Page 140 of Fate's Sweetest Curse
Removing my birthday necklace, I placed the vial of Wend water next to the other bottles.
“Hurry,” Brendan hissed.
“I can’t think with you whispering in my ear,” I bit out.
“Hattie…” This time, the warning in his voice made me look up.
Noble was stalking toward us, his red-ringed eyes fixated on me. He was predatory, focused, and I didn’t want to believe it, but—
I have dreams sometimes, Noble had told me the first night we made love.Nightmares. You’re in them, and I’m half-turned…stalking you.
Do you harm me in your nightmares?I’d asked.
No, he’d said.I always stop myself and wake up.
Brendan dropped to the ground, cowering behind my table.
I straightened and raised a palm. “Noble, stop.”
Miraculously, he did as I asked, halting perhaps fifteen feet away from my makeshift workbench. His body was twisted and broken, his skin veined with black, diseased—but I saw a semblance of him still there.The shape of his jaw. The waves in his hair. A flicker of green remaining in his red-ringed eyes.
He reminded me of a frightened animal, overtaken by instinct. But it wasn’thisinstinct taking over. It was his curse. It overwhelmed whatever sense of self was still inside him. His eyes narrowed, and then he was stalking closer, closer, closer—
A flash of blue caught my eye to the left.
“No!” I screamed.
Noble turned, evading Mariana’s blue-blazing sword moments before she could cut him down.
She’d come to do her duty—but he wasn’t a lost cause yet.
“Don’t harm him!” I shrieked.
Mariana gave me a wild look, like I was deranged. “Hattie, he’s gone—”
“No, he’s not,” I insisted—not just to Mariana, but to myself. “Hold him off. Give me time.”
Her brown eyes dipped to my table of alchemy bottles, and perhaps I saw a quick nod of agreement—but then Noble was swiping at her, and her focus shifted to her charge.
No time to waste.
I stared down at my table of ingredients. The Wend water and the bottle labeledWell of Fatewere the most viable sources, I was sure of it. I had to decide, but I felt immobilized. Ill-equipped. I didn’t have my books. I didn’t have a lab. I didn’t have—
I blinked.
The bottles, the ingredients, the tools, my notebook—the spread wasn’t just familiar because it resembled Phina’s lab.
I had seen thisexacttabletop before: in my Mirror of Fortune.
49
Vision of Fortune
Hattie
Alchemy had been my vision of Fortune since young adulthood.
When the Mirror of Fortune had first shown me my life’s greatest blessing, I’d felt encouraged—vindicated, even—to continue exploring my interests in herbal alchemy, no matter how improper Aunt Yvira insisted it might be.
