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Odette situated her hand near her chest with her fingers flexed. As I watched, the skin shimmered, and the emerald silks over her bosom rippled. I gasped. She gave an amused smile. She left her hand there for a second before a transparent structure, similar in shape to my own heart, emerged from her chest.
She held her heart in her hands.
“Our hearts are made of glass. They are breakable. When we experience heartbreak, it literally cracks our hearts, and you can see the places where a fae has experienced pain. See?”
I stood to gape. Her chest showed no mark of what had just been torn from it, even the fabric of her dress was unscathed. The slightly pulsing heart had tiny cracks in two places.
“What are these from?” I hovered my finger over one.
Talen turned away as Odette peeked at him. “It was a long time ago. The cracks no longer hurt to touch.” She pushed her heart back into her chest. “Only one fae has ever experienced heartbreak so bad that it shattered his heart and he became mortal. Almost as rare is a grown fae with a heart that has no cracks.”
My jaw dropped, and Odette nodded. “That is why Bastian is so dangerous. A fae without a crack in his heart.”
The pedestal beside his throne made sense now. It was his heart on display for all to see. He wore his lack of pain as a trophy for the realm to witness, proof of his inability to be broken by love.
“Many girls have tried to crack him,” Odette added.
I blinked. “They try to break it?”
She gave me a knowing look. “Wouldn’t you? To be the girl to make Bastian feel something would bring you clout like nothing else could. The whole realm would be after your heart to see what made it so special that it was worth cracking his.”
I had to admit the lure was there to be the girl to accomplish what none other could, but it was in conflict of my mission here, so I shook my head. “I’m sad I won’t be here to see that happen.”
Odette’s eye stayed on me. “We shall see.”
Talen buttoned his coat. “I must go,” he said abruptly. “I’ll escort you to Brock’s gala next week.” He strode from the room without a second look, leaving an echo of footsteps in his wake to tell the tale he wouldn’t.
I looked at Odette. “Talen cracked your heart, didn’t he?”
There was a pause before she answered. “He did. He was my first love, and I thought he’d be my last. But we were young then and had no rank in the realm, and Talen wanted more. He got it. Representative for the entire House of Delvers. He ranks above the lords.”
She stared into the fire as she spoke, as if the tale was one for the flames and not me. Flecks of smoke rose to take her words with them, and she kept gazing long after she finished. I didn’t get the details, but I heard the important bit. Talen wanted more, and he got it. But from the look in his eyes when she came in the room, he’d lost what he most treasured after all.
“For what it’s worth, I think he’s sorry,” I said.
Her smile was sad. “I know he is. He’s asked for me to come back many times, but I can’t bear it. I wasn’t good enough for him the first time. I can’t expect him to remember my worth the second time.”
It was noble, but my heart ached for them both.
She relaxed in her seat. “Like I said, it was a long time ago.”
But she wiped a tear from her cheek, proving some heartbreaks can always resurface, no matter how buried they seem. Perhaps Bash was the lucky one after all, not letting his heart be cracked.
There it was again, the low stir inside to be the one he fell for.
You are using him, I reminded myself. You would let him die to save future mortal girls. But the mantra was harder to believe now. You cannot have him, no matter which way this ends.
“There is one thing you should know.” Odette’s voice summoned my thoughts back. “Some hearts like mine aren’t valuable to others. Some, like Bastian’s, are valuable enough to be enchanted so no one else can touch them. And some hearts are bargained with.”
I tried to guess who would bargain with their heart before Odette told me, but I couldn’t. “That is how Talen reduced your sentence from six months to three.” My own heart plunged to my feet.
“What?”
Talen gave up much more than he should have for me, and I hadn’t even bothered to thank him properly for it. What he lost was far more valuable than three months.
“Talen gave his heart to Brock for seven years. At any point during those seven years, Brock could crush it with his hand, and he’d be dead.”
I might throw up. Odette reached out and laid a hand over mine. “Please, don’t let Talen down.”
