Page 79 of Trapped By Clocks and Hearts

Whirling around to cover Allie with my body, I conjured a deflective barrier to protect us.

Still half-squeezing her eyes shut, Allie tugged on my shirt. “I was trying to tell you before. She’s only powerful because of your heart.”

Eyes narrowing, I nodded. My gaze drifted up to the shelf where the Heartlamp held my coeur. The Queen had been using and abusing the power of my Heartfire ember all this time.

To end her tyranny, I had to destroy my Heartfire ember.

The Queen caught the focus of my gaze almost too late.

As soon as I raised my hand to summon the Heartlamp, the Queen let out a cry and waved her hand to do the same. A brilliant arc of crackling light shot between our hands as we both tried to retrieve the Heartlamp.

Groaning in the strain, my boots slid back on the floor as I struggled to hold my stance. The Queen’s power, amplified by my coeur, was too formidable.

Without warning, Allie shot out from behind me. Letting out a savage growl, she leaped onto the Queen’s back again. But the Queen was more alert this time. With another wave, Allie’s body whipped upward and was clutched in the Queen’s invisible hand, to dangle in mid-air as she choked for breath.

All at once, my throat constricted too. My hold on the Heartlamp wavered as I clutched at my neck.

The Queen cackled again. “See what happens when you feel too much?”

Allie’s eyes fluttered closed as she started to suffocate in the Queen’s python grip.

Allie! My entire being cried out for her. Collapsing to one knee, I swallowed hard. The Queen was going to take someone else I loved. I would be alone again. No…

Feelings make us stronger. Feelings help us endure.

I once had a family who loved me. I wasn’t alone. I also had Allie and the strength in her heart was all I needed.

Every nerve in my body strained as I pushed back up. I only had one chance left but I was going to have to use all of my magic for this to work. With an agonized cry, I let the Heartlamp go and summoned a massive ball of energy to hurl at the Queen. The sheer force of it threw me backward.

The Queen screeched in alarm but with both her hands occupied, she couldn’t protect herself from my spell. Tumbling backward, her skirts in her face, the Queen’s grip on both Allie and the Heartlamp faltered.

Allie fell to the floor, coughing to regain her breath.

The Heartlamp sailed down and crashed as the brittle glass pieces snapped and splintered across the floor on impact, ringing cracks reverberating in the air. A sharp gust of wind blew through the courtroom chambers, accompanying the tinkling shatter.

The brilliance of the exposed, burning coeur on the floor a few feet away filled Allie’s wide eyes. She scrambled closer.

“No!” The Queen’s eyes widened in alarm and from across the room, she threw a spell to keep the Heartfire ember from Allie’s grasp, but the spell merely bounced off.

My burning heart blazed wild, fierce, but Allie showed no hesitation as she picked it up.

“You little—” The Queen stalked toward Allie, red eyes filling with a terrifying menace.

Allie jerked in alarm at her approach. Her eyes darted around for two seconds as if at odds what to do. She couldn’t toss the ember over to me. If she dallied any longer, the Queen would regain control of my heart.

Allie clenched her jaw in determination before slamming the burning heart inside her chest. She cried out a gasp at the force.

The Queen of Hearts’s source of power was gone.

“No…no…” The Queen stepped back. Shaking all over, she stumbled over her long skirt and collapsed against the steps leading up to the raised podium. “It can’t be. It can’t be. You shouldn’t be able to.” Her eyes widened but she could only watch as Allie’s hunched form glowed blindingly bright.

Chains of light streaked through the air as crackling electricity filled the courtroom. With a massive shockwave of energy, a burst of magic surged from the coeur and whipped across the room like a gale-force wind.

The shockwave of power shunting through me, I almost tumbled over where I lay.

Allie straightened up, her figure still glowing. Her eyes mere bright slits, she approached the Queen of Hearts who was writhing on the floor from some unseen torture. She glared down at the Queen. “You are so not amusing.”

The Queen screamed in terror as her magical essence drained, sucked away by the Heartfire ember in Allie. Her figure seemed to blur and fade, her screams fainter, bit by bit, until no one could hear her cries any longer, and the slumped body on the floor disintegrated into nothingness.