Joshua blew a hard breath out of his mouth, clearly disappointed in me. “That’s not the way this deal works, Ms. Harvey. She must pick which one should come back.” He peered down at his silver bracelet. “And the countdown is ticking. You have five minutes to decide, Ms. Carvene.”
“No,” she whispered in dread.
“Yes.” Joshua tapped Godric’s vial. “It would be more helpful for you to have two kings while you try to kill me.” He tapped Cassander’s vial. “You don’t truly need another seer, because this aberration won’t be able to kill me.”
Wolfe snarled, “How did you get Godric’s ashes? That could be dirt in there.”
“I snuck into the crematorium before his ashes were picked up. I took a pinch.” Joshua teetered his head back and forth. “Four minutes remaining.”
Wolfe asked another question, “Why are you giving her this opportunity at all?”
“The puppet master said so.”
“Who is the puppet master?”
Joshua simply yawned and didn’t answer.
“I’d like to touch the vials to verify your claim that they truly contain magic,” Wolfe demanded.
“Feel free.” Joshua flicked a finger.
Wolf placed his finger on the first vial.
His eyes instantly widened at the vial in surprise.
“That’s magic. Powerful magic.” He yanked his hand back and tentatively touched the second vial. Same reaction. The wolf-man sat back on his chair, placing his fists on top of the table, his powerful arms bunched tight. “Poppy, they both contain powerful magic, though one feels different than the other.”
“Because of the ashes.” Joshua rolled his eyes skyward. “Three minutes.”
My head cocked to the right in interest. “Why would Cassander’s require her blood where Godric’s wouldn’t?”
“Because I was Godric’s mate. He already had a link to me, the person enacting the spell,” Poppy whispered, her voice upset. Her focus hadn’t strayed from the vials. “I don’t know what to do.”
Joshua just tipped his head to the redhead and shrugged one shoulder when I continued to stare at him to get the answer to my question, not an assumption from the redhead.
Wolfe placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You don’t have to pick either one of them, Poppy. That is also a choice.”
The crazy seer murmured, “Two minutes.”
Her not knowing what to do was answer enough in my opinion. If she was struggling this hard over her mate who could help kill the guy sitting at our table, versus the seer who wasn’t her mate and couldn’t help kill this man, then the choice was clear. Surely, she had to see that. But maybe she did. Maybe she wanted to follow what her gut was telling her to do but knew she should pick a shifter who could kill Joshua.
Fuck, maybe she didn’t even know her heart at all, an even more frightening thought. If she didn’t, then she would be really struggling…
Shit. Like she was right now.
Oh, hell.
The devil was making her heart choose.
Joshua glanced at his silver bracelet. “Sixty seconds, Ms. Carvene. If you don’t decide by then, I’ll destroy both vials, not just one.”
Poppy’s right hand shot out and hovered over the second vial like she was protecting it. She never grabbed it, though, simply kept her hand outstretched over it. She stared at the first lonely vial with no protection over it, as though she would never see it again, her eyes filling with tears.
Joshua watched his bracelet. “Five, four, three, two, one—”
Poppy stopped his countdown.
At the last second, she gave a great sob and moved her hand to the first vial and snatched it off the table.
