Page 87 of Kissing Potions and Elves
“I didn’t mean to cause you any pain, Isobel.”
“But you still did.” I swallow back a sob. “And that’s all that matters.”
I force myself to look at him one last time, memorizing the shadows in his face, before turning toward the door andwrenching it open. The air on the other side feels colder somehow. I pause on the threshold, my hand tightening on the frame to keep myself steady.
“Whatever we had, it’s over.” The words scrape out of me like glass. “The potion’s effects are gone. Go back to your life—” My breath catches. “And leave me to mine.”
Stepping through the door, I slam it shut behind me. My heart feels heavy as I walk away from the manor, but I refuse to look back.
I stumble through the village streets, my vision blurred by tears. Everything hurts… every heartbeat a painful reminder that I was never really his.
Stopping abruptly, I press a trembling hand to my aching chest. Elyssia is everything I’m not. She’s an elegant Elf noblewoman who fits effortlessly into Lyrion’s world.
Errol reaches his paw up, resting it against my cheek as his green eyes meet mine, full of sadness.
“Oh, Errol,” my voice quavers, “I was such a fool, letting myself believe someone like Lyrion could ever truly love someone like me.”
My knees buckle, and I sink onto the bench in the village square, memories overwhelming me of Lyrion’s soft whispers in the dark, his tender kisses beneath the stars.
What hurts most is knowing those moments might have been nothing more than magic. An illusion.
“Lyrion,” I whisper his name, tears streaming down my face. “Was any of it ever real?”
My heart aches terribly, longing warring with betrayal. How can I trust anything we shared when I don’t know if the warmth in his eyes was ever truly meant for me, or if it was simply the potion’s cruel joke?
I hug Errol, grief and humiliation burning through my veins. What if this was always meant to be my fate… loving someone who could never truly belong to me?
Errol purrs against me, trying to offer comfort.
Drawing in a deep breath, I glance down at him. “We’ve survived hard times before.” I swallow against the lump in my throat. “And we’ll get through this as well, Errol. I know we can.”
When I reach my apartment, I set Errol down on the bed. This used to be my sanctuary, but now it feels small, cramped, and painfully empty after the warmth of Lyrion’s manor.
Despite trying to be strong, I collapse onto my thin straw mattress and curl into a ball as emotions rise to the surface once again. It hurts to breathe. Devastation unlike anything I’ve ever known washes through me.
I love Lyrion. Stars help me, I still do. But if he kept something this important from me, what else did he hide? Did he ever truly feel for me as I did for him?
Errol moves to my side, and I bury my face in his soft fur as tears stream down my face. His gentle purring vibrates against me as sobs wrack my body.
A painful realization settles in my chest. The proximity spell is gone and the rest of the potion’s effects are almost completely faded as well. I’m finally free, but this freedom is hollow and cruel.
Errol curls closer, as if trying to shield me from the agonizing truth. But nothing can protect me from the terrible ache in my chest. I thought I’d found love. A home. A family. But all of it was a lie.
Because now I know the truth: None of those things were really mine. They were never meant for me. I’m free because I was never truly meant to belong.
CHAPTER 44
LYRION
Despair unlike anything I’ve ever known fills me as Isobel leaves. Everything inside me wants to go after her. I start for the door, but Elyssia’s voice stops me abruptly.
“Where do you think you’re going? You heard the human. She’s done with you.”
“How could you be so cruel?” I keep my voice low and controlled despite the fury burning beneath the surface as I turn to face her.
Elyssia’s expression remains perfectly composed, her gaze icy and detached—a mask of cold elegance. “Cruel?” Her voice drips with practiced indifference. “It was merely honesty, Lyrion.”
My fists clench at my sides. “You didn’t need to belittle her.”
