Allegiance (Causal Enchantment #3)(58)
By the flash of surprise on Mortimer’s face and the open-mouth gape on Amelie’s, it was clear that Lilly’s declaration caught everyone off guard.
My, my. Aren’t you building a little empire, Max said sarcastically. You know, one of these days, you’re going to be sorry you keep tricking me …
I gave him an apologetic shrug.
Once the initial shock subsided, Sofie spoke up. “You are okay with this, Evangeline?”
“I’m …” I was unsure of how to say this without offending Lilly. “I’m okay with it. But I don’t feel any different, so …” I’m not sure I can trust her, Sofie. Read between the lines.
She nodded slowly. Maybe she understood me. If not, I’d ask her if she could confirm it later, when we were alone.
“Has the witch given us any details?” Lilly asked, switching gears.
I frowned. The witch … the witch! They kidnapped her? They must have!
“No, though Kait and Viggo are still interrogating her,” Mage explained simply. “They’re almost finished.” Finished because they’d gotten their answer or because there wasn’t much left of her? I decided that I’d rather not know.
“Well,” Sofie said, pausing. “Good. Now that that’s settled, please, won’t you come in? We have a lot of work to do.” We followed her into the massive foyer. “Mortimer, why don’t you take Lilly to Kait?” With a nod, they vanished. “And Evangeline …” I turned, expecting her to tell me I was grounded for life. Instead, she wrapped her arm around my shoulder. “I need to tell you something. It’s important.” She hesitated, her mouth bending into a weird half-excited, half-nervous smile. “I figured out a way to free Bishop.”
Joy exploded inside me like fireworks on the Fourth of July. “Seriously?” Of course Sofie had fixed it! Sofie could fix anything! “Seriously?” I parroted and looked over at Amelie, expecting a matching grin. She stood there with a strange expression on her face. I couldn’t read it. She was definitely happy but there was also a glimpse of something … pity, perhaps? “Where is he? When can I—”
Sofie cut me off. “Now, I don’t have a lot of time to explain.” She paused, listening to something in the distance, off to our right. “Damn it,” she muttered under her breath. “They’re coming.” They … Bishop and Caden! My heart started to race. I turned to gaze down the hall, waiting excitedly. Sofie’s hand waved furiously at Amelie. “Go stall them for a moment, please.”
Something about that tone … it unsettled me. Amelie disappeared in a flash. “Why the need to stall?” I asked warily.
Sofie was suddenly in front of me, seizing my hands tightly, pale eyes holding mine as if compelled. “Okay, remember how Mage’s compulsion erased all memory of Earth for Caden and the others?” she said in a low whisper.
I nodded.
“Well … it gave me an idea. It took some thinking and a little request of the Fates …”
Oh God … the Fates. Prickles of worry nipped at my toes. So far, any mention of them usually spelled disaster for me. “But Bishop is back to himself now,” she assured me. “Except for one key difference.” She was rambling. Sofie doesn’t ramble. “There was only one way to do it. I had to erase all memory of her,” she whispered, her eyebrows rising suggestively with her.
Sofie’s words didn’t register at first. “What do you mean?” I asked slowly.
“She does not exist in his memory. Nothing about her. Nothing about being bound up by magic over the last few days because he wanted to avenge her death. The Fates altered it all.”
“Her? You mean F—”
Sofie’s hand flew to my lips, clamping on tightly. I moaned in pain but she ignored it, rushing with her whispers now. “We’ll talk about it later, but whatever happens, you cannot mention her name. As long as no one mentions her name, we’re golden. If he hears you mention it again, the spell is broken and he’s back in Merth. Understand?”
Not mention her. She didn’t exist. I felt as if she had just walked up and walloped me across my injured jaw.
“Understand?” Sofie prodded.
I nodded, dumbstruck. “So, if he doesn’t remember … her … what does he remember?”
Pity flashed across Sofie’s face—one hundred percent unveiled pity. It sunk my insides to my feet just as a loud, jovial voice sounded from our right. Bishop’s voice.
All thoughts and worries vanished. My heart melted, my body gravitating toward that beautiful sound. I turned just as Bishop appeared, grinning broadly, his gray eyes twinkling in that playful way. He scooped me into his arms and spun me around. I giggled excitedly. Just like old times … like happy times. Like—
Bishop’s lips closed over mine, pressing against them. At first I thought it was show of friendly affection. But when he didn’t pull away, when the kiss became deeper, more intense, when his hands slid to my back, running along my contours, I knew something was wrong. It was a kiss I’d seen him secretly give Fiona countless times.
Alarm paralyzed me. I felt my cheeks blaze with embarrassment. What the hell was going on? Why was Bishop kissing me? Bishop pulled away, his jaw tensing angrily as he appraised my injured face. “They sure did a number on you.” I heard myself make some sort of guttural sound, unable to speak, unable to move—as stiff as a stick within Bishop’s arms.