Had it been worth her life?
Had I passed their fucking trials?
“Gwynnore.”
I turned my head and found Nial standing with Cato and Lord Belshazzar behind him.
“Go away,” I growled.
Lord Belshazzar explained with cool calm, “The Monitor of Challenge is satisfied that the conditions of this Challenge were met above and beyond satisfaction.”
“Oh, fuck you!” The scream echoed through the rooms. “Screw you. Screw your Challenges. I’ve proven what I’ll do. Don’t come at me with your Monitor of Challenge shit.”
Couldn’t he be a little caring?
I didn’t understand the ancient lord at all.
“You’ve passed, Gwynnore,” Cato said. “You’ve won the crown.”
I swallowed all the words I wanted to hurl at him.
This was what I wanted.
This was what I had fought for my whole life, trained for, sacrificed everything for.
I won.
I was the queen.
I could almost hear my friend’s voice through the dead silence of the rock.We did it, Gwen. We did it. All that work, and it’s finally yours.
The thought of Adelie’s pride was what finally compelled me to smear the tears from my face. I’d had my four days of mourning, and part of me would always remember what it took to get the Black Heart on my hand. An almost ironic name that I fully believed everyone in this room really understood. Steeling myself, I pushed up off the chair I had been curled into, weeping and screaming for the past twenty-four hours.
I was the queen.
I straightened my spine and turned to the door where the three of them stood. And in the next second, they went to one knee, genuflecting to me.
To me.
I’d won.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-FOUR
~KIMBER~
The emergency teams were rushing toward the temple’s campus as I ran away from it.
I realized I was wearing ordinary temple clothes and that was bad. I could be easily identified by whoever had blown up the building.
Once I was away from the parkland that was around the temple campus, I ducked into a small alley and paused to collect myself.
The building had come down around us.
I’d found Tymon and Dorian.
Elex was going to be fine.
I had to get back to the cave. Even though I still didn’t like Dorian, Itrustedhim. And I had to trust that he knew what he was talking about with my safety.
