AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Power flows through 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 exhaustion, 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. It’s 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 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 words, 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 illuminates the lands all around us, and before my eyes, the trees turn green and 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.
It’s beautiful.
Casting my gaze above I finally see the heart stop. It hangs in the sky like a moon, and yet its glow is brighter, just a bit, giving the whole world a similar glow to that of a sunrise. A blue sunrise.
I fall to my knees, the tears flowing. I don’t regret saving this world, but some part of me will always regret not saving my men. “I’m sorry,” I sob as I look down at them. “I could save the world or you, but not both.”
Suddenly, Shenra is beside me. She takes my face in her hands and turns me to her. “You have saved this world. The goddess will save them, all you have to do is ask.”
I don’t know if I believe her, but I pull away to look at my fallen men. Onyx and Dusk kneel near their heads, their gazes on me. There’s hope in their eyes, but some part of me thinks I’m about to crush them all over again.
Still, I ask, “Goddess of the Moon, save my men. Bring them back to me.” My words are broken, desperate. But I hold my breath and watch the two dead men in front of me.
But Shenra was wrong, because I asked. I did everything I was told. And they’re still dead.
SEVENTEEN
