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My eyes went wide. I sucked in a shaky breath and feared my furious heartbeat would give me away. Amira ran her fingers over the valves and vessels of the organ, marveling at its intricacies.
Then to my utter horror and disgust, she bit into it like an apple.
A dread bolt shot through me, drowning out all coherent thought. What in the Underworld had I just witnessed?
Amira submerged herself in the blood-filled stone bath when she finished with her back to me.
My blood rushed into my ears. I needed to get the fuck out of here.
I fell to my knees and crawled to the skinny window in the darkest, farthest corner. Carefully, I opened it and pulled myself out of the room. I fell into a snow-covered, thorny rose bush and threw up my stomach contents until I dry heaved.
A firm hand on my shoulder made me yelp and grab a dagger from my vest. I immediately lashed out on instinct, but when my eyes met Bereille's mid-swing, I stopped, deflated. My blade clacked on the stone beneath us. I immediately sank into him. I wasn't a soft man, but this was far more disturbing than I was prepared for, and I was desperate for comfort from the vileness I had witnessed.
Honestly, I needed solace from the iniquity that consumed my life.
Bereille yanked me quickly from the bushes, my clothes tearing from the thorny plants.
“Bereille—
“I know.”
My eyes snapped to his. “You do?”
“Yes. I wish I didn't. I've always had my suspicions but recently discovered the truth.”
“Why does sheeatthem?”
Bereille grimaced. “It used to be only the girls from the mirror, but she recently found a spell or something that allows any girl to give her a boost in beauty, power, and longevity of life.”
So, that's what it did. That’s what Autumn’s heart would have done for her. I wondered if she had become suspicious when the heart I had given her, the one from the dead woman from the healer’s quarters in Cashore, had not given her the results she had expected.
“She's gotten more powerful,” was the only thing I could say.
“Very much more. I'm afraid we need to act. I prayed I could manage her, but that’s not so. I can’t stop it myself. I’ve tried. But…”
Amira needed to be stopped. “What can I do?”
“Sheis the key.”
“Who?” But I had a terrifying notion I knew who. I wasn’t entirely dimwitted, and our earlier conversation returned to me.
“By saving her, you sealed her fate. You saved and cursed her all at once. I think it’s always been her. Maybe even you. But of that, I'm less certain.”
“I don't understand.”
“Now it's your turn to protect her, Sahlyn. Nothing else matters. Nothing else matters but her.” He said the last words slowly to show their imperativeness.
“I… Okay.”
“Find the dwarves. Inside Mondu, there's a legendary blade. It can only be wielded by the spared and the cursed with the blood of the mountains.”
“The dwar—"
“What’s going on here?” The queen’s angry voice halted us suddenly. Bereille tensed beside me, and I nearly fell to my knees from terror. Amira stood at the top of the stone stairs with two guards flanking her. She’d cleaned herself from the blood, and her skin glowed unnaturally. The queen was even more breathtakingly beautiful than ever, so much that it hurt to look at her. She looked barely out of adolescence. It was disturbing. Someone had to notice besides me, but no one had the guts to say anything. Myself included.
The guards' eyes were on us with hostility, and I knew this was not going to go well.
“A bit of training gone awry, your Highness,” Bereille offered smoothly.
