Bridget waited for him to elaborate, but he kept his gaze fixed on a particularly snowy tree. When impatience crept up her spine, Bridget grasped on to one of the other questions racking her brain. “You tutored Cade... wasn’t that weird? He said he’d known Echnav almost his entire life. Hebrought you to Cavamyne that night… all those years ago.”The night she died. She couldn’t bring herself to say it. “It seemed like you were friends.”
“Cade is my cousin,” Stellan said.
Bridget’s mouth fell open. No wonder there was something about his face that kept scratching at something in her brain. They had the same jawline. And smile.
“He was also my best friend,” Stellan continued softly. “It’s why I waited and stayed with the royal family in Elyria… for so long I began to think I created the curse wrong and that you two were never coming back.”
A sudden, horrid thought overtook Bridget. One that brought a wave of fury rising from her gut, barely uncontrollable. “You were the one that sent him to the human realm,” she hissed, hands shaking. “Did you orchestrate this whole thing between us? Were we…”
Part of your plan.Aplan. One she didn’t fully understand yet. One that involved them not even having achoice.
“You don’t know how hard I triednotto send him,” Stellan bit back, cheeks flushed. “He never… It was the strangest thing. I think he knew you were out there somewhere, deep down. Nothing in Elyria was ever enough for him. I could see it brewing beneath the surface every time he looked at that painting of the curse or heard the mention of humans... It was only a matter of time.”
His confession startled her into silence. Especially when his voice broke.
“But then his brother died and he was so broken. And all I could see was…”
“Your best friend,” Bridget finished hoarsely when he couldn’t. Before she thought too much about it, she reached out her hand toward him. When her fingertips grazed his sleeve, he stilled, then crossed his arms, effectively putting himself out of reach.
Stellan cleared his throat. “The one I’d made a promise to so long ago. The one with the same look I’d seen before when he asked me to make sure you found each other. I knew you were in the human realm… I’d seen flashes of you there. So when he asked me to open the gate, I agreed. But I told myself, I would just send him. No information or hints… Just let fate take its course.”
“And it did,” Bridget whispered, squeezing her eyes shut so that the liquid building there wouldn’t spill over. Every moment she’d ever had with Cade replayed in her head… his laugh in Hungry Pies. The quiet mornings in their apartment. The intensity in his gaze that set her on fire in ManhattanandElyria. Every image was a knife in her already throbbing chest. But she couldn’t regret it. Nothim, not any of it. She didn’t care if it had been fate or destiny behind their meeting in New York. Shelovedhim. Even now, worlds apart, when her entire soul felt ripped in two.
“I’m scared to go back to Elyria because I hate that parts of me miss it… especially if everyone there has already moved on. Cade might already be married,” Bridget finally admitted. It was only a month until the spring solstice. Would he have waited that long, if he truly believed she wasn’t coming back?
Despite his earlier words about quitting, Stellan pulled out another cigarette from his front pocket and lit it. “He’s not.”
Bridget’s gaze cut to his. “You’ve seen it? Is that why he possessed Archer? To let me know?”
Stellan’s lips twisted. “I haven’t seen anything. I just know him. And as for why he possessed Archer and risked the consequences of blood magic… Well, that’s Cade. He wanted to know you were okay so he made it happen. But Marin intervened before I could. I need to get back to help her.”
“Because you think Vega knows she has a foothold now?”
Saying her name aloud sent a shiver down Bridget’s spine.
“If she has, Elyria’s in more danger than we realize.” Stellan blew a puff of smoke in her face. Bridget cringed, then grabbed the cigarette out of his mouth and threw it on the ground. The smell reminded her of a foster father she’d rather forget.
A little stunned, Stellan raised a brow. “Blood magic is dangerous, especially for someone with human blood like Marin. The consequences for her will be deadly. I need to be with her. Besides, the deal Cade made with his father doesn’t matter. That’s your wedding ring,” he said, nodding at the emerald on her finger. “I think you should know by now that magic can’t be fooled. The curse preserved your souls, as they were. Technically, he’s already married. To you. The bargain is useless.”
Bridget choked.They.Were.Married? And somehow, she’d missed it. Or forgotten. Or whatever was thetechnicalterm. The broken emerald glistened in the moonlight. Vega had thought it wasfunnyto use herweddingring to bind the curse. Bridget’s head spun. What had she done to her? “If we were already married… Why did Vega offer to marry him to end the war? That’s the story Cade told me.”
“It seems history got the story wrong,” Stellan said. “Or out of order.”
“I wish I remembered,” Bridget whispered. The admission scared her, more than she wanted to admit. It meant she accepted that shehadbeen reborn, and lived a whole life she barely knew anything about. One Stellan was forced to stay secretive about, based on the tightness of his shoulders.
Stellan’s eyes darkened. “No… you don’t.”
His words left no room for argument.
They spent the rest of the night in silence.
Chapter fourteen
The sun, lowering over the horizon, illuminated Archer’s sprawled body on the couch. He’d been asleep for almost two days. Blanket twisted between his legs, a light snore escaped his nose as his shoulders twitched. Bridget hovered over him and hoped it was a sign he was waking up soon. Stellan, along with Alexia, paced the porch, eager to leave and change their lives forever. Well, Bridget suspectedshemight be the only one concerned with that second part. The weight of both her past and future twisted her stomach, barely allowing her to sit down. Or eat. Nylah, now awake and stuffing stale cereal down her throat, tapped on her watch.
“Didn’t Yogi Bear’s nemesis out there say he would be awake by now?” she asked between full bites.
Bridget tried to keep a straight face. “I dare you to call him that to his face.”
