Page 85 of Gilded Wicked Mirrors
This was very bad.
There was no way to fight against this type of magic. The girls were sitting ducks. That’s why vampires were so dangerous in the first place.
Quinn glanced at the mirror, begging Emrys to return. She didn’t know if his compulsion would be stronger than Francois’s, but she hoped it would be.
Either way, Emrys was a vampire and would be able to help. Quinn needed to stall just long enough so the girls would have a fighting chance.
“Where is Emrys now?” Francois asked again with his siren tones.
Quinn opened her mouth to respond, but Giselle cut in. “Why, do you like princelings?”
Francois’s lips flattened into a straight line. “I don’t remember asking your opinion. You will not speak another word until I request it.” An enchantment twirled off his tongue and captured hold of the beautiful brunette.
Giselle opened her mouth and formed words, but nothing came out. She leveled a poisonous glare at the man. Quinn knew Giselle too well, so well, she knew the fire in her eyes was a promise. When she wasn’t trapped by his magic, she would devour him for that.
“Where is Emrys?” he asked again.
The spell claimed Quinn’s voice. “In the mirror.”
He chuckled softly and shared a silent exchange with Hadleigh. “Oh, I bet he’s hating that.”
“Terror has never been fond of him.” Hadleigh leaned against the wall, a ray of light dancing on her pale cheeks. On her exposed forearm was a large tattoo of a black cat. Quinn’s eyes lingered on it because it was unusual to have a non-mirror tattoo. They were considered bad luck, and often, people mistook them for mirror tattoos. Some people were mistakenly killed because of them.
“He could have asked us instead of breaking in,” Francois said to his second.
Hadleigh folded her arms. “It would seem the prince does not fully trust us.”
A jolt of energy shot through Quinn. They were talking as if they were chummy with Emrys, as if they had a deeper relationship and connection to him. Almost as if they werefriends.
“It’s in his best interest not to fully trust us.” Francois smiled. “Where is the key, Quinnevere?”
“Giselle has it.” Quinn’s chest rose in a tension-filled breath.
Francois turned to the beautiful brunette. “You may speak,” he said, releasing her from his spell. “Where is the key?”
“It’s . . .” Her eyes trailed to her breasts.
“Oh, bleeding mirrors,” he cursed. “Retrieve it, please.”
Under the siren compulsion, she complied. She slowly, tauntingly, pulled the key from her corset, almost as if she were seducing him—her small way of fighting his power. His eyes followed her every movement.
She held out the key to him as he said, “Don’t speak.”
Anger flashed in her brown eyes.
As Francois slipped the key into his pocket, Giselle bounded forward and punched him square in the jaw. She landed two more blows, and he fell to his knees.
Giselle mouthed something at him, mostly like a string of silent curses. She was unable to speak due to his spell. She moved to kick him in the balls as two things happened simultaneously.
A shadow cat emerged from the tattoo on Hadleigh’s arm,moving to attack Giselle, and Francois moaned, “Stop.” He held up his hands in surrender. It was unclear if it was a siren spell, but Giselle complied. “You may speak.”
Just as the cat was about to pounce, Hadleigh called it back.
“You are a bastard, lowly piece of shit, and I’ll kill you if you spell me like that ever again,” Giselle spat before sharing even more colorful and creative curse words with him. She slapped him across the cheek, this time with an open palm.
“As you wish, my vixen queen.” A large smile painted his brown cheeks. Francois held up another staying hand to Hadleigh. “You really must tell me how you managed to unbind yourself.”
“I have many talents,” Giselle said, stroking the back of her knuckles.
