Chapter 26 #2
“There was a verbal agreement between our parents that you were going to marry her long before we met…” Bridget cringed at the sudden disgust on his face.
“It obviously didn’t happen. I was the homewrecker in that situation.
And we were married for at least a year before she executed me.
I don’t know where in history it suddenly got mixed up. ”
“It was the story Bronwyn told me when I finally woke up,” Stellan finally said, his voice a bit rough. “She must have been trying to protect you.”
Bronwyn. Her mother’s best friend—Tuathan best friend, who’d been with her since she was born. Where was she now?
“What about the crown?” Castor asked. “Do you know where it is?”
Bridget took a deep breath. She kept her eyes on Cade.
Out of everyone, he would be the one to understand why she cursed the crown.
“Yes. We had a feeling Vega had it, so I snuck into the palace in Cavamyne to find it… she’d taken it over six months prior.
But I got caught. Vega held me there for weeks until she finally showed me the crown and told me what she wanted to do with it. ”
Cade seemed to be holding his breath. “Which was?” he asked.
“She was going to use it to bring me back after she killed me,” Bridget said. “Then use the curse she killed me for to wipe memories so I didn’t remember you or what she’d done. She’d have me all to herself.”
“A perfect happy family,” Archer muttered under his breath.
“So you hid the crown,” Delphine interjected. “To keep her from using you like that.”
“In a way…” Bridget mumbled. “This is where it gets complicated. While I was there, I found a spell in Vega’s things that would send something or someone through time.
” She couldn’t look at their faces. “From what I read, it was designed to be an endless cycle, where whatever it was would never be allowed to stay in one spot for long. She wanted to use it on Cade once she found the Tuathan stone. That was a key element of her spell. A key element she didn’t know I had…
I thought it was the best way to get rid of the crown without her finding it again.
And even if she did, she wouldn’t be able to break the curse on it. I would already be dead…”
“Taking the blood she would need with you,” Cade finished grimly.
A wave of anxiety lashed up Bridget’s spine as she waited for their reactions. Cade squeezed her hand and gave her a small smile. It didn’t reach his eyes, but it was enough to calm the squeezing in her chest.
“A brilliant plan stupidly foiled by the idiot who decided it was a great idea to bring you and Cade back five hundred years later,” Cassia sneered. “News flash. Your blood is hot and ready for any wannabe Sanguis member to use.”
Cade glared at her. “Seriously, Cass?”
“Hey, it’s not just mine that’s needed,” Bridget argued indignantly. “Selene’s blood was part of the curse too. I kind of… stabbed her in the stomach to get it. I assume she’s dead.”
“Who the hell is Selene?” Archer asked.
“A Wraith in the cell next to mine. She used to be this high ranking Tuathan that worked for Cade’s mother until she got wrapped up in blood magic.”
Cassia rolled her eyes. “Of course you were in prison.”
“Just so we’re clear…” Castor sighed, his nose pinched between two fingers. “We need this crown to stop Vega and these Wraiths that seem to be able to slip between realms?”
“Marin seemed to think so,” Stellan replied.
Even Castor, with stress lines etched in his forehead, didn’t want to argue with that.
Cassia crossed her arms. “If Marin had all these important visions, why did she even send us after the crown if it’s basically inaccessible?”
“Marin said the visions weren’t always straightforward or clear,” Bridget argued. “Maybe finding out the reasons why Vega wants the crown are just as important as finding it physically. Now that we know that she’s my sister and I remember how she thinks, it will be easier to stop her from here.”
Cassia still didn’t look convinced. “Does it matter if we have it? This Vega bitch is still trapped in Iegorus. As long as she stays there, she can’t get the crown. And I don’t think any of us are planning to sacrifice Cade to let her out any time soon. Unless I’ve missed a vital part of the plan.”
Cade rolled his eyes. “Thanks, Cass.”
“That hasn’t stopped her from using other people to get what she wants. She clearly has a foothold,” Bridget said. Even now, she was afraid Vega would pop into her mind any second.
“I.e. Quinn,” Archer added.
Bridget froze. It wasn’t only Quinn she’d been contacting. She been speaking to her. For months.
You’re not remembering the right words.
In her dream, Vega had shown her the time curse. Had repeated the spell over and over until she’d forced herself awake.
“What’s wrong?”
Stellan’s question broke Bridget out of her sudden reverie. His eyes were glued to her. The realization she’d just come to must have been written all over her face. “I think she’s already figured it out,” Bridget said.
“The dreams,” Cade finished for her, straightening his spine.
Without her having to ask, he flicked his wrist. Seconds later, the door flew open and her all-things-Elyria notebook shot into his hand.
Wordlessly, he handed it to her. She knew exactly what page she was looking for. It had only happened a few weeks ago.
“This,” Bridget said, pointing to the spell on the page. “This is the curse that she wrote. The one that sent the crown away. She knows. She practically told me. She taunted me with it.”
“What do you mean she practically told you?” Stellan growled.
“Bridget’s been seeing her. Ever since the curse broke,” Cade said, sending Archer a very unfriendly glare.
Archer visibly paled, but Bridget couldn’t blame him. She would’ve had trouble believing herself, too.
“Look, it’s not the time to discuss who thought I was going crazy or not,” Bridget said.
“It’s fine. Cade couldn’t even feel her.
She figured out when we were kids that she could use our shared blood to communicate without hurting me or leaving any magical evidence.
Honestly, until now, I thought I was going crazy.
The important thing is that Vega knows… which means someone needs to go after the crown before she does. ”
Stellan cursed and moved to stand in front of the window.
“I’m assuming it’s another blood magic curse,” Castor said. Throughout the conversation, his stance next to Cassia hadn’t changed. Protective. Loyal. Unwavering. Cassia seemed just as stuck in his orbit as he was in her, though they both seemed oblivious to it.
Bridget nodded, and then looked down at the grimoire next to her hip “This was hers…” She couldn’t believe it hadn’t gotten lost in history.
It looked exactly the same. It still brought the same unease to her stomach.
Bridget shoved it to the floor. “I don’t want it near me.
But, please, someone else needs to take it and figure out how she was controlling Quinn even with the amethyst rune.
All her spells are in there. Except the one I used for the crown. ”
Grimly, Stellan picked up the grimoire and tucked it under his arm.
“That one is in your notebook?” Delphine asked.
“Yes.”
Castor quietly examined the page from her notebook before throwing it down on the table. “If Cassia is going to try to replicate the curse on the crown, she’s going to have to do more than just utter a few words. You can’t ask her to do this.”
“Stop,” Cassia ordered quietly. “I can do it.”
Bridget stared at her for a long moment, a little stunned by the seriousness in her demeanor. “He’s right. Even if you can, you’ll need more than this. Luckily… I know where I left the page.”
It only took Cassia a second to understand her meaning. “We’re not going to Cavamyne.”
“I never said we were. Obviously, we can’t,” Bridget said, sneaking a glance at Cade. Cavamyne was the last place he needed to be. And she knew he wouldn’t let her go without him. “Besides, that’s what she wants.”
Cade let out a hollow laugh. “She’s daring you to go after it before she does.” His golden eyes searched her face. Reading her intentions, the smile dropped from his face. “It can’t be you.”
“It should be me,” Bridget corrected. She was the one that sent it away. It should be her responsibility. However, there was another pressing responsibility she had to take care of first. “But we also need to go to Andarre.”
Nylah needed to be healed. Fully. The longer they relied on Stellan’s potions, the higher her anxiety rose. Besides, she was getting tired of Alexia breathing down her neck about the issue.
“At least the sword is there, right?” Castor added. “Cade can claim it while you’re there. You get to save your sister, and our asses.”
“And the crown?” Cassia asked.
“It’s too dangerous. At least right now,” Cade said. “As long as Vega stays trapped in Iegorus, no one needs to be jumping through time.”
Stellan suddenly whirled on them. “Then I’ll think of something. I agreed to help because it was what Marin wanted.”
“That was before we found out it’s tumbling through time,” Cade snapped, jaw tight. “Subjecting someone to the same curse is going to be a last resort. Unless you’re volunteering?”
“I will if I have to. She said to find the crown, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” Stellan hissed. “Marin showed me what she saw right before she died.”
Bridget stilled. “What? Why didn’t you mention that sooner?”
But even as the question left her lips, the answer settled over her like a shadow. Marin’s hand on his cheek. He wanted to keep it secret. To hold onto that last private piece of her… something just for him.
Frustration and fire brewed behind Stellan’s blue eyes. “She saw the crown here in Astraeus. Not five hundred years ago. Now. We need it. It’s the only way.”
He stormed past them. The slam of the door behind him rattled the room’s wooden table and fireplace mantle.
“Not that he was always a joy to be around,” Archer said, breaking the silence, “but is he always going to be such a grump now?”
Cade narrowed his eyes. “His daughter died.”
“Right.”
“Well, since we all can’t exit the room in a dramatic fashion, I need my satin pillow and my favorite wine,” Cassia corrected, rubbing her forehead. “I feel almost as bad as I did when you crashed the monstrous machine last year.”
Bridget glared at her. “You crashed it.”
“I’ve got an idea,” Cade said, wrapping an arm around Bridget’s waist. “Instead of blaming each other, let’s blame Archer for the death of my baby. He was the one that chased you.”
Archer wasn’t amused. “Ha. Ha.”
“I think that’s our cue,” Delphine said, gaze flickering between Castor and Cassia. Cheeks slightly pink, she helped Bridget off the desk. “And we should get you bandaged up.”
After Archer made an excuse to leave, Bridget followed. But once they were in the hallway, Cade’s hand, still on her waist, stopped her. “We should check on Nylah,” she said, watching the others turn the corner.
Bridget hated that she almost didn’t want to be alone with him.
As she braved a look at his face, her heart wanted to burst out of her chest. Past and present memories mended together into an electric shock consuming her as she fell into his gaze.
How was it possible to feel so connected to someone?
She’d fallen in love with him so many times…
had fought and died for the chance of a future with him.
There was no one in the world who made her feel more whole. More alive.
And now she was going to have to lie to him.
“Can I see?”
The question was innocent enough. The memories she had regained were partly his, too. But as he lifted his hand to her temple, Bridget flinched.
“No.”
The word came out harsher than she intended. The slightly wounded shock on his face was worse than she could have ever imagined.
“I just mean not now,” Bridget corrected, then leaped toward him.
She plastered her lips on his in a searing kiss.
When he immediately responded, she tried to pour every ounce of longing she’d felt for him when she’d been trapped with Vega.
The goodbye kiss she wished she would’ve been able to give to him.
When she finally pulled away, her entire body was on fire. “I’m sorry,” Bridget said, hands trembling. “I just need some more time to process it all. Promise me you won’t look until I’m ready.”
With his cheeks flushed and breath hot on her face, it was so hard not to tell him everything.
“I promise,” Cade said.
One day, when it was all over, she would let him see. Until then, she had to keep him out of her head.