Prelude

Lief had long given up on finding the one true love potion. Thus, the possibility suddenly being presented to him now had him slightly rattled. He needed to take a breather and think things through. So he did. He stayed put in his castle for a while. He stopped following Aine Darien, and regardless of how many times Cheddar’s eyes turned red, he never answered to the Book’s summons.

It seemed Aine knew he was following her. That was not a problem. She knew he was after her love potion. That was the problem. But his hearts were limited. He did not know if they would last long enough for Aine to successfully make the one true love potion. That was the bigger problem. Should he just wait it out? Just continue to watch Aine from afar until she manage to make the true love potion? But what if he failed to get it? What if he missed out? In the first place, what did ‘can be made perfectly only once’ even mean?

Lief thought long and hard about what to do next. He spent sleepless nights. He exhausted his brain. Days passed. Days turned to weeks. After all the time spent thinking, Lief couldn’t help but berate himself for reaching the most ridiculous conclusion.

***

“He hasn’t been coming.” Aine frowned. Her head rested on her palm as she continued to glare at nothing. “Did that note scare him? What a wuss.” She slammed her hand on the table, causing some of the glass bottles and utensils to jump. She had been spending the past days merely sitting idle in her workshop. She could not bring herself to brew potions anymore. “And it’s definitely not because of him,” she told herself, through gritted teeth. In truth, she had spent the previous weeks constantly brewing love potions, not only for her experiments with her suitors, but just in case he’d show up. “That punk! If he dares to appear once more, I promise I’ll throw more than a canteen this time. I swear next time I’ll bring knives. And grenades!” She clenched her fists, throwing them in the air. “God, he is soooo…”

Then came a knock on the door. “Miss,” Mila’s voice called. “Lady Odette wishes to see you.”