“What about Elyria? Where is she?” The Storm is nowhere to be seen. The last time I saw her, she was unable to move from Baelen’s side, tethered to him because I gave him all of my storm power when I cut the connection between him and me. It meant she couldn’t move more than a hundred paces from wherever he was.
Baelen’s expression falls. “She’s as far away from here as I could get her, further away while I’m in this state, but it’s not far enough.”
“Where?”
“Outside the deep springs.”
The deep springs are located in the heart of Mount Erador, across a ravine only a thousand feet west of Crimson Court. Nobody goes there for healing anymore because Howl blocked the entrance. The way he blocked it was horrifying: he’d put up a barrier made of living gargoyle wings.
“She’s struggling, Marbella. She’s caught in the nightmares of her past as well as the nightmares of her present. She needs your help. But first you have to help yourself.”
He withdraws a little, a cautious crease appearing on his forehead. “I need you to trust me right now. Can you do that?”
I whisper, “Always.”
He takes a deep breath as if he’s bracing for my response. “I need you to take hold of the Queen’s heart.”
“What?” I glance in disbelief at the stone floating within arm’s length in the air between Baelen and me. It rotates slowly, a glittering, powerful force. Is he really telling me to touch the diamond heart again?
“Take her heart, Marbella. It belongs to you.”
How can it belong to me? I’m not a gargoyle, let alone one with royal blood. A thousand denials rush through my mind, but Baelen persists.
“It didn’t kill you. You’re more powerful now than you ever were.”
“But… itdidhurt me. I hurt everywhere. My head, my arms, my skin, my heart…” I press my hand to my chest where pain burns like a fire inside my chest. “Ithurts.”
“That’s because you’re grieving, baby. You’re in pain because you lost someone important to you.”
He inclines his head toward the floor and I follow his gaze, looking down for the first time since he whisked me above the battle.
Cassian lies directly beneath my feet, one wing covering his chest, the other spread out beside him where he fell, its massive length stretching out across the floor. Baelen seems to sense what I need him to do, gently using his power to lift Cassian’s outstretched wing and cross it over his chest, cocooning him. Cassian saved my life in the mines. He warmed me when I was cold. He believed in something that can’t be true: that I carry royal gargoyle blood.
Now he’s gone.
I shiver, suddenly cold. “Cassian brought me the stone. It’s my fault he died.”
Baelen meets my eyes. The shake of his head is slow, deliberate, giving me time to think while the fire in his eyes dims, stern but strong. “He died believing in the truth. He made a choice. Now you have to make a choice, too.”
Choose.
That single word echoes around in my mind. It was the last thing I heard before I began falling: a command to choose between life or death.
My response to Baelen now is small, a reluctant admission. “I don’t think I can do this alone.”
“I’m here, Marbella. I’m not going anywhere. And when you heal me, all of me will come back to you. But right now, you need to know that you’ve changed. You’ve changed inside and out.”
His mouth transforms into a gentle smile. “I wish I could touch you, show you how beautiful you are right now, but you have to heal me before it’s safe to make contact again. In the meantime, the best way to accept who you are is to take hold of the heartstone that belongs to you.”
I trust him. With all my heart. He would never hurt me. He has only ever protected me. I don’t understand what’s going on right now or why, but I believe him.
My fingers flex, reaching out through the air. My hand closes around the Queen’s heart.
An electric shock shoots through me, and a surge of power follows it. The power stabs through my arms, legs, and torso, making my spine arch. The Queen’s heart blazes into life inside my closed fist, casting sharp pinpoints of light across the floor and the watching gargoyles. I gasp as webs appear above me, forming out of nothing, glowing brightly across the entire ceiling, a glittering, tangled mass. At the same time, external light fills the space within the Court as the moon outside reaches its brightest point, dominating the sky with its large, round face as if Incorruptible herself is watching.
The other three heartstones gravitate toward my left hand, hanging in the space above it. I feel them as if they’re alive. Just like I feel the Queen’s thoughts. All four stones are a hammer in my mind, beating hard like drums in unison.
Baelen smiles again, the curve of his lips making my heart race. “Take a seat, Marbella.”
The air around me shifts, slowly transferring my body weight behind my thighs, supporting me as I lower to a sitting position. Baelen has given me a seat of air. I hold the Queen’s heart in my right hand, elevated at my side, while the other heartstones hover over my left palm.
Baelen assesses the stunned gargoyles. He takes up position beside me like a sentinel, guarding more than my body but also my heart. He finally allows the wind barrier to die down around the miners and clan leaders, releasing them from the protective shield.
The floor lights up beneath him. Fire bursts around his feet.
He says, “I give you your Queen.”
