Malory looked up from the heated discussion with Gwinifer and Varian. It seemed like they were trying to argue over which one of them should take over Mountheim. I knew Gwinifer was only fighting for it because Varian was the last person Reagan would want ruling his estate. Or maybe she was stalling.
“What if there was a way to prove that the curse should have broken?”
I felt Finnegan’s gaze on the side of my face, but I couldn’t waste any more time. I didn’t know how long she would stay.
“What makes you think it’s broken?” she asked.
“Because all the virtues in this curse,” I said, lifting the paper in the air, “describe the man I love. We can argue for all of them. But if you won’t take our word for it, then allow us to show you.”
“Look at him, human,” Varian seethed.
I ignored him, keeping my gaze on her. The judge regarded me with that same frigid stare, yet she paused. “What is the way?”
I lifted my chin, trying to summon all the confidence I could muster. As I went for the clasp of my bracelet, my hand miserably unsteady, I felt their gazes upon me, their expectation.
There was only one way to prove it.
The idea struck me, and I had to thank Alameda for telling me about the gemstones, about their capacity to resonate with the energy of others, to mimic their very essence. By sheer luck, I had the one I had gained with me, the little crimson stone Alameda had given me with my bangle.
I couldn’t waste this. But—
What if this wasn’t how it worked? What if his gemstone was gone? Maybe he lost it at the end of the curse, and it wouldn’t help me prove anything. Or worse, what if the heartstone resonated but turned dark?
Sometimes I think I’ve tainted this one.
The bloody clasp wouldn’t budge. With my hand clearly shaking, Finn reached out and unclasped the bracelet for me. I gave him a tight smile, feeling my heart in my throat.
I unscrewed the gemstone from my bracelet and knelt beside him.
I needed so much to make this right, to save Reagan like he had saved me so many times.
I needed him back.
“The curse said, ‘What binds you shall yet free you.’ Reagan told me about the heartstone binding his sentence. I think that’s what the curse meant, right? The tether that could free him?” I paused, not breathing as Malory took a step past Varian and closer to me. “We can’t see his heartstone now because of the animal form. But what if it changed? If Reagan truly broke his curse, his heartstone would shine bright and ivory. And if another were brought near him”—I lifted my jagged stone—“we could see what colour it becomes. Gemstones hum to the same tune.”
I froze for a second as Malory crouched. My face slackened, but she only dipped her head, signalling for me to keep going.
“I have this one,” I went on. “It’s not bound to me, so if I put it closer, I’m thinking it will mimic Reagan’s heartstone, and we can see the colour.”
I stared at her, waiting to hear that it didn’t work like that. That I was wrong. That my simplest idea was innocent and pathetic, and I couldn’t help him.
But she said none of that.
Instead, Malory said, “Go on, put it closer to him.”
With my heart in my throat, I outstretched my hand to where the beast’s chest was. To where Reagan’s heart was still beating.
The gemstone didn’t shift, didn’t change colours. But I didn’t tear my gaze from it. The others had stepped closer, leaning over to watch the stone.
And then—
Like drawing air into my lungs—
The gemstone glowed with colour, its light emanating from within. The red was gleaming, fading into itself. Paling. Paling.
Pale.
After a pause that felt like forever, the gemstone was the colour of the teeth in his smile, the white of his eyes. Bright and light and gleaming in my hand.
