Page 74 of Broken Hearted
We got to work right away. When Eldon had checked all the bottles, he turned to me and shook his head, telling me he hadn’t found anything. I pointed to another part of the room and he started examining the herbs and potion ingredients without having to be told, while I continued to thumb through the books as quickly as possible.
I was halfway through the stack when I came across a black leather-bound book. I could tell the tome was old because the leather casing was cracked and worn, and the pages within were yellowed with age. I knew exactly what I was holding the minute I opened it.
A grimoire. Either Elisana’s or perhaps her family’s.
A bolt of excitement shot through me. I didn’t know much about blood witches, but it was common knowledge that their spells were passed down to each generation through grimoires. There was a very good chance that the spell Elisana had used to bind her to Seraphina was in this book. And if it was in this book, the instructions on how to break it were most likely in there as well.
“Did you find something, my lord?” Eldon whispered, appearing next to me.
“Perhaps,” I answered quietly, without taking my eyes off the pages as I thumbed through it, looking for the soul-tie spell.
I was halfway through the book when I finally came across it, the spell for the soul-tie. And it was at that precise moment that a floorboard creaked above our heads.
Both Eldon and I froze, hoping it was just the groans of an old house. But then another creak sounded, making it obvious that Elisana was awake.
Without taking time to think it through or even check to see if there was something that explained how to reverse the spell, I ripped the page from the grimoire and shoved it at Eldon. After quickly replacing the book where I found it, I hurried him out of the room, closed the door which locked automatically behind us, and rushed him out the back door.
“Go,” I whispered frantically. “Take this page to Isolde in my brother’s kingdom. And tell her I love her.”
“My lord, come with me,” Eldon said. “You can escape as well. We can go to her together.”
I shook my head. I wanted to, desperately, but if Elisana realized I was missing, she’d go looking for me immediately, probably rousing half the village to help her. There was no guarantee I’d be able to escape a whole coven, but a good chance Eldon could because no one knew he was here. Getting that page to Isolde was now the priority. Not to mention the fact that I wouldn’t put it past Elisana to cause her own self harm just to hurt Seraphina. She was completely deranged. I had to wait until the soul-tie was broken.
“I can’t,” I simply said, and then shoved Eldon out the door. I’d only just closed it behind him when Elisana appeared in the kitchen doorway.
Her shrewd gaze swept the room. I didn’t miss how her eyes went first to the door to her potion’s room before anywhere else and was glad I’d thought to shut it.
“What are you doing?” she asked sharply, when she didn’t see anything amiss.
If I was going to keep my ruse with her going, I needed to think fast.
“What? Where am I?” I turned in a wobbly circle as if taking in my surroundings for the first time. “How did I get here?” I asked and then grabbed my head, pretending to be foggy-headed, like I’d sleepwalked my way down here and was confused.
“You don’t remember walking down here?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I was sleeping on the couch. I kind ofremember feeling thirsty. I must have come down here half awake, looking for water.”
Elisana’s eyes narrowed, and I didn’t miss the suspicion simmering in them. Her gaze flicked to the back door behind me and I knew with a sinking feeling that I was going to have to do something drastic to convince her.
Up until now I’d gotten away with keeping Elisana at arm’s length. Some hugs and a few chaste kisses to her cheek and forehead had been enough to mollify her, but I hoped I wasn’t going to have to step it up now to convince her I was still under her magic.
Elisana walked toward me, her gaze fastened to the back door, but I couldn’t let her go out there to give Eldon time to escape. I sprung forward and gathered her in my arms. She stiffened a little, telling me that I was right and she wasn’t, in fact, fully convinced that I’d stumbled down here by accident.
“My love,” I said, the words tasting like ash in my mouth as I forced myself to lift a hand and softly stroke my fingers against the column of her throat. To me it felt like snake scales, and I had to ward off the shudder that threatened to run through me, but Elisana’s eyes fluttered and a flush pinked her cheeks. “Why don’t we return to your room?”
“We will. I just want to check the back door—” She started to pull away from me, but I tugged her back and ran the tips of two fingers over her bottom lip, back and forth, and Elisana started to look as dazed as I’d pretended to be a few minutes beforehand, the back door all but forgotten.
I smiled internally, even as my stomach roiled at having to continue to touch her and hold her near.
“Come sleep in my bed,” she said, her voice thick with seduction, but the sound didn’t rouse even a speck of desire within me.
I shook my head. “I can’t,” I made my words sound pained. “Being so close to you would be too great a temptation,” I lied. “You said yourself your mother would return shortly. We’ve already waited this long. A day or two more won’t kill us.”
Elisana groaned in frustration. “It’s one of the reasons why I love you so much, that misplaced honor of yours. But fine, we’ll keep our separate sleeping arrangements … for now.”
Taking my hand she turned and then tugged me after her, leading me back upstairs. Each step felt like a monumental task because all I wanted to do was rip my hand from hers and use it to squeeze the life from her instead, but I couldn’t because that would kill Seraphina.
Hurry, Isolde, I thought.
