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Ophelia squints, scrunching up her wrinkled face. “Do you long to die so badly?”
I take a step back. “Of course not.”
“Then why are you so insistent?”
“I want to understand what happened,” I say quietly.
The oracle plucks an empty vial and pours a deep blue liquid into it then speaks more words. She wraps it in a cloth and holds it out to me. I reach for the vial, but she snatches her hand away.
“This will not solve your problem.”
I swallow. “Once he’s no longer compelled, I can figure out how to fix everything else.”
Ophelia nods. “Your lives are now tied together,” she says. My mind goes instantly to Alaric, but she continues, “Magic demands a price, and that was the price offered to save your life.”
Not Alaric then.
My pulse drums in my head as I turn toward Cassius. He looks struck, pain etched into his expression.
Tied? We’re tied?
“What have youdone?”
Cassius is across the room in less than a heartbeat, sneering. “No, what haveyoudone, little bird? What choice did you give me? You would be dead otherwise, and then your precious Alaric would have killed me for allowing it to happen.” His face softens. “You cannot save him if you are in the Otherworld.”
I snap my mouth shut. Any retort I might have had, dies on my tongue.
He’s right, of course.
Buttied… tohim?
The thought fills me with unease. I’ve only recently started thinking of him as my friend and true ally, and now we are tied to each other in a way I don’t understand.
I have no idea what this will mean for Alaric and me, but first things first, I must break Elizabeth’s compulsion. Then we can figure everything else out together.
Ophelia clasps my hands in hers, pressing the vial into my palm. It seems to pulse with the heartbeat of magic.
“You are young still, new to the ways of the world around you. You do not grasp the depth and power of magic just yet.” She pats my hands. “Have your vampire drink this, and the compulsion will be broken. He will never again be compelled by anyone.”
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“Be warned—this will not protect him from other magics.”
I nod. The warning falls away as I stare down at the dark vial in my hand that will save Alaric. “What do I owe you?”
“You wish to pay more than you already have?” Her bushy brows shoot up her forehead nearly to her hairline.
“No… I mean, I want to pay what I owe for this.”
Ophelia smiles and pats my cheek with her dry, leathery hand. “You have paid your price. Now go, save your prince.”
Hurrying to my bag sitting against the bed, I kneel down and rummage through it.
“What are you doing?” Cassius demands sharply. “You need to rest.”
Della and Lawrence stand unmoving near the fire, but their silence weighs heavy in the air.
Remembering what Alaric said in the dream, I tuck the wrapped vial inside the bag then straighten.
