was all tabbed up and underlined. “In the meantime, Aribella sent this.”
I laughed. Book-loving Aribellawouldsend me something like this.
I stroked my fingers along the title. “Magic of Old.”
My curiosity was piqued, and I started thumbing through the tabbed pages. There was interesting information about Ethereum’s magic, particularly how it was passed down from one lord to the next, but I didn’t find anything that would help me defeat the curse.
When the train pulled into the station of Windreum we stepped off the platform to a gathered crowd of cheering fae. They clearly loved their lord, and threw flower petals at us while Zane waved to them as we stepped into his awaiting carriage.
“Somebody is well-liked by their people,” I said playfully as I clutched the black leather bag containing the Shadow Heart and Aribella’s book to my chest. I planned to read as much of it as I could today while Zane had matters to attend to.
Zane ducked his head. “Well, it’s not just that . . .” He eyed me shyly. “They think . . . well, they heard that the princesses of Faerie come and then the lord gets married, and they assume . . .” He trailed off, and dread sank into my gut.
“Oh,” I said. “They think we will be married?”
He nodded, looking hopeful but also unsure.
“Listen, Zane—”
He waved me off. “Of course it’s too soon to know any of that,” he said, almost as if he already knew what I was about to tell him and didn’t want to hear it.
“Of course,” I told him, not ready to have that awkward conversation right now.
Just because Dawn and Aribella claimed to have met and married their mates didn’t mean Zane or Adrien was mine. Perhaps it was just a coincidence that Dawn and Aribella fell in love with the two brothers, and they were reading too much into the situation? Maybe I was destined to be a lonely spinster with twenty cats. I wasn’t even mad about the idea.
After taking a carriage ride through his beautiful capital, we stopped at a hillside mine on the outskirts of Windreum. Themountain had been half carved out with rich black coal hidden inside, but I could see from my place inside the carriage that something had gone wrong. The entrance was half caved in. They’d had a mine collapse. I knew how dangerous those were. I overheard my mother talking about one just last month in the Winter Court. It had killed a dozen miners.
“I have to deal with this. You’re welcome to stay in the carriage and read your book or walk around. This part of the city is safe, and the people are very friendly,” he assured me.
The area was very quaint. The thatched roofs and bright red-and orange-colored buildings had a vibrant air to them, but I needed to focus on my task. End this curse and go home.
“I’ll read my book in here. Thank you,” I said, with a smile.
Over the next few hours, I tried to read but kept losing concentration by the grunting and yelling of the men at the mine entrance. I bent the corner of the page I was on and closed it. Maybe it was time to see if there was any way I could help.
After exiting the carriage, I took the small pathway to the mine entrance at the base of the mountain. When I got there, I saw that Zane was shirtless, which was a sight to behold. The man was all muscle.
I felt my eyes widen when black bolts of lightning shot from the tips of his fingers, blasting the rock blocking the entrance. The boulders exploded, creating an opening for half a second, only for it to collapse again. Men stood to the left and right with thick beams of wood and rushed forward when he’d created an opening, only to run back as it collapsed. It seemed they were trying to clear the debris and create a new opening.
Zane and his men repeated this process again and again with the same results before I finally stepped forward.
“Need help?” I asked as Zane groaned for the fiftieth time.
“Is there any way you can keep the mine entrance open while my men repair the opening?” he asked me, with slight sarcasm in his tone.
I grinned. “Yes, I can. Do you have water? I can pull it from the air or a person’s body in an emergency, but filled buckets would be better. Six should do it.”
Zane’s mouth popped open as if he didn’t expect that response and then he looked at two of the men who were standing by. “Go fetch the water,” he called to them.
They ran off and returned quickly. When we had the six buckets sitting at the base of the collapsed entrance, I looked at Zane. “Have them pour three of the buckets onto the fallen dirt mound.”
Zane ordered the men to do just that, something I didn’t feel comfortable doing since they weren’t my men. They did as they were asked, and I felt my palms tingle with the anticipation of using my power.
“Stand back,” I told the group of men, Zane included. They took several steps back, and I inhaled deeply, calling on my power.
