Page 114 of Fate's Sweetest Curse
Noble had been holding a thin rod of Gildium when Hattie came into the lab a week ago with Mariana’sdelivery. He’d bent the rod in half when he heard abouthowit’d been delivered. While Mariana had served as an ally to Phina (and himself)—providing insight into the cursed creatures to propel their progress—her sneaking into Hattie’s dorm was third on his list of reasons to dislike her.
First and second on his list were making Hattie’s knees bleed and threatening her with a knife.
“I cross-referenced the sample with the notes you gave me on…” Hattie trailed off, eyes tracing his forearm where the scratch was now healed.Your bloodwas what she left unsaid. “So far, the only discernible difference is that the cells in the new sample seem more…jagged? Almost like they’ve morphed over time.”
“That makes sense.”
“Blood is mostly water,” Hattie went on, that familiar vertical line of concentration forming on her brow. “But the water in both samples is different, somehow. It has its own open threads. I think that’s why the arcane adepts thought Phina could contain the curse—bind Hylder to it, maybe?—but with Gildium and Hylder repelling each other, I just don’t know. I’ve arranged a conversation with Viren to discuss it in more detail.”
Noble nodded, feeling vaguely disappointed. The more they learned, the farther he felt from real answers. Meanwhile, the Black Lace Hyldertinctures Hattie had made in the lab were waning in effectiveness—not as much as the Common Hylder tinctures Phina had been giving him, but still worse than what Hattie had brought with her from Waldron. And Noble couldn’t help with her experiments on the blood out of fear that seeing it would trigger the monster inside him, as his own blood had in the training ring. The culmination of all those dead ends was hard to take.
Hattie squeezed his fingers. “We’ll get there.”
Noble grunted and let go of her hand.
From there, the day passed by in a blur that seemed both endless and immediate. Noble prepared a few mixtures for Hattie in that time, including Gildium alchemically bound to water, as well as tempered and untempered Gildium dissolved in water.
It was dusk when Noble found Hattie in the library. She was standing on her toes, struggling to reach a book on a particularly high shelf. Phina and the other apprentices had all left for the day, and without the threat of witnesses, Noble set his vials on the study table and walked up behind Hattie, caging her against the bookcase. With his chest pressed into her back, he tucked a kiss behind her ear, then slid the book she needed off the high shelf.
With a soft laugh, she turned to face him. Their gazes locked as he handed her the book.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“You’re welcome.”
She clutched the book against her chest. “I assume everyone else has gone?”
“Mhmm,” Noble hummed, cradling her jaw loosely in his palm.
Hattie pierced her smile with a canine. “Oh.”
He wanted to suck that lower lip into his mouth, but instead he asked, “Have you had a productive day, Hylder Queen?”
“Yes. You?”
He pointed a thumb behind him. “Brought you Gildium, as requested.”
Her attention flicked to the vials on the table. “Excellent.” Her eyes glazed, becoming unfocused past his shoulder.
“Hattie?” Noble murmured, amused.
Her blue stare slid back to his face. “Noble?”
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m not sure yet,” she mused.
“A theory?”
“A…thought,” she answered cryptically. “Are you finished for today?”
He nodded. “I was going to suggest you put on your blindfold and let me lead you back to the Royal Inn”—they hadn’t entered or exited the lab together before, but the idea of Hattie blindfolded and entirely in his care made it seem worth the risk of being seen—“but I have a feeling you’re not quite ready to leave.”
Her cheeks puckered. “No, I’m sorry.”
“Need help?”
Hattie slid her palm up Noble’s chest, blazing a path of heat that made his pec flex.
