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“He was never yours, Lila,” Madison informed her calmly. “We’re fated mates, you see. Whatever was in your head about him was a fantasy.”
Lila sniffed at Madison. She could obviously smell the mating bond. “Nooo!” she howled.
The four witchy sisters stood around Lila. “Fletcher would have killed you,” Madison stated. “But I think you should live with what you have done.”
Lila snarled. Madison could see revenge plainly painted behind her eyes.
“The problem is, how to keep you from doing it again,” she went on. “We could just keep you in chains for the rest of your life. But that always runs the risk of you escaping. So we have devised a better plan.”
“Youshouldkill me,” Lila snapped. “Eventually, I will get you. You know that.”
“No, you won’t. You see, my sisters and I are witches.” Madison gestured to the other three women in the room, who smiled grimly at Lila. “And we are going to put a binding spell on you. You will never be able to raise a hand or incite another to raise theirs against anybody of royal or common blood.”
Two enforcers came in and held Lila steady.
“All I need is a lock of your hair.” She stepped forward and hacked off a handful, leaving a bald patch at the top of Lila’s head. “And a drop of your blood.” Madison produced a knife and sliced her across the cheek. The wound gushed, and Madison collected the deep red fluid in a bowl. “Less would have sufficed, but I thought I should leave you something to remember me by.”
Lila screamed her rage at Madison, desperately trying to twist free of the enforcers. But they knew their jobs well enough, and all Lila could do was shriek her hatred.
Madison walked around Lila in a circle, dipping the hair into the bowl of blood and flicking it at Lila. While she did so, her three sisters chanted the song of binding. Around and around Madison went until the spell was complete. By the end, Lila was on the floor sobbing.
Then Fletcher, who had been waiting outside the room, entered. “Lila Beaumont,” he declared. “I hereby strip you of all titles and lands. You shall henceforth live as a commoner without title or deed.”
Lila looked up at him beseechingly. “Please,” she said. “Don’t do this to me. You loved me once.”
“Lila, you are mistaken. I have never loved you.”
Lila returned to her sobbing, finally realizing that she had lost the man she believed was hers.
“Furthermore,” Fletcher went on. “I will advise the managers of all the royal companies that they should not employ you.”
“And if you think you can just go to a neighboring kingdom, remember all the places where my sisters reign,” added Madison. She felt no sympathy for this wretch who had tried to take everything from her, including her life.
“You will have to live the rest of your life watching impotently from afar as Fletcher and I live together happily while we raise our family.” She turned to Fletcher and smiled.
Fletcher held out his hand to her and pulled her into an embrace. “Come,” he said, leading her from the blood-spattered room.
“Leave her in the cell until tomorrow to let her think and then remove her from palace lands,” he told his enforcers as the door clicked shut behind them.
Now that the spell was done, Madison felt exhausted. She looked down at the spatters of Lila’s blood on her clothes. She would need to wash and change before she joined her family.
TWENTY
FLETCHER
The tides had finally turned for both Fletcher and Madison. It was only perfect, making cosmic sense, for them to celebrate their evolution on the day of their Mating Ceremony, surrounded by their loved ones and the most select members of the royal brigade.
The ceremony was held on the palace grounds within the sacred garden that Fletcher cherished most. It was the place where he had found solace many times before, a rather precious but secretive oasis that was his and his alone. A private romance of sorts.
But ever since he and Madison had roamed through on their horses, the secrecy of it all had changed. Through his bloodline, it had been a secret paradise, and he had maintained that visage through his own efforts. It had started to feel strange and a bit absurd once he had introduced Madison to the grounds. He wondered why he should keep something so magical to himself.
It mirrored the intensity of his emotions toward his mate, his beloved. It made his heart ache with how much he loved her, but he wasn’t going to keep that a secret. No, the entire kingdom would know and bow to the newly crowned Queen of Willowfrost.
It was a splendid, flawless day in the gardens, with family mingling around the hallowed grounds, admiring the rarest forms of exotic fruits and botanicals. The ceremony itself was set to take place beneath the white cherry blossom tree where the king and Madison had sat and shared a profound moment of connection. He stood near the rose bushes just before the ceremony was to commence, dressed in his honorary robes and garb, reflecting upon everything his life had been missing before Madison.
“Are you all set, My King?”
Trenton was the obvious candidate for the second man at the ceremony. He had proven himself time and time again to be that reliable beta that Fletcher always knew he was, twofold through all the confusion of Lila and Alaric’s shenanigans.
