Page 39 of The Fate of Black Hearts

“How do I smell?”

She peeked between her fingers. “Like the peace after a summer rain. It’s bamboo and wet skin in the sun. It’s oranges and lemons. It’s so brilliant I’m losing my mind when I’m standing a foot away from you.”

He blinked.

“You think I look good and smell good?” The flash of teeth and curve of his lips lit him with a lightheartedness she’d never seen from him. It stole her ability to think.

“Your heart’s not so black now, is it?” She slammed her eyes closed and backed a few steps away from him until her back hit a wall.Block him out.“Have mercy on me. Your aura and everything about you makes me nuts. Women must throw themselves at you all the time.”

“Not really.”

She threw her head back to glare at the gray sky. “I’m old enough to know better than to fall for this.”

“It’s thyme and marmot soap from Nepal.”

“Your soap?” She took an inadvertent heavy inhale. Vertigo spun her mind in reaction to the delight of the scent. She stumbled. He caught her. She shrugged him off and stepped away. “Damn it.”

With her hands on her knees and head lowered, she said, “Right now, I need to figure out what happened back there. I need to get them out of there.”

“You can’t save them. I won’t say it again. We need to get Efrem, who’s gotten himself caught. Atypically careless of him.” He closed his eyes as if focusing elsewhere. “He’s the one who needs you most. I’m going to get him and dump both of you back on your airplane. You will promise me to leave this country. You willnotfollow them back to England.”

“I can’t promise that.”

“The only way to help them is to become a ghost in the world. Did you notice Willem looking around? I think he knew you’d be there. He wanted you cursed too. Why is that?” When she didn’t comment after a few seconds, he said, “So long as he lives, he’ll do anything to get to you.”

She glowered. He might be right.

“If he’d gotten you cursed as well, he could force you to do anything he wanted. Imagine what he’d concoct in the name of some power-hungry monarch. He could make you sleep with humans or lycans to get information. He could make you hurt one of the boys. He could torture you to make the boys do what he wanted. Perhaps he’d force you back into his bed to bear him more children. Does that sound like a way to save them?”

I’d rather die than that have that fetid creature touch me again. Dom might’ve saved her a lot of misery.

“Of course I did.” Dom said it with such arrogance she almost hit him again.

“Get out of my head.”

“Your thoughts are bright and loud. It’s hard to miss them.”

“Me staying away from the boys is a big ask. I can start a war with the entirety of England to get them back, if I need to.”

“Then for sure they’d be ordered to hunt you down. They couldn’t refuse the order. When have I ever steered?—”

“When have you steered me wrong? Let’s see.” She tapped her lip and pretended to consider the question. “You encouraged me to mate that abusive, toxic shit.”

“I don’t recall encouraging you to align yourself with him. I recommended you not get yourself caged. Then you got bespelled, which worked against you. Did you resist the mating right up to the moment when you suddenly didn’t? If so, that’s the moment themhiswas cast.”

She reluctantly nodded.

“Did you ever think that’s why he might’ve colluded to put that suppression curse on you? It made you more pliable.”

“Of course I considered it. He seemed surprised about it, though. I couldn’t find a link to him. Perhaps my mother did it. Maybe Willem is the one who murdered my mother a year into our union. She disappeared. I’m not saying I missed her. The whole who cast it on me is a mystery I can’t resolve.” She inhaled a shaky breath that did nothing to settle her. “There has to be a way to reverse what happened today.”

“This isn’t a kind of magic I understand. There are few, if any, still alive who do.”

“If I agree to leave them be for right now, can I still see them now and then?”

“Only if it’s without Willem knowing. It’s a huge risk.”

“They’re my everything. I can’t stay away forever.” She wheeled away from him to try to sort through her options. “Will you give them a message from me? If you do, I’ll stay away until I figure out how to help them.” Her gaze sought his.