Chapter 22
Gustavo stroked his moustache. “That is the power of a binding vow. Break it by force, and you’ll face endless trouble. After your fates are bound together, your fortunes become one.”
He gave Valerie a meaningful look. “You know what this entails, don’t you? You’re a fellow practitioner, after all.”
Having been in this circle for years, Gustavo could tell at a glance that Valerie was no ordinary person. Her level of mastery was masked so’completely that he couldn’t detect it.
Valerie had heard of binding vows, but she never thought Magnus would place such a spell on
her.
“Is there any way to undo it?” Lucius asked.
Gustavo smiled knowingly. “The continuation of your bloodline might break the deadlock or create a way to dissolve the binding vow.”
The continuation of their bloodline? Did he mean they had to have a child together?
Lucius and Valerie were at a loss for words. Keane, who had been watching the drama unfold, was flabbergasted as well.
After Gustavo left, the room fell quiet again.
Lucius broke the silence and looked at Valerie. “What do you have in mind?”
Valerie stopped twirling her pen. “There is a possible solution.”
“Let’s hear it,” he said.
“The night before last, I stayed up all night, and nothing weird happened the next day. That means as long as we don’t fall asleep at the same time, we can stay out of each other’s way.”
Keane mimed sealing his lips.
“It sounds reasonable, but one of us will end up living on a reversed schedule.”
Valerie glanced at him. “Why don’t you take one for the team?”
Lucius let out a mirthless chuckle. “Even if my dad was in your dad’s debt, he could have repaid it another way. There was no reason to drag my marriage into it. Besides, no one asked for my opinion in the first place.”
Valerie had to admit that Lucius had been roped into this mess.
All of a sudden, she remembered something Magnus had told her when she was a child. Her path was shadowed by misfortune, and she needed to marry someone whose birth date and
time were special to offset those dangers.
Many years had gone by, and she had long forgotten those words. The memory resurfaced
after she met Gustavo.
Was Lucius the one Magnus had chosen for her? Feeling a sudden pang of guilt, she asked, ” Why don’t you come up with a better idea?”
Lucius answered calmly, “Let’s move in together.”
As the witness to this bizarre incident, Keane was put in charge of helping Valerie move in.
Even now, he still felt as if he were floating. Looking back on everything that had happened recently, he couldn’t help but feel like the world was a little magical.
When he arrived at Valerie’s place to help with the move, he saw her carrying a light suitcase. What’s this, Ms. Collins?”
Valerie locked the door behind her. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”
Looking at his face, her brows drew together. While he wasn’t looking, she made a quick calculation and sensed something.
Her small gesture went unnoticed by Keane. “Ms. Collins, are you only taking one suitcase?”
“I’m just changing a place to sleep. I don’t have to move the whole house,” she responded matter-of-factly.
Besides, she hadn’t canceled the lease. Valerie wanted to leave herself an escape route, just in case things didn’t work out.
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