Page 180 of Tale of the Heart Queen

“I could kill him right now if you like. Shall I send our mutual friend here to retrieve another family member to motivate you, perhaps?” He gestures to Rion, who still sits in his cage, glaring at everyone.

Anger swells up my throat. “If you touch m—”

“Shh,” he says, flinging a hand at me. My voice cuts off, and I try to speak, but no sound comes out. My jaw works uselessly, searching for the syllables. “Just for fun, let’s say that if you want me to return the ark, then he must also survive. So . . . you know, good luck with that.”

My mouth opens to silence when I scream, so I settle for uselessly rattling the bars.

“These are my conditions. Do we have an agreement? Nod to say yes.”

I stare around the cavern as my magic sparks. I stare at thousands of faces of the dead, who sneer up at me with teeth and claws sharpened with malice. How far will we get if we try to fight our way out? Tears burn in my eyes.

“Lor!” Nadir shouts, and my gaze darts to him.

Herric rolls his eyes. “Not you too.” With another flick of his hand, Nadir’s voice slices off as he flies back, slamming into the wall of his cage, which swings with an ominous squeak. I try to leap for him, but of course it’s no use.

“And just to show you what a truly fine gentleman I am, I’ll even do this.”

He waves his hand, and I’m engulfed in smoke. When it clears, I’m no longer wearing my tattered red dress but rather a leather suit much like Herric’s, with a fitted jacket and pants that conform to my skin. The long sleeves go past my wrists, and the collar covers my throat. Black boots finish the ensemble. Nadir is now clothed in a similar fashion as well.

“That’s better,” Herric says. “I do like it when everyone looks the part when visiting my court.”

Then he gives me a wicked smile before he spins around.

“Enjoy your stay in the Underworld, Heart Queen.”

A black cape materializes on his back, and he runs across the dais before swinging around and tossing it with a flourish. Then he spreads his arms and declares, “Let the game begin!”

CHAPTER 63

GABRIEL

APHELION—THE SUN PALACE

Istand with my brothers, forming a circle in the throne room with Tyr at the center. We’re all shirtless, our bodies honed from decades of training, the golden tattoos on our necks exposed to reveal the glittering sinuous lines curving over our collarbones.

The Mirror sits uncovered, reflecting sunlight streaming through the open ceiling. We cleaned up the dome’s shattered glass but have yet to repair it. Add it to my endless list of shit to deal with. It isn’t raining for the first time in what feels like forever, and I tip my face up, closing my eyes, basking in the rays of the sun.

Hylene and Erevan wait in the corner, but no one else was invited to witness this moment. It’s too private. Too raw to expose to anyone but the people we trust the most.

The scuff of a boot draws my attention to Tyr, who clutches the ark in his hands. He’s looking at me, scanning my body from head to toe. I can’t decide what I read in his expression. It straddles so many lines—regret, sadness, conviction. What’s going through his head?

“The Mirror will assist,” Tyr says. “I have studied how to release you—”

His words cut off as he sucks in a breath that rattles in his chest, clutching the ark in his thin hands.

“I’m sorry,” he says in a hoarse whisper. “I’m sorry for all the pain I caused and for ever tying you to my will in the first place. I was young and entitled, drunk on what I believed was my right to power, confident I had every right as your king. I regret that it was only through my brother’s actions that I finally saw the light and the error of my ways. Had he not imprisoned me and used you against me, then we might have lived like this until the end of my days.”

He studies each of us in turn, his gaze unwavering. He isn’t asking for our forgiveness. He’s looking each of us in the eye and admitting his mistakes.

I watch my brothers as Tyr seems to have a silent conversation with each of us, their expressions a mixture of acceptance and resolve. Tyr’s gaze lingers on the scars that cover our arms and chests—the markings left by Atlas when he punished us for our defiance. I try not to look too hard. For so many years, I’ve tried not to look too hard. I also try not to notice that mine are the worst—that I paid this price so dearly in more ways than one.

“And even if I’d like to think I would never have done what my brother did, it is no excuse,” Tyr continues before he swallows. “What I did is unforgivable. What every ruler of Aphelion has done to their warders is unforgivable and a stain that will live on in our history forever. I do not ask for your absolution, only that you hear how much I regret every single day, and I’d do anything to start at the beginning of my rule when I would make so many different choices.”

When his gaze finds me again, tears shimmer in his eyes. As he says these words, I begin to understand what I should have known from the beginning. No matter what we might have felt for one another, he would always have been a king, and I would always have been his servant. We could never have been anything else.

There is too much pain and too much memory. Too much to overcome anyway.

Though he isn’t asking for it, I do forgive him. If only for my own peace of mind. If only because I deserve it.