Page 129 of Tale of the Heart Queen

His breath hitched at those words. Was this what had happened to Herric?

“How? I don’t understand.”

I pushed too far. I continued to dig and dig until, one day, it became too much. I was trapped, forced to remain here at the bottom of the world amongst the souls of the dead, where I rule without challenge.

“How did you become the lord?” Rion asked, and Herric chuckled.

What a very predictable question.

Rion pressed his lips together in annoyance at the condescension in Herric’s tone.

I am the only living being on this plane. I claimed this crown when I lost my own. My nephew Elias had already been named Primary and took over in my stead, burying the truth about me.

“He’s the one inside the Torch?”

He is.

“How are you speaking to me then?”

There are many things I can do, Rion. Things your mind cannot even begin to comprehend. But I grow tired of this place. It is dead. I want to feel sunlight on my face. The wind in my hair. I want to see the aurora lights in the sky. It’s been so long.

“And what do you want from me?” Rion asked as a warning pricked up the back of his neck. Why was Herric contacting him now?

Find me the ark of Heart. You’ve read my journals—do you understand what they are?

“How am I supposed to do that? The arks are all hidden. Or gone.”

Use the Primary.

“There is no Primary,” Rion said, though at that moment, he realized that probably wasn’t true.

There is. The magic of Heart still lives deep in the earth.

“Where do I look?” Rion asked as thoughts cycled through his head. The prisoner was dead, or so he presumed, which meant the Primary might be someone else. The brother was of Woodlands magic, and the sister had no power of which to speak. Perhaps he’d have to hunt through the settlements searching for the Primary. The old magic of Heart had always followed through the female line.

That is what you must discover.

“What if I could find the ark without the heir?”

It’s possible. However, I still require the Primary to use it.

“Use it how?”

There is great magic inside the ark of Heart. Amara was the strongest of us. And after I’m done with the heir, you can kill her, and the people of Heart will die. Only then will the land stop fighting you.

Rion chewed on those words. “And what do I get in exchange for all of this? Freeing the Lord of the Underworld?”

Herric chuckled again, the sound like chains dragging over stone.

Why stop at Heart? You seek a source of the most powerful virulence in existence, and I am surrounded by it. You want to use it and learn to control it. You want to know everything it is capable of.

I can teach you, King Rion of The Aurora. I can show you where I failed.

I can give you everything.

CHAPTER 47

LOR