Kane’s face twists into a wicked grin. “She threw the whole palace into darkness. Half his men were caged in by her power, and no one could get to them or see anything as Abriella left the castle.”
Pretha smiles slowly. “Good girl,” she murmurs.
Jalek grunts. “If she were so smart, she wouldn’t have bonded with the boy to begin with.”
“There’s nothing we can do about that now,” Finn says, keeping his eyes on Kane. “What does this have to do with Sebastian taking the throne?”
Kane’s smile grows. “My sources tell me he’s refusing to do the coronation without her. He wants to wait until she returns—to prove his devotion to her.”
“Returns?” Pretha scoffs and wipes her cheeks dry. “As if she’s out for a stroll and not somewhere raging about his betrayal?”
Lark smiles up at her mother. “He can’t take the throne. It won’t have him.”
All eyes in the room go to Lark, and Pretha scoops her daughter into her arms. “Tell me what you mean by that, baby.”
“Lark . . .” Finn steps forward, then stumbles back again, steadying himself on the wall.
Kane lunges for him, catching him before he can fall. “What’s wrong?”
“He’s sick,” Pretha says.
Kane shakes his head. “That doesn’t make sense. The curse is broken. I feel better than I have in years. You should too.”
Finn draws in a deep breath. “I’ll be fine.” He turns to Pretha. “Send someone to the house and search it for any sign that Abriella’s looking for us. If she shows up there, give her whatever she needs.”
“Why?” Jalek asks. “The princess doesn’t have the crown anymore. She’s nothing to us.”
Finn spins on him, eyes narrowed, and Jalek straightens and retreats a step, contrition on his face.
“Pardon me, Your Highness.” Jalek bows his head.
She’s nothing to us.
Jalek’s right. Now that Sebastian has the crown, I’m nothing to anyone, and hearing it stated so plainly leaves me feeling hollow.
“Lark,” Finn says, stepping toward her with more success this time. “Why won’t the throne have Prince Ronan?”
“Queen Mab made the throne with her very magic. Magic isn’t free. There are rules,” Lark says.
“Sebastian isn’t following them.”
Pretha and Finn exchange a look.
“What rules?” Kane asks.
“Mab’s rules. She’s been protecting her throne all this time.” Lark smiles. “Sebastian can’t take it without Abriella’s power.”
“I don’t understand.” Pretha shakes her head. “Abriella already gave Sebastian the crown when she bonded with him.”
Lark rests her cheek on her mother’s chest. “I know. She didn’t want to die,” she whispers.
“It’s okay.” Pretha strokes her hair. “Abriella’s okay now.”
“I told her she’d lose everything,” Lark says, her eyes fluttering closed at her mother’s soothing touch. “She didn’t want to be queen, but I told her it was okay because she’d lose everything.”
My heart tugs at the memory of that conversation. Lark had come to me in one of my dreams and told me that in some of her visions of the future, I died, and in others I became queen. I told her I didn’t want to be queen and have so much when others had nothing, and she said that was okay because I would lose everything.
She was right. I lost everything the moment Sebastian betrayed me. I lost my human life, my chance to go back to my sister, and the male I loved. I’ve already lost everything, but she was wrong to believe I’d sit at Sebastian’s side while he took the throne. Never. Not after all he did to me.
Pretha and Finn are talking, and I make myself focus to understand their words through the hawk’s mind.
“If Sebastian somehow needs Abriella to take that throne,” Pretha’s saying, “then we need to find her first.”
I don’t have time to dwell on that thought before I’m being shown another vision. The hawk is perched in a slightly different location, but this time only Finn and Kane stand in the throne room.
Finn looks tired, but not as ill as he did in the last vision. He has a bit more color in his cheeks and stands straighter, as if he might stand a chance of using the swords sheathed at each hip.
“No sign of Abriella at the old house,” Kane says. “Sources tell us she hasn’t returned to the Golden Palace either.”