2
I’m certain my eyes are as wide as everyone else’s. They stare at me while I stare back at them.Queen?I don’t think so. I loosen my grip on the heartstone, preparing to release it as I whisper to Baelen, “You should let me down now please.”
He gives me a firm shake of his head—no—causing me to frown. He’s not going to let me down?
The old Priestess races toward us, covering ground faster than I expected the ancient female to move. She runs so fast that her wings catch the air, fluttering and elevating her in large leaps.
She shout-whispers, “Lady Storm, do not move! Do not let go of that stone!”
“What—?”
Jasper strides toward us too, not far behind the old Priestess. But we aren’t his only focus. He turns his head, searching the space around us. “Where’s Elyria?”
He doesn’t even get close to us.
The Priestess whirls, her bony hands pushing against Jasper’s stomach so hard he doubles over.Oomph, the air leaves his lungs as she propels him bodily backward.
His startled eyes shoot up to hers. “What—?”
“Get back Jasper, son of Grace! Stay away from Lady Storm unless you want to die.”
“But I need to—”
“You need to live. Which you won’t if you step into her space.”
“What are you talking about?” Jasper glares at the Priestess, his eyebrows drawn down, challenging her. “Baelen’s standing right beside Marbella.”
“Baelen Rath is the only living creature who can share her space right now and survive. Even he is in danger if we don’t act soon. Now get back and let me do what I must.”
Jasper backpedals as she shoves and flaps at him, blocking his every attempt to get to me. She waves her hands at all of the gargoyles who have taken steps toward me. “All of you. Get back. Now!”
If my eyes were wide before, they’ve turned into lakes now. She’s always been a bit odd, but this takes the cake. As she forces everyone backward, even the soldiers, ordering them to form a very wide circle at the edges of the Court, I sense genuine fear in her voice, desperation in her body movements.
She definitely knows something I don’t. I murmur, “Baelen, what’s going on?”
He answers me with a firm, but gentle command. “Hold onto the Queen’s heart, Marbella. Don’t let it go.”
In the distance, Jasper paces, resembling a caged beast. He formed a bond with Elyria before he was forced into the mines with me. Now that he knows Baelen is safe, he needs to know where Elyria is. I understand his frustration. It’s the same desperation I felt being separated from Baelen.
The old Priestess flutters back to us, bowing low to Baelen, her chest heaving. She’s visibly trying to calm herself down. “Thank you, Wrathful One,” she says, still bent low to Baelen. “Without your power containing the heartstone’s force, none of us would be alive right now.”
She rises and peers cautiously at me. I notice that she has chosen to stand further away from me than she ever did before. “Lady Storm, you control the destructive power of the Queen’s heart now. But it is a fragile control. The heart responds to your thoughts and emotions. A single thought from you can have a thousand consequences. You are either our salvation or… our greatest enemy.”
I can’t get rid of the crease in my forehead. “I should have died when I touched it.”
“But you didn’t.”
“Cassian said… impossible things.” I shake my head. He said I smelled like the Queen, but I have no gargoyle heritage and I know my mother never had eyes for anyone other than my father. No matter what they say about children always looking like their mother, I’m as certain as I can be that she never had an affair with a gargoyle. Let alone with the former King.
The Priestess’s fingers flex as if she wants to leap across the distance, grab me, and shake sense into me, but I guess the whole single-thought-can-destroy-her thing stops her.
She says, “Only someone with Supreme Incorruptible blood running through their veins can hold the Queen’s Heartstone like you are now. How this happened is not important right now. We will figure it out soon enough. For now, you need to establish control over the stone or we are all in terrible danger.”
In the distance, Jasper paces halfway around the watching gargoyles. He stops in front of Llion who is very pale. Even from this distance I can tell that Llion doesn’t look good. Roar supports him on one side and Welsian on the other, while Liliana presses close to him. I have to get to them and figure out how to help.
I have to get to Elyria and help her too.
I say to the Priestess, “You’re telling me that I’m dangerous right now. Well, I refuse to stay in this cage forever. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”
