The Heart's Content

Chapter 105

Rosie slipped Alastor a drug that would keep him out cold for some time but for how long she couldn't say. Then the next morning she told Beth and Angel about the shard in his eye and the effects on him. These news them feeling both frightened and relieved.

"I knew it." Beth said. "I knew something had to be wrong, even if Charlie being a mermaid did freak him out, he wouldn't have been that cruel. Still, what's going to happen to him?"

"I'm afraid he's only going to get cold-hearted with each hour, until his frozen heart shatters and there's no love or goodness left for him to feel." Rosie said.

"Well can you help him? There has to be some way to undo this right?"

"There is, but it's awfully difficult. The only way to dislodge the shard from the victim's eye is for them to cry and to do that you have to thaw their frozen heart in order for them to feel a sadness that strong."

"Okay, so how do we thaw his heart?"

"Would that tea help?" Angel asked.

"No. The tea is not strong enough, not in a case like this. You need something much stronger than heat itself."

"Like what?"

"You have to appeal to his heart. Reach it with something so important and dear to him, that not even the ice trapping his heart can keep it from getting in."

"But we don't know what that is."

"I know and that's what makes it so difficult. It's very hard to know the inner workings and contents of another person's heart. At times even impossible."

"Maybe not in our case." Beth said. "Come on, we all know Alastor, I'm sure we can figure out what makes him tick and how to reach him. Now let's think here, what does he cherish most? What makes him happier than anything else in the world?"

"Cajun cooking?" Angel suggested.

"No, that won't work." Rosie dismissed.

"Old fashioned technology?"

"No."

"Good entertainment?"

"No."

"The suffering of people who have it coming?"

"No."

"Bad jokes?"

"No!" Rosie dismissed. "It can't be something simple or material or just whatever amuses him.  It has to be something meaningful."

"What about music?" Beth said. "That's his greatest passion and I don't think any force on earth could get to give that up completely."

"Too easy. We live in Louisiana, music is all around here. It's a way of life and Valentino knows it. There's no way he would have put that shard in Alastor's eye if a simple song could break it's spell."

"But what about special song?" Beth theorized as she recalled last night's events. "When Alastor came to get me, for a moment he looked like his old self again. He looked like he might have been close to snapping out of it and we just happened to have been singing Mom's favorite song when that happened. Maybe that's it! A song from the heart."

She thought for a minute and then had a eureka moment.

"I've got it! We have to get him to hear Charlie sing!"

"How will that work?" Angel asked.

"Music is everything to Charlie, it's not just a hobby, it's her life, it's who she is. Any song she sings comes straight from her heart and if I know Alastor's heart, he won't be able to resist."