Page 130 of The Witch is Back

“No,” Emma interrupted with a slight lift of her hand. “You don’t have to do that. The polite graceful thing. I know you must hate me now.” She took a breath and plowed ahead. “But there is a way out. My mother told me about a clause in the contract which gives me veto power over the engagement.” She swallowed past the emotion. “It’s true. I’ve looked.”

Both parents absorbed this, a slow kind of stunned realization spreading over them like sunshine appearing from behind a dark cloud.

Emma curled her fingers into her palms. She wished she’d brought Chester. “I’m going to exercise it.”

If they’d been stunned before, now they looked an inch from fainting.

Diana shook her head weakly. “I’m sorry, this is news to me. I thought it was locked in.”

“My dad hid it from my mother. He wanted me to choose.” Her lips lifted and fell. “Or maybe he wanted Bastian to be able to choose.”

One eyebrow lifted. “And you’re not choosing our son?”

Land mine. Swerve, swerve. “I’m choosing to let him go.”

Alistair rubbed the back of his neck, troubled. “Have you spoken to Bastian about this?”

“He doesn’t know.”

A fatherly look of disappointment settled on Alistair’s features. “Seems to me he should be told.”

“I know he’ll be happy. This gives him an out without having to admit that he’s ready to be rid of me.”

“Emma,” Diana began.

“He shouldn’t have to deal with me,” she burst out and stood in one hurried movement, unable to sit still. “Or the wedding, or any of it. It’s better for everyone if he leaves now.”

Diana laid her head on her husband’s thigh. Something in her eyes made Emma uncomfortable. “I see. And you don’t even want to see if he can get past what you did?”

Emma couldn’t face her, them, any longer so swiveled to the fireplace. She spoke to the flames. “Bastian deserves a woman he wants, not one that has lied to him, betrayed him, made him feel like a fool.”

“You really don’t think he could see past that?” Diana hummed in her throat. “I’ve seen him look at you, seen how much he cares for you.”

Emma’s eyes closed. “I think he doesn’t know how he feels,” she said, the words barely audible above the soft crackle of fire. “He’s been told he’ll marry me all his life. It’s fact to him. He knew it would be easier if he cared for me, so maybe for a while he convinced himself that he did. But if he really had feelings for me, he’d have come back after the Exhibition.”

“Why come to us?” Diana asked. She’d regained a bit of color in her cheeks, but it was more the flush of an ill person, not a healthy blush.

She at least would fix that for Diana, Emma thought.

“To set the record straight.” Emma half smiled, though there was little funny about the situation. “My mother will be furious, Goddess knows, if word gets out, but if you need to tell people to restore Bastian’s reputation, I understand. I just ask that you keep my sister out of it.”

“Of course,” Alistair said softly. “My dear, if I may say so, you don’t look happy, for all that you’re saying you’re about to right a wrong.”

“It doesn’t matter if I’m happy; only that Bastian is finally free of me.”

Alistair looked ready to argue, but Diana stilled him with a squeeze of her hand. She was studying Emma, and though it made her stomach churn, Bastian’s mom obviously saw enough to convince her of the wisdom in Emma’s plan.

Emma just wished she felt better about it.

CHAPTER 27

Bastian’s heart stopped in his chest. “What?” he croaked, then cleared his throat. “What?”

His mom—who looked healthier than she had since he’d returned—stirred the coffee she’d made them. She slid a mug over to him, concern marking her delicate features. “I put a calming potion in it.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“It has jasmine and ginseng and—”

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