Page 96 of Tale of the Heart Queen

LOR

APHELION—PRESENT DAY

The next morning, I’m having breakfast with Nadir, Willow, Mael, and Amya in a Sun Palace suite. Gabriel said we are welcome to stay as long as we need. Hearing that we were back in the city, Nerissa also arrived last night. I sit on the edge of the bed with Nadir while the others find chairs around the room.

I feel a certain way about sitting here in this gilded castle, surrounded by guards, while the citizens of Aphelion battle in the streets, but right now, this can’t be our fight. I can’t lose sight of the fact that the Aurora King is up to something nefarious and that the world around us is crumbling.

My magic is back, which means that I must once again confront the Heart Crown.

Tristan knocks on the door and enters with his pack in his hand. He places it on a table in front of the large fireplace, and we all watch him pull out a bundle of fabric and unwrap it, revealing the Crown.

When we made the trek back to Aphelion, Tristan shared that he had it with him. I nearly broke down in relief at discovering it hadn’t landed in Rion’s hands after all.

“I can’t believe you carried it with you,” I say. “What if something had happened to it?”

“We thought you might need it,” Willow answers.

“It was safer with us than here,” Mael adds.

I nod because they’re probably both right.

“Besides,” Tristan adds as he holds it up. “I think it actually led us to you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t explain it exactly, other than I kept having a sixth sense of what direction to go. And then . . . we found you. I think it was trying to get back to you.”

The Crown sparkles in the sunlight filtering through the windows. The red jewel is so deep and vibrant that it’s almost hard to look at.

I feel its presence immediately.

It looks different because it is different. I am different.

“It’s awake,” I whisper.

Nadir lays his hand on my knee. “Lor?”

“I can feel it.”

I press my hand to my chest, thinking of the way it called to me in the Heart Castle with that thrumming vibration in my bones. I felt it the whole way back to Aphelion while it sat in Tristan’s pack traveling next to me, but I asked him not to show it to me yet because I wasn’t ready to face the disappointment if it still refused to acknowledge me.

The feeling has shifted, too. It’s brighter and clearer. Much like my magic, it was muted, but now it glows with the full force of its brilliance.

“It’s definitely awake,” I say again, and Tristan gives me a look that tells me he understands what I’m going through. I think he might be the only person in the world who truly does.

“Then you need to talk to it,” he says, holding it out to me.

I place my cup of tea on the side table and wipe my palms on my thighs before I reach out and accept it with both hands. The moment my fingers touch the cool metal, a surge of lightning twitches under my skin.

This is nothing like my connection with the other Artefacts.

This Crown is a part of who I am.

Nadir wraps an arm around my shoulders.

“Take your time,” he says, but I shake my head.

“I . . . don’t want to. I’ve been waiting for this for so long.”