She threw her hands up. “I am awitch, Maddox, what do you expect? We’re used to going where we please, laws and authority be darned! By all means, keep guarding those uptight pricks if you want. I’m leaving and don’t think I’ll miss you just because you have a handsome face!”
Maddox choked. I stepped forward. “Giselle, we just wanted to—”
“I don’t know whyyou’restill here!” she said, whirling around to me. “If my betrothed asked someone to test me with love charms I’d have left ages ago!”
“Test me with...?” I parted my lips, remembering that she had offered me love charms the first time I met her. “Bennett asked you to do that?”
“They were never real, you know? Every witch knows love magic can only be bottled in a potion.” Giselle snorted. “That idiotic crown prince was already halfway in love with you when I told him you refused them. Then he got that stupid cat for you and I had to play along because he was too spineless to confess. He isdreadfulat romance.” Giselle hauled a bolt of lilac silk from the floor with unnecessary violence. “And now look at him! Crawling back to the palace with his father like the spineless, duty-obsessed ninny he is.”
Maddox and I were both rendered speechless. I battled my sudden surge of feelings into submission. There was no use thinking about the past. It didn’t matter that Bennett asked Giselle to test me. It didn’t matter he was smitten with me for so long.
Horsefeathers. It didn’t matter.
A minute passed of Giselle shoveling knick-knacks into her satchel before Maddox regained his voice.
“How are we supposed to deal with Celeste without you?” he demanded, grabbing a porcelain vase of violas before she could get her hands on them.
Giselle’s frown deepened. “What do you need me for? I don’t want anything to do with that woman and I am leaving before she can get her grubby hands on me again.”
“You are the only one familiar with Celeste and her magic,” I said. “What she did to me, she’s going to do to the others who come to her show tomorrow night. We cannot let that happen.”
My words seemed to have the desired effect.
Giselle paused, a corner of an embroidered bedsheet in her hand. “What?”
“The audience will bewitches, Giselle.” I tugged the bedsheet out of her grasp. “You said Celeste could return magic as well as take it. The others don’t deserve what you and I went through. And I...I just want to talk to Misty again. ”
“We need you,” Maddox said simply, setting down the vase. “You can show the royals how invaluable you are once you help us stop her.”
Giselle’s lower lip trembled as she straightened. She looked from me to Maddox.
“Fine,” she snapped, dropping her satchel. It landed with a heavy thud. “But only because we’re friends. I’m leaving after this.”
I exhaled and pulled her into a hug. “For the record,” I said, “I appreciate your outfits.”
***
THE NEXT HOUR WAS DEDICATEDto getting rid of Lord Frederick. He had insisted on guarding me himself now that much of the Royal Guard had departed for Delibera, but after half an hour of having him trail behind us in the halls, I told him that Maddox alone was quite enough.
“Besides,” I said, “the rebels are taken care of. They’ll have no reason to come to the opera house again.”
“And you mustn't forget your back, sir,” Maddox piped up from behind him. “If you injure yourself you’ll become a liability if there is danger.”
Lord Frederick begrudgingly left for his room.
“About time,” Maddox grumbled as we descended the staircases. “So how exactly are we going to stop Celeste from taking everyone’s magic? And how do we get Narcissa’s back?”
“You’re lucky you’ve got me,” Giselle said. She had been scribbling notes while we were wandering about trying to lose Lord Frederick. “Celeste’s mother was an herbwitch who specialized in magic removal. Celeste is a charmwitch. Her natural talent is gathering substances, including magic, but I suspect she’s using sickleweed potion in conjunction with her charms and enchantments.”
I furrowed my brow, recalling something Father said. “The potion that removes witch magic?”
“Precisely,” Giselle said. “In the past Celeste kept the magic she had taken within herself. She was the sort of witch child who didn’t need an enchanted object to contain her magic—annoyingly talented. But I doubt she’d be able to handle an auditorium full of magic without one, or without sickleweed potion. Every witch has their limits.” She sighed. “All conjecture of course. We’ll need to scour every nook and cranny to find out what she’s up to.”
That was why the three of us were heading to Celeste’s backstage room. The singer was only in the theatre when there was rehearsal or a show. It was too early for rehearsal, so her room should be deserted.
Sneaking in was the riskiest part of our plan, but after talking in circles for half an hour, I concluded that theft and eavesdropping was our only solution.
That was yet another one of Mother’s lessons. Always be willing to resort to unsavory methods. This time, I couldn’t bring myself to care about what she would think of me using it.
