Chapter
One
Soon.
It’s what Sven had to keep telling himself since Margaid and Finn’s wedding a couple of days ago. That was the day Mercedes said she’d be willing to try a séance so he could connect with Florence. In that moment she’d given him something he hadn’t had in a century of loneliness.
Hope.
Part of him didn’t want to put all his proverbial eggs in one basket. There had been times he’d been disappointed before. Okay, only once, and that was the night Flo disappeared. He never knew what became of her.
Until now.
There was also guilt for not knowing, for not confronting her father.
For not protecting her.
That would all change now.
He was going to make sure of it.
Flo didn’t blame him. Mercedes had seen her, spoken with her. She was here in their dead-and-breakfast all this time.
She was so close and yet so far.
It was torture waiting.
Although, it had been torturous for the last century not knowing what happened to her the night they were supposed to run away together, when he thought his own curse would finally be broken.
In the grand scheme of things, his curse didn’t matter because he was so in love with her. All he wanted to do was be with her and protect her. No one was going to harm her ever again. He may not have liked killing, on the whole, but he was still skilled in handling his broadsword, even if it might be a bit rusty. Not that it mattered. He’d do whatever he had to do to keep her safe because no one was stealing his heart away ever again.
And Flo was his heart.
She always had been
The pain over her loss that he carried with him was something he still hadn’t got over. His twin brother Magnus had many one- night stands over the years, but since Florence, Sven couldn’t be with anyone else.
Nor did he want to be.
“You need to move on,” Magnus stated. “I hate seeing you pine for someone who has probably long since passed.”
“And what would you know? You’ve never been in love,” Sven snarled.
“I’m only trying to help you,” Magnus said calmly, his hands raised.
“You can help me by leaving me alone. You can help me by not talking about her ever again.”
Of course, their repetitive argument was moot as Magnus was in love with Mercedes and freed from the sea witch’s curse that had plagued them both for many centuries. Yrsa, the aforementioned sea witch, was cursed to never return the sea when they accidentally stumbled on her. Magnus was hit with the spell at first and Sven ran in to protect his twin brotherand was cursed as well. Only true love could release them from immortality and allow them to leave Harmony Glen, where they’d been stuck for a thousand years. Magnus was freed, he was not.
Magnus never really did believe in true love, but now his brother knew what love was. Whereas he was still in limbo.
Learning that Flo had been here at Room with a Tomb, cursed but invisible, was a lot to take in. He wished he knew what had happened, but Mercedes told him that Flo couldn’t remember much. There were theories, involving Mercedes’ ancestors, but that’s about all he knew. It was all any of them did, really.
It didn’t matter, though. He should’ve been there to protect her.
Flo needed his help, and if he could help her through this séance, then that’s what he was going to do. He’d make her remember him and their love. And if he couldn’t, he’d see that no one harmed her again.
Since Mercedes agreed to participate in the séance, she’d been going to Mona, the witch who ran The Clothes Spin, every night to get pointers. Mercedes said it herself that she wasn’t the best witch out there and she didn’t want to make things worse.
