“I saw how much you loved him. I can’t accept that it’s all gone.”
She hiccupped back a sob, her knees suddenly crumpling beneath her. They hit the soft earth, and she clutched her arms across her chest as if that would hold her together and keep the hate from overwhelming her.
“I can’t…” she cried. “Edmund.”
He knelt beside her and folded her into his arms.
Alex was leaving. Even as Etta’s magic rejoiced, her heart clenched traitorously. For as long as she could remember, she’d wanted to break the curse, never imagining it would free the Basile magic within her.
Power should have meant freedom.
But now she knew it was only a new set of chains.
* * *
Alex sprinted across the open field to recover two of the horses that had been in the stables. They didn’t run from him, but the seco
