I glanced back toward the hallway that she and Corbin had just gone down. “If I had to guess…I would assume it has something to do with Luella’s betrothal to King Horace. Didn’t you say you heard whispers once that the King and Queen had wanted to marry Charmaine off, not Luella?”
Andreas angled his head to the side. “You think she traded a curse in exchange for her sister taking her place?”
I frowned. “No, she wouldn’t be so selfish as to subject her sister to that. More likely, she wanted out of the betrothal and neglected to examine the intricacies of the curse.”
Slowly, he walked back toward the bench and sat down, then let his head drop to his hands. I waited while he gathered his thoughts, lining up his counterpoints. Finally, he let his hands dangle between his knees and met my eyes.
“Even if you are correct, it’s her responsibility to get the curse broken, not ours. This is her mess to clean up.”
I shook my head at his pure stubbornness and sat down beside him. “Which is why you and Corbin insisted on dragging her out here bodily like a couple of brutes? No, those are the actions of a man who doesn’t want her to get caught.”
A muscle feathered in his jaw as he stared at the stone floor of the courtyard. “I wanted to prevent her from causing trouble at a royal wedding,” he groused. “A task you and Corbin are making incredibly difficult to accomplish.”
I leaned back on the bench and rested my hands on the fountain’s edge behind me. “It’s not my fault neither of you thought to keep an eye on her. She was hardly inconspicuous.”
“You could have stopped her.”
“I could have,” I allowed. “Although I think, based on her words, she may be more beneficial to us than you’d like to admit.”
“In what sense?”
I flicked a glance at the various archways surrounding the courtyard, then leaned closer.
“She wants the King dead,” I whispered. “As does half the kingdom.”
“First you say the witch cursed her, now you believe she’s here to commit regicide of her own accord?” Andreas lifted his brow expectantly. “Which is it?”
“Why can’t it be both? It’s no secret Horace has a distaste for magic and all things fae. It would stand to reason a woman like Kosandra, a fae witch who has existed without hassle from our monarchs for centuries, would prefer a man like him finally be removed from power.”
“And as Charmaine has been doing her bidding these last six months, Kosandra would set the task at her feet.” Andreas huffed out a sigh, then looked at me, his brow lowered. “As cunning as the witch is, I can’t believe she’d think Charmaine capable of such a feat. She’s just a woman.”
“Charmaine is motivated by love and a desire to protect her niece.” I searched his face for a moment, gauging how my words would be received. “Wouldn’t you do the same for your own blood?”
A snort of disbelief. “Kill a king? No, I can’t say that I would.”
A lie, but not worth arguing. “Regardless, I would think confirmation of these speculations with our Princess might be in order.”
A perplexed look twisted his features as he stared absently ahead. “What was it Corbin said he overheard? The bit about the curse and something about…soulmates?” He looked over at me. “As in, more than one?”
I nodded slowly. “I’d like to go out on a limb and assume he thinks that means us, or the two of you, at the very least. Although, I’ve never heard of a human having a true, bonded mate, much less two, so I’ll say it’s more likely he misheard.”
He gave a murmur and nod of agreement, then gestured toward the hall. “Go in, find them, and bring her back here. We need to get more information before taking our concerns to an authority.”
I looked at him incredulously. “An authority? Andreas, she’s—”
“Not anymore,” he snapped. “I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt for now, but once I have my answers, she’ll be turned over to someone better equipped to deal with a woman in her…predicament.”
I opened my mouth to argue, then bit back the retort that had formed on my lips. Instead, I nodded. “Alright, then. I’ll go find them.” Standing, I looked back down at him. “And while I’m gone, I would consider carefully how you’d like to proceed. Curse or no, Charmaine was family for a long time. Do not let pride or a wounded ego cloud your judgment, especially if our suspicions prove correct.”
He didn’t respond, so I turned and began to walk away.
“Enzo?”
Facing him, I raised my eyebrows in question.
“If Corbin is right, and she does need the three of us to break this curse, what will you do?”
I considered his question for a moment. Charmaine was closer in age to my brothers than me, so they’d known her the longest, had spent more time with her, knew her better. Beauty ran in the Castamyne family, and she’d gotten her fair share, yet she’d shunned suitors, turning them away for one reason or another since she reached womanhood. I never questioned why, although I was beginning to understand.
Taking a deep breath, I met Andreas’ eyes. “She has and always will belong to you and Corbin. But should she need me, accept me, then I would give myself to her.”
Surprise flickered across his face, no doubt spurred by my apparent lack of selfishness where Charmaine was concerned. “You care for her?”
I gave him a crooked smile. “Only a fool would turn away a woman like her.” Without giving him a chance to respond, I turned and strode off.
5
CHARMAINE
I’d only made it halfway down the hall when Corbin’s hands—I would always know his hands—grabbed me and jerked me back against him.
“Stop running off,” he hissed. Spinning me around, he pressed me against the wall, his blue eyes burning into mine. “Why do you keep running off?”
“There are things I need to take care of,” I said, struggling against him. “Urgently. Now, please. Go back to your brothers, figure out what you want to do with me if you must, but right now, I need to go find Helena. I promise I won’t leave the castle.”
His grip on my arms loosened slightly, allowing me to step forward, away from the wall. I half expected him to move backward to allow me to pass, but instead his hands drifted up my bare arms, then cupped my face.
“Let me try to save you, Charmaine, please,” he murmured, his lips inches from mine. “I know that witch has done something to you. I heard…”
“What did you hear?” I asked, eyeing him warily. I tried to rein in my lingering shock that he’d overheard my conversation with Kosandra and also my hope that he might know exactly what I’d need to break this godsdamned curse.
“You told her you would find a way to break this curse.” His eyes searched mine, and I saw a flicker of hope there, of pleading. “You said something about…soulmates.”
I sucked in a breath, startled that he’d heard so much. I tried to open my mouth, force out the words that would confirm what he said, but they remained lodged in my throat, held back by the bonds of the curse.
He saw it, though. Because he was Corbin and the first boy I’d loved, the boy who was now a man who’d always been by my side, he saw it. He saw the struggle in my eyes, the confirmation in my own desperation.
He took a step closer, his breath mingling with mine as he spoke. “Please, Charmaine, let me try to help you.”
The desperate tone to his voice caught me off guard, distracting me enough that I didn’t have a chance to react when he closed the distance between us. His lips molded to mine as he used his body to hold me against the wall, reminding me of what I’d walked away from months ago.
I melted into his kiss, suddenly desperate for his touch. I let my head fall back when his lips drifted to my neck, sucking in a gasp when he ran his thumbs over the thin fabric that covered my breasts.
Helena. I needed to check on Helena. My body gave a quick jolt as the thought struck me, and I moved to shove him off, but something there, lurking in
the recesses of my mind, told me to wait. The command was so forceful, I had no choice but to obey.
“Charmaine,” he breathed, dragging his lips back to mine. His fingers tangled in my hair, shoving the carefully placed pins aside, causing my long locks to tumble over my shoulders. “Come back to me.”
Without warning, Corbin tugged me across the hall into a small, darkened alcove, pulling my lips to his the moment my back was to the wall. He ground his hips into mine, letting out a quiet groan when I arched my back in response. Frantically, I glanced toward the hall entrance, but it appeared the party had finally moved toward the main dining hall.
Realizing the same thing, Corbin chuckled, then hefted my skirts out of the way and slid his hands up my legs, letting out a ragged breath when he felt the wetness between my thighs. Pausing, he lifted his eyes to mine, full of lust and desire. “Tell me to stop,” he rasped, going still. “Tell me, Charmaine.”
I let my forehead rest against his as I considered my options. The odds that one of my soulmates was here, tonight, in front of me, seemed slim. The likelihood that it was Corbin was even slimmer, considering this was far from our first romantic encounter.
Yet again, something tugged at my mind, reminding me that our previous encounters had all occurred before the curse had been placed.
So, I made a choice.
Shaking my head, I tightened my arms around his neck. “Don’t stop,” I whispered. “Please, don’t stop.”
He brushed his lips across my jaw as he slipped two fingers inside of me, and I bit my lip to keep from crying out at the sheer joy his caress brought on. In the brief months since I’d sold myself to Kosandra, I’d forgotten just how much I cared for him. For all of them.
I rolled my hips against his fingers, urging him to keep touching me as his tongue plunged into my mouth, stroking gently against mine as he swallowed my moans. Slowly, painfully, he drove me toward my peak, dragging out my pleasure in a way that no one else had ever been able to. I’d almost toppled over the edge when he withdrew his hand with a low groan. Before I had a chance to cry out at the absence of his touch, he’d undone his pants, hoisted me off the ground, and buried himself inside me.
Eyes wide and chests heaving, we stared at each other in shock. He hadn’t touched me like this in months, not since he and his brothers realized I’d made a deal with the witch.
“Is this...alright?” he asked, his breathing ragged as his body trembled with urgency.
Swallowing hard, I nodded, then tightened my legs around his waist. “More than alright,” I said, feeling tears sting the corners of my eyes at just how true those words were. I could already feel that this time was…different. “But your brothers—”
“They think I’m chasing you through the castle, most likely, and can go to hell, for all I care.” He smirked as he began to move inside of me, setting a painfully slow rhythm. “God, I’ve missed you, Charmaine.”
My fingers curled in his soft hair, and I pulled his mouth to mine in a bruising kiss. His hands tightened their grip on my backside as his pace increased, pinning me tightly against the smooth stone wall. When I cried out, wracked with wave after wave of pure bliss, he used his mouth to silence me, then groaned against my lips moments later as he found his own release.
As we stood there, my legs still hooked around his waist, I felt his entire body tremble. Something shifted in my mind, and I suddenly felt a bit...lighter.
Slowly, he pulled back, smiling at me through lust-clouded eyes. “Did you feel that?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and nodded, not daring to hope I’d felt what I thought I did, to hope that this just might have worked.
Corbin and I had our share of trysts before, but even in the most languid of love-making sessions, I’d never felt anything like this.
I let my forehead drop to his shoulder. It felt as though a small weight had been lifted. I didn’t feel free, but I felt like I’d begun chipping away at the wall that kept freedom at bay.
“It worked, didn’t it?” he asked, brushing his lips across my hair. I unwound my shaky legs from his hips and put my feet back on the floor, then accepted the handkerchief he offered to clean myself up.
Pulling back, I met his eyes. I tried to tell him yes, it had worked, and I felt as though I was one step closer to freedom. The magic inside me wouldn’t allow me to speak those words, though, so I simply said, “It it felt…different this time. Something…clicked.”
“Soulmates.” He let his hands come to rest on my hips, then brushed his nose against mine. “You’ve always been mine, Charmaine.”
“But—” My mouth slammed shut as I tried to explain the complexities of Kosandra’s curse.
“I’m not the only one?”
I shook my head.
His lips formed a thin line and he nodded. “I was hoping I misheard, but I can’t say it surprises me that she made it as difficult as possible for you.”
Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes, dripping down my cheeks and onto my dress, marring the dark silk. “I don’t know what to do, Corbin. Tonight—I don’t know what to do.”
“Tell me your plan,” he whispered. “Let me help you do what needs to be done.”
“No.” I shook my head fiercely. “No, absolutely not. I won’t involve you in my mess.”
“I would do anything for you, Charmaine,” he whispered fervently. Then, carefully, he added, “my brothers as well. You know this.”
“Enzo and Andreas hate me.”
“They’ve been hurt,” he allowed. “They believe you’ve willfully taken up with a witch who’s been plaguing us for centuries.”
“Isn’t that what I’ve done?” I shook my head and ran my fingers through my hair, which had become knotted in the last few minutes. “They’re not wrong, Corbin.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said, gently brushing my hair off my face. “Tell me your plan. Whatever the magic will allow you to say, tell me.”
So, I did.
6
ANDREAS
Furious, I waited all of two minutes before going after Enzo. He was too curious about Charmaine’s…predicament, too interested in the things Corbin had suggested about how we—they—might be able to help her. No, I couldn’t trust him to bring them back so we could deal with her once and for all.
I stormed down the hallway toward the party and took the silence ahead as a sign the guests had moved into the ballroom where the reception and party would be held. My eyes had only just begun to adjust to the dim light when I hit a wall of muscle and skidded to a halt.
Enzo, eyes wide, turned toward me with a finger to his lips as he motioned for me to stay back. I opened my mouth to argue, then sucked in a quiet breath when I heard the rustling of fabric.
Gods above. Enzo was eavesdropping on a couple having a tryst in the hallway.
Then I heard whispered voices.
“It worked, didn’t it?” Then, a moment later, “you’ve always been mine, Charmaine.”
Frozen in place, Enzo and I listened as Corbin and Charmaine discussed vague details of the carefully laid plan she’d set in motion not thirty minutes ago.
Without clearly explaining her circumstances—the curse seemed to prevent her from speaking of it outright—she told him her plan to convince—she emphasized that word—several of the female attendees to draw Horace’s attention toward their preening faces and ill-fitting dresses. They'd draw his attention away from Helena so she could escape with the fae prince. There was no talk of who would be the one to kill the King, but I could intuit enough from her words.
Disbelieving, I stepped away from the wall and into the entrance of the alcove, shaking off Enzo’s grip on my arm as he tried to hold me back.
“You would risk open war on our lands just so your niece might flee with her lover?” I hissed.
Charmaine and Corbin jumped apart, their rumpled appearances and Charmaine’s tangled hair leaving no question as to what they’d been doing prior to our arrival.
Charmaine, to her credit, no longer appeared as though she might try to flee. Instead, her face had taken on an expression of resolve, as though she had just made a serious choice.
Nevertheless, I widened my stance, taking up as much of the archway as possible. Enzo stepped forward, making his presence known, but simply folded his arms across his chest and eyed the two of them speculatively.
I tried to shove down my own jealousy as I took them in, still flushed from what must have been hurried lovemaking. Charmaine’s hair was a mess, her lips swollen, blue eyes wide in the dim light as she watched us.
“Let’s hear them out,” Enzo suggested, managing to sound both bored and curious at the same time.
“We just heard them out, you fool,” I snapped. “She plans to—”
“Will you keep your voice down!” Corbin hissed, advancing on me. “You know as well as the rest of us that it’s no more than King Horace deserves. If you weren’t so blindly loyal, you might see that!”
“Blindly—” I stared at him, incredulous. “It is not blind loyalty that has me calling this plan a fool’s errand!”
“The only reason this alliance between kingdoms was necessary was because he was slaughtering my people!” Charmaine whispered, finally stepping forward. “I won’t—”
“Don’t pretend you’ve agreed to this task out of loyalty to Teid or its people.” I sent her a scathing look. “Your master requires it of you, and now you’re making excuses.”
“He had my sister killed,” she said, her tone low and even. “He will force himself on Helena tonight! And again tomorrow night and the next. She’s sixteen, Andreas.” Her voice broke on a sob as she said the words, then tilted her chin upward in a defiant gesture. “Even if Kosandra didn’t hold my leash, I would do it. I would endure the most painful of executions, so long as Helena is free of that monster.”
I angled my head and frowned. “But you don’t have to worry about that, do you? Because you won’t be dealing the death blow, will you? No, you’ll leave that to some poor soul who you somehow coerced into doing it for you!”
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