Page 139 of Love & Heart Braking

Yeah. Austin was staying as far away from Smolder’s body as possible. The curve of my lips faded in the next beat. Austin could only have one partner in life. And one child. While another descendant might be able to end the relationship and move on, a phoenix would be leaving everything behind if he chose to leave and have no chance of finding the same ever again.

We couldn’t let this happen.

“Could I take this paper?” I asked Rolli.

“Absolutely. For what it’s worth, we really liked having Austin here.”

I had to agree that despite everything, Austin just fit with the Yearning companies.

Calling goodbye to the others, I hurried back the way I’d come. “Filling your heels, my ass,” I muttered, hoping Soleil’s ears were burning. I had a mountain of emails to get through. Bills to be paid. I didn’t even want to know what system maintenance meant.

But first things first.

I had something to do for the alliance.

Dodging between two carts, I entered the busiest supermarket in Nepos. It wasn’t the largest, but its location insured that people constantly streamed in and out. I grabbed a basket and walked down the aisles, tossing in random items for Devereaux’s sniff test. When the basket was overflowing, I hurried to the checkout.

“Cerys Concordia.”

I pulled up short. Pretty sure I’d had nightmares about that chilling voice. I turned to face the witch. “Vera…”

My mind stuttered as I took her in. She was dressed in a form-fitting orange dress with a white trim. Next to her, on her arm, was a man. An oracle.

“My love,” she said to the man. “This is the woman who matched us.”

The oracle untangled from her to clasp one of my hands in both of his. “An honor to meet you. I’m Viderum.”

Whoa.

Who were these people and what had they done with the original Vera and the asshole Enzo described? “Sure. Happy to help.”

Well, kind of. Mostly.

A tiny bit.

“I was so unhappy before I met Vera,” he said, gazing at her like I’d gaze at the moon.

Vera beamed back.

Their pink ribbon thrummed with happiness. Double whoa. The witch was in love. “Congratulations. I can see how happy you are.”

“You can?” Vera asked.

I dipped my head.

The witch looked at her partner. “Could you give us a moment, bear?”

I wrinkled my nose, smoothing it away as Viderum smiled at me before walking away with the cart.

She squinted at me. “You recovered from the loosening. I can see the curse is half of what it was. It’s no longer shaking your magic either.”

“Good to know. Thanks for going ahead with your promise, I guess.”

Pink tinged her cheeks. “I didn’t treat you right, Cerys. I admit that even though the board renewed my magical license, I don’t feel at ease about what I did.”

Could it be that Vera had developed a moral compass after all this time? I was almost impressed. She was unrecognizable from the witch I’d first met. “Right. Life is like that sometimes.”

“I suppose so.”

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