Page 203 of Tale of the Heart Queen

The dogs howl, and the sound echoes a mournful cry against layers of stone. They deliver us up and up through the mountain and its winding tunnels, ferrying us to safety.

Billowing clouds of dust chase our heels until we burst out of the mountain and race along a blanket of glittering snow under a canopy of stars and the rippling lights of an Aurora sky.

CHAPTER 72

The dogs slow to a stop, and I slide off Morana’s back, falling onto the snow to press my forehead to the cool surface. My mind spins, struggling to comprehend the scale of what we just experienced. For several long seconds, I spiral into the tumbling void of my thoughts, trying to arrange the pieces back into place.

When I feel like I can breathe again, I drag myself over to Nadir and throw myself on top of him, thinking of the look on his face when his father tossed me the ark and that last moment before the Aurora King was lost to us forever. I spent so many years plotting his death, imagining the day I’d get my revenge. But now that he’s gone, I don’t feel the relief I expected. I just feel hollow.

“Are you okay?” I ask, framing his face with my hands. Nadir spent even longer than I did seeking retribution against Rion, and I wonder if he also feels this same yawning emptiness.

“He’s gone,” Nadir says as if he’s testing the words for their truth. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

He blinks and meets my gaze.

“It’s okay to feel conflicted right now,” I say. “He was still your father, no matter what happened.”

He shakes his head. “He helped us in the end,” he says, his brow furrowing. “Why did he do that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe . . . he found a sliver of something redeemable in his heart.”

His hands come to my waist, squeezing it.

“He said he was sorry,” Nadir says, his tone edged with disbelief. “Do you think he meant that?”

I consider his question. I doubt Rion was sorry about the things he did to me and my family, but I’m finally okay with that. Not because I forgive him, but because it’s time to let this go. He’s gone, and he can never hurt us again.

Nadir got the apology he deserved, which is more important in the end.

“I think he did,” I say. “Maybe he finally understood everything he missed when he abandoned you and your mother. Maybe even the worst of us can still find redemption when faced with the final seconds of our mortality.”

“It still doesn’t excuse anything he did,” Nadir says, sweeping a piece of my hair back. “Everything he did to you.”

“Of course it doesn’t, but it’s over now.”

He runs a hand down his face and sighs.

“What are you thinking?” I ask.

“Why couldn’t he have tried to become that person sooner? We could have tried to forgive each other. Maybe none of this would have happened.”

“Often those moments come only when it’s too late. But it did come. Maybe you can take comfort in that.”

He wraps his arms around me and buries his face into the curve of my throat as we cling to one another on the windswept mountaintop.

“Did you see that woman he was talking to?” he asks, and I nod.

“Do you know who she was?”

He shakes his head. “I wondered if she was the woman he was in love with. The one he was trying to make jealous when he met my mother.”

“Maybe she had something to do with it?”

He gives me a bemused look. “Maybe.”

The wind gusts, tossing our hair as it knifes through our ripped clothing. Finally, I roll off him, and we sit up. Scanning our surroundings, I have no idea where we’ve ended up. We didn’t exit the same path we entered. I wonder if the others are still looking for us below. We need to find them.

But first there is something I must do.