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“Don’t!” I hear Shenra shout. “You’ll save the king too.”
She tries to pull me away, but Dusk grabs her and pulls her away. I turn away from them as she continues to fight him, and focus my golden light on the man in front of me. Knowing that the second Rayne is free, I’ll kill him myself.
But nothing happens.
My light doesn’t bring him back. Doesn’t heal him.
“Maybe your magic doesn’t work that way,” Dusk says gently behind me, his voice filled with heartbreak. “Maybe once they’re gone, they’re gone.”
I pull my hand away and scream and scream. “What the fuck is this?” I shout to the dark world. “You said I was prophesied to save the world! How can I save anything if I can’t save them?” But I’m not done, I keep screaming into the silence. Demanding answers, even though it feels pointless.
And then that voice, the one I feel weaved with my magic says, “Use the shards. The shards are power.” It’s a soft whisper in my mind, like the wind. It makes no sense, and yet, I have nothing else. No other options.
Dusk brings Phantom, laying him down beside the Shadow King. I think he intends to make it easier to mourn, but instead, I focus on the two bloody shards on the ground, broken into pieces. I lift my hand and call my magic to me, and to my shock, the shards fly from the ground, then stop just inches from my hand.
Power flows me. I wonder if it’s the power the Shadow King felt. That intoxicated him, because it is intoxicating to me. Like a drug. It rushes into my system, making my heart pump wildly, and yet, I know it’s not enough.
Gritting my teeth, I call for the other shards. Iorderthem to come to me, and the Shadow King’s jacket opens. A small box emerges from it, floating in the air, and the top opens in a rush. Dozens of shards explode from it and join the ones hovering above my hand.
I’m sweating. Overwhelmed. The power radiating from them is mind-numbing.
But I know it’s not enough. For what, I’m not sure, but I call for more. I command them to come to me. I’m their queen. I tell them that I’m the woman of prophecy, and theywillobey me. Theywilldo as I say.
Standing, I feel my body trembling, but not from exhausting, from the power. The power before me and power coming to me. From out of the Void, brilliant blue glowing light, almost like stars, shoot toward us. A world’s worth of power. The strength to conquer anyone and anything.
“What the hell?” Dusk mutters.
Shenra whispers, “May the goddess forgive us.”
But I ignore them both. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I know I need to do it. The shards shoot toward my hand, then stop, just as the others did. Together their light is incredible. Truly like staring into the sun, or the moon if it was inches from you. And yet, I don’t look away. I can’t look away. The shards are changing, forming.
And… they become a heart. A heart of glass. A heart as large as a boulder, glinting and radiating with that incredible blue light. I can feel the energy coming off of it. Feel it calling to me.
Around us, plants spring from the dead ground. Pale green vines that cover the land as far as I can see, and then blue flowers grow, open, and begin radiating more light, changing the world before my eyes.
Yet, it’s not done. The heart begins to spin in front of me, and I know what it wants. I know its place is in the sky, and yet the power calls to me. It promises me that with it, I could save my men, that I could bring them back.
With this heart, I would be able to erase the pain of all that my stepfather did to me. I could erase the cruel worlds, the punches, the injuries that left me gasping for breath. Never again would I think of my days alone in my big manor, miserable, so desperately lonely that it felt like my heart was breaking over and over again each and every day.
I’d forget being alone at the Royal Fae Academy. I’d forget the fact that I’m plain-looking, that no one ever saw me or respected me. And the heart could give me more… I wouldn’t hurt when I thought of losing Rayne the first time, or this time, or feel the terrible loss of Phantom’s death.
The heart will give me more than I ever thought I could have.
I feel the tears that roll down my face, and I understand, I finally understand how a man with a dark heart could so easily be swayed by this kind of power. By the promise to forget what it feels like to lose someone you love. And as much as I want to forget that two of the men I love most in this world are dead at my feet, I can’t erase those feelings, or steal this power to save them. No matter how much I might want to.
The heart must be returned to the sky.Now. Before it becomes part of me the way it did with the Shadow King. Before it finds a way to lure me into abusing this power.
Because my men wouldn’t want to be brought back to a world that was dead. A world that can’t survive without this heart. They wouldn’t want to live in a world where I could no longer feel love, for them, or for anyone. And no matter how much I want to pretend that doesn’t matter, it does.
To save this world, I have to give up what I love most. I have to truly say goodbye to Phantom and Rayne.
“The right choice isn’t always the easy choice,” the soft voice whispers in my mind, and I sob. “Return the heart to the sky. Command it and it will be.”
I say goodbye. Goodbye to my men. Goodbye to ever being complete again.
And then… I give the command.
The heart soars above us, expanding, growing as it does. It flies into the sky, the light growing more and more brilliant as it does. The light radiating from it illuminating the lands all around us, and before my eyes, the trees turn green, golden leaves sprout from the branches. More plants and bushes and flowers explode from the ground, flowers that radiate their own incredible lights. Some blue. Some gold. Some green.
