Page 34 of Broken Hearted
My abdominal muscles ached, and the light streaming in from the windows felt like it was stabbing me in the head.
I forced myself to glance around the unfamiliar room, but there wasn’t much to see from my reclined position on the lumpy couch. I didn’t know where I was, and I didn’t remember much from the last couple of days, but I distinctly remember thinking that I was dying.
I tried to sit up, but a weight on my chest kept me in place. Glancing down, a shock ran through me.
Isolde.
The Winter princess was fast asleep with her head resting on my stomach, her legs curled under her on the floor next to the couch. Her dark lashes cast crescent shadows under her eyes as she took in slow and easy breaths. One of her arms was wrapped over my waist, and the other rested against my ribs, a damp cloth clenched in her hand.
Something green caught my eye, and I looked down at my chestto see a dampener rune there. As I stared at it, bits and pieces of the last couple of days started to filter back to me. The most recent memories came back first.
I’d been sicker than I ever had before in my life. Violent shudders had racked me as a fever ravaged my body.
And Isolde had been there the whole time. Talking softly to me. Cleaning the sickness and sweat from me with cool rags. Urging me to drink what I could.
My mind started to drift further back, to before the sickness took hold. My brows furrowed as I tried to make sense of it.
I’d woken up tethered to a bed. Isolde had done it. I’d been furious and attacked her with my magic when she tried to tell me something I didn’t want to hear. What, I couldn’t yet remember. I’d thought she was going to kill me, cut out my heart and take it back to Faerie, but rather than plunging her blade into my chest, she’d laid her faestone dagger on the bed next to me, surrendering it.
I squeezed my eyes shut, willing myself to remember more, and it finally came to me with a silent gasp.
The wedding!
It had been my wedding day. Isolde had appeared out of nowhere and dragged me into the linen closet. Those moments started to replay in my mind as if they’d just happened.
She’d been sure Elisana was a witch. I hadn’t believed her, but now that the potion had been detoxed from my body, I could see it all so clearly.
I didn’t love Elisana. I never had. Over the year that I’d known her she’d practically force-fed me that tea at times, and now I knew why.
Isolde had saved me.
Looking down at her now, I knew I should wake her to let her know that I was free of the spell, but I couldn’t bring myself to move. And it wasn’t the aches and pains in my body that stopped me—although those were starting to dissipate—it was that I couldn’t tear my gaze from her.
My eyes were greedy for her. For details I hadn’t noticed or remembered from the day we’d met. The faint smattering of freckles over the bridge of her nose. The graceful slope of her cheek. The silkiness of the strands of her long raven hair that were splayed out over her back and shoulders. Even her long fingers fascinated me.
Knowing that my dreams of her hadn’t done her justice, I drank her in like a man dying of thirst. Every one of her features was like a drop of crystal-clear water, rejuvenating my mind, body, and soul.
And it wasn’t the foggy obsession like I’d had with Elisana. No, my mind was clear, a complete contrast to how I’d always felt with my fiancée.
My ex-fiancée.
Thinking of Elisana brought a wave of rage to the surface so potent that I tensed involuntarily, jostling Isolde. The movement woke her, and her eyes blinked open. The ice-blue orbs had me catching my breath.
“You’re awake,” she said, her voice husky with sleep, and something stirred deep in my chest.
I nodded. “Yes. And clearheaded for the first time in a long time.”
She started to smile, but it froze on her face when she realized she was half sprawled over me. Jolting back, her cheeks turned themost lovely shade of pink that only darkened further when she glanced over my body.
I arched a brow at her when I saw that I was nearly naked, and she jerked her gaze from me, stumbling to her feet. Without another word, she rushed from the room and as I pushed myself to a seated position with a groan, I found myself wondering where my brother Zane was and why he would leave his mate alone to tend to me.
Thinking of Isolde as my brother’s mate caused an unexpected pain to slice through my chest. It didn’t feel any more right now than it had the first time I’d seen them together, but there was nothing I could do about it, so I pushed the thought from my mind, with effort.
I was just shifting so my feet were on the floor when Isolde hurried back into the room and flung a thin blanket at me. It smacked me in the face, surprising me.
“Oh, sorry,” she said as I rearranged the blanket over my lower half, covering me from the waist down.
I had to cover my smile. I didn’t mind my state of undress. I’d gone fishing on my boat in similar attire when the sun was particularly hot, but clearly she did.
