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“We need to know how to break a mate bond.”

Flora blinks. “Why would you need to know that?” We all remain quiet, and she looks around before giggling, no doubt figuring it out. Why else would we be together, asking for her help?

“You five and my brightling?” When we don’t reply, she chuckles, the sound like a flower blowing in the wind. “How interesting.” She claps happily. “Why would you want to break that? Mate bonds are rare amongst our kind. It is an honour.”

“Yeah, well, that honour can get fucked,” I grumble, and her eyes narrow. “I mean leave,” I correct, knowing she hates foul language.

Sighing, she glances between us, and when she realises we are serious, she appears sad, but she sits taller under the question.

“If you want to sever the bond, there are only two ways—death, which you might survive, or her mother.” I stiffen, and she spares me a sad, searching look, knowing even asking my mother for something would require hell to freeze over first. “She’s the strongest mage out there and the only one who would be able to. Mate bonds are acts of fate and compatibility. To sever them, you must delve into someone’s soul and tear out the part that connects you. You will never be happy again. You will never be able to connect with others again. It will alter you, but you will be free.”

“Would your mother take payment for it?” Torrin asks me, and I frown, looking between Flora and them. I don’t want rumours to spread, but it seems inevitable. Everyone saw me, and eventually, it will get back to her. Hopefully, my mother just thinks of me as a ghost.

“No, even if anyone else came, she wouldn’t take payment in the form of money. She would taste your magic, decide you are worth keeping, and use you, and that is before she even realised it was for me. Best-case scenario, she kills us. Worst case, she realises my potential and keeps us bonded and under her care to use at her whim.”

“She is right. Draven is not known for . . . kindness. She believes power is above all, and she intends to grow hers until she is untouchable. If you have any potential, she will use you in one way or another. The only reason the other courts are safe is because she isn’t that strong yet.”

“We can’t stay mated nor die,” Emrys grouses.

“She can die,” Raiden suggests, shooting me an angry glare, as if it’s my fault we are bonded.

Flora doesn’t ask about it, and for that, I’m grateful. I’d like to keep at least one trick up my sleeve. “Those are your options. I’m sorry. You could hunt the earth for something else, but it wouldn’t help.” She rises. “Let me get more wine.”

While she’s gone, I turn to the others. “How about you get me to my mother? I’ll complete my revenge, which, by the way, will include killing the one paying you. You will lose the money and contract, but I will force my mother to break our bond⁠—”

“Like you could,” Kitt hisses.

“I will. She will have no choice. You will lose the money and contract, but you will get your freedom.”

They hate it, so I rise.

“Think on it.” I follow after Flora, needing space and leaving them to theirs. I am not used to being around people for this long either.

I find her in the kitchen, fussing over a cake and adding flowers. She must feel me because she calls out, “Bring me those sunflowers.”

Grabbing some, I hand them over and hop up on the counter, watching until she’s done. She spins the cake, smiling happily, before looking at me, and all her happiness morphs into worry. She always said she had a soft spot for me. “A mate bond is a wondrous thing. I am sorry you do not feel that way. Maybe with time, you⁠—”

“Not them, not ever. I do not want to be connected to another being ever again.” I mean it, and she can tell. Like them, I have my own horrors I wish to escape.

Nodding, she turns and sits by my side in solidarity, but she doesn’t speak for a while. “Whatever you are going to do, be careful, brightling. Your path is paved with death and destruction.”

“Hasn’t it always been?” I chuckle humourlessly.

“I don’t mean just your fate. These men are not to be played with. I trust them to a certain extent, but I would never let them stay here forever. They are hunted men, and they belong to another, one who will never let them go. They not only created them, but kept them, and they will do anything to get away from that. Where I am light and life, they are death in its darkest, most twisted form.”

“You feel sorry for them.”

“You would too if you knew,” she replies, patting my shoulder, “but do not mistake pity for weakness. Sever the mate bond and get as far away as you can before they turn on you like they did their master.”

“If I return home, there will be no leaving . . . not until I am done.”

“So the rumours are true.” My head snaps around, and she smiles softly. “I may be an earth witch, brightling, but I have my ways. Gehenna? Truly? What did you do?”

“I discovered the truth, something infinitesimally more dangerous than any action I could ever take.” I hold up my hand. “I will never tell you what because your entire coven would be destroyed for knowing. Thank you for your help.”

“Stay the night in the guest lodge. You remember the way. Stay as long as you need. You are always welcome here,” she says. I could never remain here forever, even without my vengeance, but it’s a pretty thought.

Patting my hand, she offers me another flower. “Flowers are wondrous things, aren’t they? Even when faced with the most horrible conditions, they still bloom year after year. Maybe you are finally blooming, brightling.”