“Stop,” she said. “Nobody has to die here. I’ll go with you. Anywhere. We never have to see Henry again. Just don’t hurt him. Please.”
“You are acting very erratically,” Evan said with a frown.
“It’s been a strange evening.”
Julia heard something then. A low buzzing sound.
Evan grimaced. “One moment, please.” He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and held it to his ear. “Evan Frost here.” A pause. “Yes, that’s right.” Another pause and then he raised his gaze to look at both Julia and Henry in turn.
Julia could feel the heat from Henry’s body behind her. She didn’t want to turn. She didn’t want to say anything else. She knew what would happen if she couldn’t convince Evan to turn around and leave with her. He’d kill Henry with no more questions asked. It didn’t matter how long they’d been brothers, how long they’d lived and survived. One would be dead. And she was sure that Henry wouldn’t raise a finger to defend himself. He’d spent his existence trying to keep his younger brother out of trouble; he wouldn’t fight to the death against him.
She knew it was impossible to have fallen in love with somebody in a matter of minutes - to love them so deeply that you’d be willing to change your life in order to save them. And yet, that’s exactly what she was doing. She’d leave with Evan if it meant saving Henry’s life.
It was crazy, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t true. She’d never felt so sure about anything before in her entire life. She loved Henry, and she didn’t want him to die.
“Don’t do this,” Henry whispered into her hair. “Let him kill me. It’ll be easier for everyone involved.”
“Shut up,” she told him.
Evan frowned as he continued to speak to whoever was on the phone. “I don’t understand. Very well, if you insist.” He looked again at Julia and Henry. “It’s the witch who performed the soulmate recovery spell. She wants to be put on speakerphone.” He pressed a button and held the phone out at arm’s length.
“Hello, can you hear me?” the witch said.
“Uh . . . yes,” Julia replied.
“Loud and clear,” Henry said.
“Very good.” The witch cleared her throat. “I’m afraid there’s been an error and I’m not quite sure how it happened.”
“An error?” Evan sounded disturbed. “What do you mean?”
“When you were here yesterday, Mr Frost, I felt as if there was something awry. The feeling has lasted until a moment ago when I got a surge of power here in my lair. My crystal ball lit up like a lantern. And I knew then, without a shadow of a doubt, that something was horribly, horribly wrong with the recovery I did for you yesterday.”
Evan still clutched the machete as he gazed wistfully at Julia. “There is nothing wrong. I have found my true love with your help and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Every penny of your fee was earned. She is mine for ever. Our souls reunited. I have never felt such deep love in my entire existence.”
“Julia Donner is not your soulmate,” the witch said simply.
“Excuse me?” Evan replied. “I don’t think I heard you right.”
“I know, it’s very unusual. I found the wrong one. The energy I channelled yesterday pointed in the wrong direction but I don’t understand why. No one else was with us. There was no other life essence that I could have drawn from. I can’t understand this.”
“Well, I was there.” Henry’s voice was soft.
“Pardon?” the witch said.
“I was there,” Henry repeated. “I’d followed Evan. I wanted to find out the location of his soulmate so I could find her and murder her so she wouldn’t exert her evil influence on my brother ever again.”
There was a pause. “And is she dead?”
“No, still alive,” Julia spoke up. “Very confused, freaked out and generally shaken, but alive.”
“Then that must be the answer,” the witch said. “OK, that totally makes more sense. I thought I’d screwed up and that never happens, thank you very much. Hello? We’re talking a millennium of perfect soulmate recovery here. I have a very good rep. for this sort of thing, you know - the best in the biz, in fact. I didn’t realize that there were two Frost brothers in attendance at the recovery yesterday. It’s obvious to me now that I channelled the wrong essence and found your soulmate, Henry. Not Evan’s.”
Henry and Julia looked at each other. He swallowed. “That’s impossible. I don’t have a soulmate.”
“You’ve never found her before probably because you didn’t have my help, but there she is. Congrats. Live happily ever after. I’ll send you my bill.”
Julia was stunned. More stunned, that is. So it was true? That deep and nearly immediate connection she felt for Henry was because they were soulmates who’d just never connected before?