AllFreeNovel
Share Us
- Elyse -
“What the hell were you thinking?” Elyse hissed at Jaime the first chance she got to pull him aside.
Manny was there with her, equally as vexed. Jaime had explained to everyone upon his arrival that his evening had “suddenly freed up” and that he was “sincerely apologetic for the last-minute notice.” Belledieux graciously welcomed him and told him he was happy to have his company regardless of how much warning was given, while Manny and Elyse had quietly simmered.
“I was thinking,” Jaime answered in a hushed tone, “that it would be better for three of us to be here instead of two.”
“And you didn’t think to run that by us?” Manny asked, plastering on a fake smile so that no one would suspect any tension between them.
“I believe I am free to attend whatever parties I am invited to without consulting you or that brooding lieutenant you keep around.”
Elyse was fuming, but she had to keep appearances up. She cackled loudly and placed a hand on Jaime’s arm. “Oh, Jaime. You are too funny.”
Jaime subtly rolled his eyes. Message received.
Manny took a step closer and lowered his voice, but the agitation he held was clear. “If you even think about—”
“Pardon me,” interrupted a sultry male voice as Royce made his way to their little circle, looking especially smug. “Are you the same Jaime Lindgren that courted Elyse Crenshaw?”
Elyse nearly dropped her drink. She should have realized that Royce would have known about her and Jaime, but she hadn’t been mentally prepared for him to speak her name. A shiver rattled up her spine, but she forced herself to merely act intrigued.
Jaime made a face similar to a grimace. “Unfortunately, I am.”
Holding her breath, Elyse waited for Royce’s reaction—and was stunned when he laughed and clapped Jaime on the back. “You could do much worse than her.”
Jaime looked at Royce with one brow raised, his blue eyes curious. “I expected a much more hostile reaction,” he said tentatively, mirroring Elyse’s own surprise.
Royce’s smug look multiplied. “Oh I was certainly angry when she framed me for the king’s murder—though I will say it was quite fun toying with that magistrate. What was his name? Longshire? Lowfellow? It doesn’t matter…” He waved his hand and sipped casually from his drink, as if merely discussing the weather.
Meanwhile, Elyse felt like she was going to be sick. In another circumstance, she might have enjoyed listening to people speak about her so candidly. But to hear Royce talk about how she had framed him, to hear him bring up Longfellow after she’d been forced to end his life—it was too much for her. She tried to keep her expression neutral as she swayed slightly on her feet.
“So what changed?” Manny asked, sounding genuinely bored.
Royce’s smirk was rapacious. “Let’s just say her absence has created a demand in the marketplace—a demand that I have been able to capitalize on.”
Elyse squeezed her glass so tight it nearly broke. He had taken over her customers? Her fingers itched to hex him, to shut him right up, but she knew she couldn’t.
“Excuse me, gentlemen, but I need to powder my nose.” She could hardly get away from them fast enough.
As she hurried off, she heard Royce say, “I’d give away half my fortune to spend a night with both her and Madame Sera.”
It took everything in her not to turn back and curse his manhood right off, but she kept walking. She had no doubt Manny would find a way to get back at Royce for that comment.
She dipped into the corridor and leaned her back against the wall, letting it steady her. With her eyes closed, she took several deep breaths in and out and focused on the plan.
Before the eternal rose could be auctioned off, there would be some sort of verification of its authenticity, which meant Manny had to wait until after that to make the swap. It would be too difficult to take the rose off whoever won it, so they would have a short window to replace it. Elyse and Manny would have to work during the actual bidding—likely only a minute or two.
She told herself that one or two minutes would be plenty of time to take down the wards and make the exchange. She was a damn good witch, and she had never failed before. After Elyse took down the wards, she would have to turn Manny invisible while simultaneously maintaining a magical illusion that he was standing beside her. She’d done plenty of illusions before, and she’d even turned herself invisible a handful of times, but she’d never attempted to make someone else invisible. It was extraordinarily complex magic that took immense focus, but she was certain she could do it.
The hardest part would be the timing. At the exact moment that Manny swapped out the real rose for the fake one, she would have to make one invisible while revealing the other. There could only be a fraction of a second in between the two, the span of a blink of an eye, while they prayed that no one was watching too closely. She’d never seen Manny’s sleight of hand before, but if Killian trusted him, then that was good enough for her.
They would be all right. They were an unstoppable duo—the most powerful witch in the kingdom paired with the best spy. Even if something did go wrong, they could maneuver their way out of it.
Feeling more collected, Elyse returned to the Sapphire Hall. Manny still stood with Royce and Jaime, wholeheartedly appearing to be interested in whatever they were discussing. He caught sight of her out of the corner of his eye and beamed back at her.
“Ah, there you are, darling,” he serenaded her.
She barely made it to him when Belledieux announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, if you would please follow me to the Diamond Room—the auction is about to begin.”
