Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 217(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 217(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
He said nothing.
The shadows around her seemed to rise like smoke.
“Your marriage will be forever, Declan MacCrone,” she whispered.
“Do you curse me again?” he demanded.
She cackled. “That is up to you.”
Then, like mist on the moor, she vanished.
The wind returned all at once, rustling the colorful leaves and breaking the stillness.
Declan stood alone in the woods, the weight of her words pressing down on him like stone. Then he turned. He had to tell Aura about this.
He hurried to the cottage, and without a knock to announce him, opened the door, leaves falling off his cloak as he crossed the threshold. The warmth inside was a sharp contrast to the chill that still clung to his skin.
Aura was kneeling by a wooden crate near the hearth, carefully wrapping one of her clay pots in linen. Her movements were precise, but he could see the tightness in her jaw, the way she blinked a little too often to hide the gloss in her eyes.
He disliked disrupting her life like this, but he didn’t have much choice now since he placed her life in danger. And the sooner he could correct it, the sooner she could get her life back.
He was about to tell her about the witch and stopped. Instead, he asked, “Do you need help with anything?”
Her hands stilled for a moment before she nodded. “You can carry this out when I’ve finished wrapping it.”
He crouched beside her, gently taking the next pot from the floor and rolling it in cloth without saying a word.
They worked in silence for a few minutes. Not the strained kind, but something softer like the quiet that settles after a storm has passed, even if more clouds hang on the horizon.
“I’m sorry,” he said at last, his voice low.
Aura looked at him, her brows drawn. “For what?”
“For this. For uprooting you.” He glanced around the small space, her empty shelves that once held crocks of all sizes, her empty baskets once filled with roots and plants, the drying bundles of herbs that once hung from the beams now resting on the table waiting to be whisked away to a new home. “This place… it’s yours. And I’ve forced you to leave it behind.”
She sat back on her heels, exhaling slowly. “You didn’t force me. Circumstance did.”
“Then I’ll make this promise,” he said, turning fully toward her. “I will keep you safe until the day you can return to this cottage. To your garden. To your quiet life. And I swear, no one will ever take that from you again.”
Aura stared at him for a moment, then a soft smile broke slowly across her face. “Thank you. That means a lot to me.”
Her smile struck him hard, almost like an arrow to his chest. It wasn’t that it changed her plain features, it was the truth in her words. She was genuinely grateful. He had found that most women said one thing and meant another or that their words were meant to appease and nothing more. Her honesty was refreshing.
He rose first, offering his hand. “All will turn out well, Aura. I will make sure of it.”
The confidence in his voice gave her confidence. She would get her life back and that brought her great relief. She reached out and took his hand.
His fingers closed around hers, not with the heat of passion, but with the strength of promise and trust.
“I’ll have the men put your belongings in the cart,” he said, and snatched her cloak off the chair at the table. “There is something I need to tell you.” He lowered his voice. “The witch was in the woods.”
“You saw her?” she asked, as he released her hand and draped her cloak over her shoulders.
Declan nodded. “In the woods just beyond your garden. I thought it was another woman come to find you, but the moment I stepped beyond the trees, the air changed. It grew colder and stilled as if it were holding its breath. Then she appeared.”
Aura turned slowly. “What did she say?”
“She said I was a fool if I thought I could be rid of my wish so easily. And she laughed…” His jaw clenched. “Laughed at our marriage, as if it were some kind of jest.”
Aura’s brow furrowed, her thoughts already spinning. “That confirms it, then. She’s real and powerful. This isn’t a trick of coincidence or fate. It is a crafted curse, bound by something intentional.” She was quiet for a moment, then said, “We need to find her. Speak to her again and understand the rules she’s bound it with.”
Declan arched a brow. “You would willingly go looking for her?”
“She granted the wish,” Aura said simply. “She can unmake it.”
Declan realized then how lucky he was to have found Aura. She was the woman he needed, the woman he’d been looking for. She would help him solve this. He could feel it deep in his bones.