Page 216 of Tale of the Heart Queen

I tip my head back and laugh. “I think it could use a few interruptions.”

She stretches up onto her tiptoes and kisses me. “Well then . . . that sounds like something I could do.”

I smile at her, and then I, too, am finally content.

CHAPTER 76

NADIR

THE AURORA

Istand outside the gates of Nostraza, staring up at the forbidding entrance that was the beginning of the end for so many people. I regret everything about this place. Even if Lor hadn’t found her way into my life, I’d still regret everything. I’m just grateful she helped open my eyes before any more found their way into the jaws of this beast.

“Nadir,” Amya says, and my attention moves to her. She gestures me to the opening, where Mael, Willow, and Tristan wait with her. “Come on.”

I inhale a deep breath and enter, thinking about the last time I was here when I’d been sent to investigate Lor’s disappearance. I remember dropping into that hole where they’d left her and picking up her scent. I hadn’t met her yet, but she was already a memory I couldn’t touch. Though I can’t say why, I think I knew even then that everything was about to change. I had no idea just how much.

Willow and Amya clasp hands and walk ahead of us. The rest of us follow behind as our footsteps echo in the hollow silence.

When we returned to The Aurora, we announced my father’s death. The reaction was mixed, but he didn’t have many friends, and it felt more like a sigh of relief than one of mourning. I went straight to my mother’s wing in the Keep, and as I expected, she was gone. Only a memory left. I stood in the silence of her room, staring out across the view that was her only companion for so many years. With my forehead pressed to the cool glass, I allowed myself a moment to grieve. To remember that final conversation we had when she found the strength to talk to us for the last time.

Our relationship was far from ideal, but I refuse to blame her for any of it. I’m now an ascended king and one day, I will see her again. Anemone suspects that because my father was lost to the Underworld, there’s a good chance he did not make it to the Evanescence, and I like the idea of her being free of him forever.

That moment when he helped us might have been his lowest point. Something drove him to dig into the recesses of his compassion, and I’ll have to live with never knowing what. But despite that, he never deserved the Evanescence. He never deserved any of us.

I stop in the middle of the large foyer where prisoners were admitted into Nostraza’s walls. I see the hall where I was taken to search the records for prisoner 3342. My gaze meets my sister’s, and we hold it before we look away.

Also on our return, Amya ascended, and I couldn’t have been prouder as I watched her hold the Torch while it welcomed her as the new queen. Wearing a long black dress, the skirt slashed with bright colors to mimic the streaks in her hair, she looked exactly the part.

After it was official, Amya’s first order of business was to close down Nostraza. The cells were cleared out of every inmate, and they were moved to housing in the districts where they’re being set up with programs to help them rehabilitate and start new lives. Never again will we abandon our people when they need us.

Each of the guards that worked here has been sequestered and will be tried for their actions. Those found guilty of inhumane conduct will be executed without mercy. I’ll never forgive myself for what they did to Lor, her siblings, or anyone else they hurt. I think of the warden who showed me the prison records and the way I took his life. I refuse to feel bad about that either.

We continue walking, surrounded by dark stone, the drip of water echoing in the distance. I remember the screams and the torment that used to fill these halls.

Lor had planned to be here too before we tore it down but claimed her duties in Heart were keeping her there for an extra few days. Thanks to a generous infusion of gold from The Aurora, as well as the other realms, we’ve been hard at work putting the pieces of our queendom back together.

Even though she didn’t come out and say it, I think she didn’t really want to see it again.

She’s told me enough times that she never wants to see this place again.

“You okay?” Amya gently asks Willow, who looks around the empty space.

“I . . . think so,” she answers, and Amya draws her closer as Willow’s head rests on her shoulder.

After discovering she has a powerful vein of healing magic, Willow has also been charting her own path, setting up sites inside Heart and throughout the rest of Ouranos where anyone can come for healing whenever they need. Her goal is to make sure every person on the continent can access help. She’s also very close to discovering a cure for the Withering.

Tristan and I share a look. After the events with Herric and the Empyrium, he forgave me for everything that happened. I’ve gained a second brother alongside Mael, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

“I wondered how I’d feel seeing it again,” Tristan says as Amya and Willow look back at him. He stares around us, his expression contemplative.

“And?” Willow asks.

He pulls his gaze away from the high stone ceiling.

“I feel strangely at peace,” he says. “The man responsible is gone. We saw our parents one more time, and I forgave them for everything. Plus, all of us are destined for so much more. I never thought we were ever getting out of here.”

Willow nods. “I feel the same.”