Page 176 of Love & Heart Braking

A woman rose from near the front and approached the fire pit, and I broke my stare with Devereaux. My jaw dropped as none other than Vera Calzane strode to stand at the head of the fire pit in the exact middle between Austin and his bride-to-be.

Vera waved her hand and magic surrounded her throat. Her voice spread through the theater and to those above with ease. “I am honored to accept the invitation of the esteemed Cineres family to bless this matrimony and bind this union forevermore.”

Austin looked like he’d been slapped. “What? What does that mean?”

Many in the crowd hid wide smiles.

Vera faced him. “That you will never be parted from your bride.”

He screwed up his face, then promptly smoothed it as some in the crowd—Hucses by the looks—outright laughed. The phoenix wasn’t tanned by any means, but he was devoid of color now. If Vera was saying that he’d never, ever be able to leave Smolder, then I could see why.

I couldn’t watch this. I couldn’t watch someone’s heart forced into this horrible, hateful match with a woman utterly lacking in anything good. Yet moving might disrupt whatever Devereaux and the others had been up to.

Indecision warred in me.

“First,” Vera said. “A word from the gracious Mistress Cineres.”

Gracious? My ass.

The matriarch rose from the front center and walked in an unhurried fashion to stand in front of the fire pit. Would the four of them hold hands and sing? I clamped down on the hysterical laughter bubbling in my throat. Lerome cocked a brow, then winked. A glint caught my eye, and my eyes rounded at the scalpel in his hand. Mars alive. Did he steal that yesterday?

Very carefully, the griffin eased his hand out and inserted the scalpel into the lock.

I forced my focus back to the ceremony so as not to give him away.

“Welcome to the Cinereses’ estate. The oldest family of the twelve greet you,” the matriarch declared, chin slightly raised. She was dressed in a two-piece skirt and jacket combo of burned gold, and her beauty rivalled that of her granddaughters. “For a phoenix, there is no larger or momentous milestone than the selection of a partner in life. Today the Cinereses invite the Lanaray line to join the prestige and beauty of our lands, and a legacy of hundreds of years.”

Austin didn’t look convinced.

“With our families first and foremost in our minds,” the matriarch glanced at Austin, “let the ceremony begin with an announcement.” She lifted her gaze, and as though they’d waited for permission, the guests who weren’t numbered in the twelve lifted to look at me and Lerome. I slid him a look, releasing a long exhale to see the scalpel out of sight.

“I’m sure you have noticed our guests,” she said.

The audience didn’t make a sound.

“In one cage, you’ll see a black feather who thought to rise against us. In the other, you will find the last heart elemental.”

Loud murmurs broke out in the crowd.

Fuck.

“Daughter,” the matriarch said in a bored tone.

Lerome’s black gaze lifted to mine. He smiled. And then red flames surrounded him. A scream tore from my mouth as I beat at the bars, shaking them in response to his agonized yells. The purple ribbon between us went up in smoke, and my entire cage shook with the force of my trembling.

The flames flittered away into the sky, and mind and lips numb, I watched as ash sprinkled down from Lerome’s empty cage to scatter over those in the amphitheater.

That ash… was Lerome.

Gold shone out, and I sprawled backward onto my ass, staring up at Soleil’s back and golden wings. Her hypnotic voice crawled through the air. “Try that with my friend, you smoking excuse for a roast turkey, and I will destroy you.”

Lerome was dead.

I shook my head, trying to kickstart my brain through the shock.

Soleil was standing between me and the twelve.

“Trust a Hucs to lose control,” Acribus said drily.

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