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Sebastian
“I NEED YOU TO WORK your magic on this.” I placed a red velvet drawstring bag down on the kitchen table in front of where I was sitting at Zoe’s cottage.
She opened the bag and then glanced up at me suspiciously. “Sebastian, this is your mother’s ring.”
I nodded.
“You’re giving it to Princess Alessandra?” Her gold eyes were filled with disbelief.
“Here’s the thing. Alessandra says that the rest of the coven won’t believe this marriage is authentic if I don’t give her my mother’s ring.”
“But this ring is one of the few things you have left of your mother,” Zoe insisted.
“And that’s exactly why I’m not going to give her this ring,” I replied, my lips twisting into a smile. “This is where you come in.”
The witch’s eyebrows rose questioningly. “Are you saying you want me to create a replica of this ring?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” I agreed.
“Smart. I like it.” She nodded her approval. “I’ll need to know her size.”
“Six and a half.” I hesitated. “When do you think you can have it done by?”
“I’ll have it finished within a few hours.”
“Okay, good. The wedding is tomorrow,” I informed her.
“So I hear. Was that a mutual decision?” Zoe asked, tucking her dark hair behind her ear.
I shrugged. “Yeah, sort of.”
“I’ll bet.” She didn’t look convinced. Sighing, she went on. “As much as I wish I could talk you out of this wedding... I can’t.”
“Why?”
Her eyes locked on mine. “Because I had a dream last night.”
“What was it?” I asked, my stomach clenching. Zoe’s dreams never seemed to be good lately.
“I saw you alone in the castle. It was snowing outside. You weren’t married. I know that part for a fact. You were talking on the phone with someone, and you told them that you decided, last minute, not to go through with the wedding.” She closed her eyes as she allowed the dream to replay in her mind. “A few vampires barged through your office door. They attacked you. They forced poison down your throat. They left you there, entirely unconscious. And then they lit the castle on fire while you were still in it.”
I swallowed hard. “So, what you’re saying is that if I don’t marry Alessandra... if I choose to call off the wedding... there’s a good chance I could die.”
Zoe nodded.
I clenched my fists angrily. “These vampires who tried to kill me... What coven were they from?”
“Actually, they weren’t from another coven, Sebastian.” Zoe shot me a sympathetic look, probably feeling bad about being the bearer of bad news. “They were from your coven. They were Starks.”
“Vampires from my own coven tried to kill me?” Anger built up within me. Why would anyone from my own coven have wanted me dead? “Who was it?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t see their faces.”
“Then how can you be sure that they were Starks?” I questioned. “Maybe you’re wrong.”
“I wasn’t wrong. Trust me. I just knew, Sebastian. I knew that vampires from your own coven killed you. And I knew that was the result of you not marrying Alessandra, so... as much as I hate to say this, I think you need to marry her as soon as possible.”
“I have some time to prepare,” I insisted. “It won’t start snowing until December, at least.”
“That may be true, but I’ll feel a lot safer knowing that at least part of my premonition isn’t true. If that part isn’t true, then maybe the rest won’t come true, either.” She eyed me curiously. “Are you actually thinking about backing out of this wedding now? You do realize it’s tomorrow, right? And the invitations have already gone out. I got mine earlier today. You can let your wife-to-be know that I’ll be there, by the way.”
“I don’t know what I’m thinking, Zo. Part of me knows that I need to do this in order to be able to fight the wars that we’re about to enter, but you know as well as I do that I don’t want to marry her.”
She sighed. “You need to do what’s right for you coven. And as far as I’m concerned, your coven would be lost without you. You can’t leave them without a ruler.”
“They wouldn’t be without a ruler. Kade is next in line to the throne,” I replied.
Zoe snorted. “My point exactly. Sebastian, whether you like it or not, you need to marry Alessandra.” She darted her eyes away from mine. “Now, I need to get to work on this ring so that I can get back to the higher priority items on my to-do list.”
“What’s on your to-do list?” I asked with raised brows.
“I need to figure out a way to get that protection spell in effect again. I haven’t found anything in any of my spell books yet,” she explained. “I might need to pay a visit to the mermaids soon and beg them for their tears. Not that it’s likely that they’ll offer any.”
“Thanks for trying, at least,” I told her.
“No need to thank me.” Zoe paused. “You need to go into your father’s vault, Sebastian.”
My eyebrows rose. “For what?”
“You’ll find seven rings there. A witch designed them to protect you from the sun. You must wear one of them, but don’t tell anyone else that they’re there.”
I shot her a puzzled look. “How do you know about these rings, Zoe? How do you know they’re in his vault?”
“He mentioned it to me once.”
“Why didn’t you ever mention them until now?” I asked.
“There was never a reason to mention them until now. Up until now, the barrier was there to keep you protected,” she pointed out.
Even though I knew she was right, I couldn’t help but feel like she had been keeping secrets from me, something I’d never known her to do. I thought about it for a moment before deciding that I was probably overanalyzing. She was right. There had never been a reason for it to come up until now.
“Thanks,” I told her.
“Yeah. So, anyway, I’ll have the engagement ring to you by tomorrow morning, at the very latest.”
“Okay,” I agreed, still a little shaken by everything she’d just told me. As I rose to my feet, I headed for the door. Once I reached it, I glanced over my shoulder at her. “Hey, Zo?”
She glanced up at me. “Yeah?”
“Thank you. For doing this.”
Zoe nodded and flashed an obviously forced smile.
As I slipped out the front door, I closed it behind me and leaned against it.
So much had happened over the past few days—so much that I could barely handle all of the stress—but one thing was certain.
Zoe Blackwood was one of the only people in the entire world who I could truly rely on.