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My heart skipped a beat. What was he saying?
Elvey and I hurried toward him, and I looking at a feeble male Fae and a female Fae who seemed to be his wife. The male Fae had my mother’s eyes, and thus mine, and the female Fae had my mother’s platinum hair color and soft lips.
Elvey sucked in a breath. “They’re your grandparents, King Elrond and Queen Phoebe.”
The king and the queen snapped their attention at me. They were barely alive, hanging onto the last thread of their life.
I clasped my hand over my mouth. Tianna had ruled for nine centuries, which meant they’d been supplying the dark heart with energy in this living hell for all this time.
Recognition bore into their eyes, and at the same time, grief, regret, and soul-weariness swirled in them. In the very depths of their eyes, I spotted a small inkling of hope.
“Daughter to Zuzana, our daughter?” the king asked weakly.
“I’m Daisy Danaenyth,” I said, my voice choked with emotion. “And yes, Zuzana was my mother.” I knew they’d stripped my mother of her title and exiled her, and that they were part of the reason that my mother had been murdered. But looking at the twisted pain and insanity in their eyes, I could no longer hold them accountable.
“We wronged our daughter Zuzana,” the queen said, her glassy blue eyes glazing over as she struggled to get the words out. “We’re paying for our sins. My granddaughter, you’ve come for us. We didn’t know you survived.”
They were the last of my Fae family.
My throat closed up, but I managed to squeeze the words out. “How do we save them, Elvey? How do we free them?”
“You can’t,” the king said. “It’s too late for us. What’s left of us is but one last breath and one last sliver of our souls. We’re already drained. It’ll be the ultimate kindness to kill us. However, parts of our souls are trapped inside the black heart. Only when Tianna dies, and you kill the heart, will our souls and all the other tens and thousands of souls trapped in the black heart be set free. We’ve been here the longest since our powers were greater than any others and she wanted us to suffer. Others came and went. When they expired, she brought new ones to replenish the harvested souls to fuel the heart.”
Zembyr had gotten to his feet, looking shell-shocked. Rosalinda moved closer to us but didn’t forget her guard duties.
“What does the heart do?” Elvey asked, but I figured he already knew the answer. He just wanted a confirmation.
“It is linked to her,” my grandmother said. “It gives my youngest daughter tremendous power. The more souls the heart consumes, the more powerful she is.”
“That’s why there are rumors that she can’t be killed,” Elvey murmured, his thumb tracing his bottom lip. He did that sometimes when he was thinking. “We’ll have to kill the heart to kill her, so she won’t be able to resurrect.”
I turned on my heel. “Let’s destroy the black heart now!”
“No, granddaughter,” the queen called. “It’ll be a mistake.”
Elvey grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to him.
“The heart can’t be killed by normal methods, love,” he said.
“The demigod is right,” the king said, regarding him, though talking seemed to be growing more and more difficult for him and the queen. They were bone-tired and dying. “Tianna once gloated to us about her secret, believing we’d never be free. She wanted you more than anyone because your power comes from the stars. But she failed to take your soul, so she managed to blood bond you.”
Rage coursed in my bones. The bitch had tried to harvest my mate’s soul.
“My husband is no longer blood bonded to Tianna,” I said, my dragon fire sparking in my eyes.
The old queen looked at us with satisfaction. “Our vengeance has finally come. We’ll soon rest, my king.”
She revealed more of Tianna’s secrets. “Tianna isn’t all herself. She merged with the demon king. Two foul entities cohabit in her body. When she stays in Sihde, she wears her Fae face. And when she travels to the demon realm, the demon king takes over. The portal to the Hell Region is here somewhere. Don’t let the abomination escape to the demon realm.”
Now the warning of the forest spirits finally made sense. “Be aware of the double faces and two foulest entities in one.”
No wonder Tianna’s magic was so powerful she could trick and ensnare a demigod.
No wonder my White Light couldn’t take her down.
The old king and queen knew all about their evil daughter’s dark secrets, except for the most crucial one—how to destroy her and the heart.
That was what we had to find out next, but I knew that secret didn’t lie in this chamber. Then where?
