Page 97 of A Fate In Moonstone

I closed my eyes and raised an altar from the palace’s stone floors for Nyx to rest on beneath the skylight. Even if she wasn’t aware, she’d have a view of the sky while she waited for me. It was pretty enough but stable. Desmire would cover the top of the stone with onyx, so she’d be completely sealed inside his crystal.

Mother pulled Nyx aside and handed her two vials. “Celestine gave me these. It’s a sedative to induce a coma. You will be alive, but in a sleeplike state until the onyx is opened again. After we give you Sapphira’s core, drink them and rest.

Desmire stepped into my view and tears threatened to appear.

“I’m sorry we didn’t have more time.” I met my father’s gaze. He looked like me with the same light brown skin and wild brown hair. His smoky silver eyes were brought to life with the smile on his face. Little laugh lines creased above his cheeks. He was tall and broad unlike the man who had raised me. He was the warrior my mother always loved . . . her mate. She had drawn the tattoos on his face in a moment of peace between them.

I wanted to believe Rune and I would have ended up better than them. Better than this. She had gone on to marry Verin to protect our lands and sired me with Desmire. He was the father I never got to experience.

“We will. This is not our end. And when you return, my daughter, we will fight together.”

I managed to hold back my tears. My mother touched my shoulder, and I knew our final moment had come.

“I will come back for you,” I promised her.

“You will be a great queen . . . loved and fiercer than I ever could have been. The warrior spirit in you cannot be broken. You will fight, and there will be nothing that can stop you.” She pulled me in for a hug. Her shoulders shook with emotion in my embrace. My father wrapped his arms around us, and despite what was to come, I knew all would be okay.

“Mariam will keep you safe from now on. Trust your gut no matter what, and don’t cause too much trouble.” My mother released her grasp around me and stood at the altar where Nyx waited in her purple dress for her final task.

The darkness was coming, and this was the only way.

With my hands clasped in my parents, we released our magic one last time.

They were giving my body a little push to make it through the transition, to help with the pain. I dropped their hands and went for it.

No hesitation. No doubt. I lifted the dagger and shoved the tip into the flesh of my chest. The pain rattled against my sternum, before I inhaled and pulled the blade to the left.

Chapter Fifty-Four

Blinding light flashed over my vision, and I should have crumbled but strong arms kept me upright.

I heard my mother’s voice asking if she should do it, but that wasn’t how the experiment worked. The patient had to be the one, had to guide the dagger down the left side, and feel the pull of their core’s magic to gather and push it down to their palm.

The ground shook, and I screamed, as pain unlike anything I’ve experienced before burned inside me.

“Her veins are glowing!” someone said.

But I wasn’t there in the throne room. I was somewhere else, looking at the veins before me. They were glowing but they weren’t on a body, and they weren’t mine.

Male hands pressed against a thin membrane where darkness crept up… what was this?

Thump.

The membrane turned red, and more darkness spread like a spider’s web then glowed.

Verin’s voice echoed, “I am master of the Heart Tree.”

Then I was back in the throne room, the ground shaking, the pain and blood dripping down my collarbone as the tip dug into my shoulder.

“Keep going, Sapphira. Don’t let him win,” someone said and Verin’s snarl rippled through my head.

“Shut up, voices. Fuck, shut up,” I cried and the power inside me followed the dagger like a magnet. Sharp and slicing through me as it moved from my toes, my fingers, the top of my head. Receding in the most bloodcurdling way possible.

Screams came from outside the palace as the whole palace continued to tremble.

“The sky’s red. That can’t be good.” Nyx’s voice sounded so far away as I blinked to shut out the light from that damned skylight.

Scents of earth, and water hit my senses and I was back in that place in my head with Verin and the glowing…