My heart sank as I looked from brother to brother. What dideventuallymean? Would it be years before I heard their voices? Felt their arms around me? Laughed with them?
Tears lined my eyes as I drew my knees into my chest. It was like losing them all over again. Was love just something I could not have? Would it always loom just out of reach like an apple on a tall branch?
I looked up at Daigen, searching his violet eyes for an answer but finding none.
“I know you might hate me for it but…” Daigen sighed and his face softened. “What Ganora does to the people the giants carry through the pass…no one deserves it. At the first battle, I had nearly exhausted myself turning boy after boy into rabbits or what-have-you as soon as the fog from the pass hit their faces. But when I saw those Ravenwood green capes around their necks, it was very easy to convince the magic in their bodies that they would be better off as ravens than have their bones decorate Ganora’s crown.”
Endre dipped his head low and hissed.
Daigen pointed at Endre. “Youhad damn near crossed over when I saved you! Your inner self wasbeggingfor help. Death had almost taken you and you’re still bitter—”
“Stop it!” My flame awoke again. I gritted my teeth and held onto the burn as my heart raced.
Then, like a cool breeze, a thought wisped to the front of my mind.
My brothers werealive.They might not be as I wanted them…but they were alive.
The small amount of energy that fueled my white flame sapped like I had sprung a leak at the base of my spine. A calm breath escaped my lips as I opened my eyes.
Daigen loosened the crystal from the vise in the pile of ash. The crystal had stopped glowing and had returned to its normal, deep blue hue.
The crystal disappeared into his palm and he lowered onto his haunches to look me in the face. “I heard your mind,Litlnadr—you’ve shut out your emotions for years. You’re about to feel the harsh intensity of everything you’ve suppressed now that you’re getting in tune with your magic. It’s going to be uncomfortable, but you have to face it if you’re going to get what you want.”
I did not want to face anything. I just wanted…
I bit back a scream of frustration. I still did not know what I wanted other than to punch Daigen between the eyes.
Without my anger, my heart floated in a dark chasm. Directionless.
I looked up at Daigen as Erik and Endre rested at my knees. “I just want to know where to go from here.”
Daigen pressed his finger in the center of my chest, right over the sparkling diamond the Man of the Mountain had placed in my heart. “Since your heart’s desire guides your magic, I can’t tell you what to do.”
I wrinkled my nose. Heart’s desire? That sounded like faerie story nonsense.
Daigen’s violet eyes gleamed and he tapped the space between my eyebrows. “I can’t lead your mind because your heart has to be in the right place. You have toemotionallyarrive at the right conclusion every time. That’s why I make you figure out the answers.”
I clenched my teeth, holding back all the questions that spun in the back of my mind. How was I supposed to trust in a monster, believe in faerie story nonsense, and feel my emotions? How would any of that release Fraleigh from the Hytons? How would that free Riyan from Ganora’s threat of oblivion?
What had happened to the careful woman who counted her breaths and waited until the perfect opportunity to strike? Each passing moment was unpredictable as lightning and Daigen was trying to drag me into a world where fickle emotion made the rules.
Daigen sighed and his face softened. “Trusting people has not been easy for you, I know. That’s why I have something tangible for you to lean on.”
My skin crawled. I hated how he could read me so well. I felt tooseen.
My eyes flicked down to Daigen’s hands as he pried a smooth onyx gem out of…my choker?
My hands flew to my neck and felt bare skin. How had he—?
He laughed. “I told you, I’m famous for my tricks.”
With a quick shift of his hands, he deftly replaced the onyx stone with what had to be the Nordingaard crystal in his hand. He pulled the ribbon of the choker tight as he held it up.
My breath caught in my throat. What was once a rough stone was cut into a heart and secured in the center of the choker. The crystal threw firelight through its smooth facets, making spots of green and blue light dance around the room. Had I not knownany different, I would have mistaken the collection of hardened magical tears for a normal, yet beautiful, gem.
“Told you I was going to make it useful.” He slid his hands behind my hair and tied the choker so the crystal was flush against my neck. “Any time this crystal glows, you have found your heart’s desire and are ready to bend reality to get it.”
My fingers traced the smooth edge of the crystal. I looked down at Erik and Endre, who kept their black eyes on me.
