Spellbreaker (Spellbreaker Duology #1) - Charlie N. Holmberg Page 0,108

steer me away.”

Confusion niggled at him. “His magic?”

She chewed her lip a moment. Glanced out the window. “He’s a master rational aspector, Bacchus. Has been this entire time. Unregistered, like me.”

The confession drove back some of his fatigue. “You’re sure?”

She nodded. Touched her bodice, then dropped her hand. “I’m sure.”

Bacchus looked to the unconscious man on the bed. He never would have guessed. Rational aspectors . . . they were closely monitored, more so than any other alignment, because of the types of spells they could enact. Were Elsie to be discovered, she might luck out with imprisonment. But Mr. Ogden would be executed immediately.

“You have my word that I’ll not share it,” he murmured.

“I know you won’t.” She smiled softly, and Bacchus’s chest tightened. For her to trust him so readily, after the way their relationship had started . . . it was significant.

Reining in his thoughts, he asked, “Who placed it? What spell?”

“A spiritual spell. One that controlled him.” She shifted closer, warmth buzzing between them. “It’s the most masterful spell I’ve ever encountered. Even more so than the siphoning one. I never would have untied it in time had he not whacked his head and given me clues.”

“Clues?”

She waved the question away. Another time, then. “I don’t know who placed it. We won’t know until the true culprit behind the opus crimes is caught. He was so confused, Bacchus.”

She picked at the seam of her sleeve. Bacchus took her hand once more.

“Do not blame yourself for your involvement,” he whispered. As soon as he spoke the words, she glanced away. He squeezed her hand. “You have a strong sense of justice, Elsie. You genuinely thought you were doing good. Had you suspected otherwise, you never would have helped . . . What did you call them?”

“The Cowls. I thought they were . . .” Her voice shrunk. She swallowed. “They used my sense of justice against me. If they hadn’t made me feel like I was doing something important, I might have been too scared to break the law.”

Raising his free hand, he put the knuckle of his first finger under Elsie’s chin and lifted her face so she’d look at him. “Do not disparage yourself for having courage.”

She looked away, then back. She was so close. If he wanted to, he could lean in and—

He pulled his hand away. “What can I do?”

She took a moment to think. Glanced at their linked hands. “I know you’re exhausted, Bacchus, but—”

“Name it.”

“Just stay, until he wakes.” She squeezed his hand back. “Just . . . stay.”

Ogden was released the next morning. Bacchus used his own funds to hire the carriage back to Brookley. Their parting had been so bleary, so sleep deprived, that Elsie could barely remember it. But it had gone . . . well. She would be content if not for the myriad questions still plaguing her. How would they explain this to Emmeline? She and Ogden would have to work on their story together.

After she got answers.

Elsie waited only long enough for the horses to pull forward before she said, “I need to know what that spell was.”

Ogden, who looked haggard, rested his head in his hands. “A spiritual spell. I don’t know how it works. You would think mind control would be rational, but this was more than that. It went deeper.”

“Who was controlling you?” Elsie ignored a bump in the road that jarred the carriage.

His hands looked limp between his knees. “I don’t remember. He didn’t want to be known. But it’s been . . . a decade, Elsie. I can’t remember exactly . . . The aspector didn’t want me to know. It’s mud. But.” He hesitated and looked at her.

Her heart cracked down the middle. “But it must have happened when I entered your life.”

The American’s words whispered inside her head, You’re a pawn.

He nodded, looking sick. “Elsie, the spell was there, but he couldn’t control every aspect of my life. He couldn’t control my thoughts. I think of you as a daughter. I . . .” He swallowed, and Elsie pinched herself so she could focus on a physical pain rather than the anguish blooming inside her. “I was hiring. He must have noticed me after I took you on . . . then realized what I was.”

“A rational aspector,” Elsie said, then cleared the forming lump from her throat. “A master rational aspector.”

He nodded. “I was very careful with my spells. I made you think the drops only glowed