I gave my heart instead.
I recognized that he’d been caged, just like I had been. I yearned for family and belonging, just as he must have.
And after that, just like he said, no matter what he put in front of me, I chose hope.
Because my mother taught me to believe that even dark creatures are worthy of love.
She may not have been able to tell me about her history, but she gave me what I needed.
If I take this crown, the keeper will die.
If I claim this terrible power, he will cease to exist. He will never have his vengeance. And my own will be empty.
There will be an empty space in my life because he is not filling it.
He… with all his complexity and lies and betrayal… he fills a place in my dark heart that I need filled.
So I retract my claws and withdraw my hand and fuss a little around his blanket, taking a moment to check his wounds.
He has stopped bleeding. The wounds are still open. But there are hints of healing.
Oh, my heart.The damage it can do to him.
Unless I can heal it fully…
There must be a way to mend the breaks.
Now that I have the answers I sought—or at the least the most pressing ones—I will find a way.
I have to believe that by mending my own heart, I can fix this.
Resolutely, I pull the fur blanket back up across his hand, covering the ring and pressing the material firmly over it.
I put away my fears and doubts because I realize what else my mother might have wanted me to know.
I speak aloud, a declaration I want my pack to hear. “There’s a difference between darkness and evil.”
I want Halle and her people to hear it, too, because it means everything.
I exhale every frightening thought I’ve had since I opened the door into this snowy place. No, even before that, the fears I carried when I stepped into Veritas, when I tore through the apple orchard, and even earlier, when I ripped apartThe Book of Dark Magic.
All of my confusion vanishes.
With it, the friction around me vanishes, as if my pack had been reflecting my agitation and can now reflect my calmness.
Anarchy nudges my arm with hers. Across the fire, Lucian gives me a nod. The three dark elf brothers give me varyingsmiles. A serious smile from Riot, a mischievous grin from Strife, and a chin tip from Rumble.
To Halle, I say, with a certainty I feel at the heart of my very being, “I left my cage seeking vengeance, and that is what I will have. Vengeance for all of us.”
I cast my gaze around my pack, these dark beings who have chosen to stand at my side, and then I focus on the keeper, whose motivations are far more complex than I could ever have imagined.
I will have vengeance for my brother against the gargoyles. Vengeance for me against my father. And for the keeper…
Somehow…Somehow,I will have vengeance for him, too.
With that resolve, and maybe it is only wishful thinking on my part, I sense the rhythm of the keeper’s heart becoming stronger.
“First, I need to rest,” I say. “I need food?—”
