Page 182 of Love & Heart Braking

“It focused our plan. We had almost nothing to go on with regards to the Lanarays’ location prior.”

Thank you, Mr. Werewolf. He’d earned himself a thank-you basket.

“But the Hucses and Arbintos,” I said after my mind caught up. “We don’t have stuff on them.”

Soleil smirked. “I could’ve told you guys that immediately. That’s just another day in the mansion for a Hucs. The Arbintos provide the events for the Hucses to go around and control everyone. The Arbintos make sure to group certain targets together and to get them alone to make the job easier.”

“Good to know. We also had a witness come forward after the column on the Arbintos was printed,” Devereaux said. “One we already knew.”

Soleil and I exchanged a nonplussed look.

“Do you recall the woman in our alliance who left early on?” he said. “She had dirt on the Arbintos. A lot of it. The column on Monday struck a chord with her, and she decided to try rebellion on for size again.”

The tall, stylish descendant—I totally remembered her! And her handbag. Ceres, claim me. If she’d stuck with us from the start, she could’ve made things far easier. Though who could say that she wouldn’t have met Fenton and Lerome’s end too. Maybe everything was meant to work out this way.

A cold shiver ran up my spine as I recalled my indecision whether to send the column on the Arbintos, Blums, or Doquus. What if I’d decided to send a different one to the newspaper?

I shuddered.

“And the Hucses?” I asked Soleil. “Can we prove their part in all this?”

“There’s a reason Grandmother hardly ever told us things, and that’s because a stronger siren can wrestle the truth from a weaker one. But Bortyss was bragging about what he knew. He’d been snooping. I can overpower him to get what we need.” Soleil narrowed her gaze on the scene before her. “Which reminds me.”

The siren marched to a stretcher carried by two healers. I couldn’t see who was on the stretcher, but Soleil plucked something away, then booted the person for good measure.

She returned, a gold feather in her grip, along with a fistful of red and silver hair. “Please promise me you’ll lock up my grandmother and throw away the key.”

“That’s up to the unicorns,” Devereaux said. “I feel safe in assuring you she’ll never see the light of day. If what we have isn’t enough, law enforcement is storming each of the estates as we speak.”

I stared at the smoking, trampled scene before me. “I can’t believe this is over.”

Devereaux exhaled heavily. “Court proceedings will take some time. But the twelve won’t have much luck against unicorns who can sense a lie.”

Hope stirred in me like a dried leaf caught by a sudden breeze.

Yet, the danger wasn’t over for me.

“I’ll need to leave Nepos,” I said. People had noticed my return to the meadow, and they were casting wary glances at me despite the shituation. The last heart elemental.

Yep. For me, the danger here would never end now.

And even though I was glad about what we’d achieved despite the odds, I couldn’t deny the hollowness gnawing at my insides. Remaining in Nepos, my home, was what first triggered my desire to fight the twelve.

And I’d still lost it.

“Are law enforcement about to cart everyone away?” Soleil asked Devereaux.

“Yes,” he answered. “Some of them were hiding in the towers and a few fled across the estate. Everyone on the guest list is now accounted for.”

She cracked her knuckles. “Very well. Time to break an oath.” Soleil’s wings burst out and she flew into the air.

Once high, her hypnotic voice released in a boom. I wasn’t caught in her thrall, neither was Devereaux or Bain by the looks—nor the other unicorns who, like brownies, couldn’t be entranced by sirens.

“There are no heart elementals left,” Soleil demanded. Her words curled through the air like dancing smoke. “You will forget the woman, Cerys Concordia. She is a weak cupid. Forget her arrow, her bow, and her magic. Forget that she was here today. Forget that she means something to me. Forget.” The last word built in a hum that had me gritting my teeth.

Some in her thrall cried out, driven to their knees.

She’d helped insert some answers in my brain for the negotiations, but this was the first time I’d seen Soleil use her thrall in full force. The magnitude of her power was truly something to behold.

---