Finally, my turn came, and all eyes again settled on me. I shuffled stiffly toward the center, feeling like I was trudging through boiling tar. When I reached the podium, I was nearly panting with effort. I glanced over my shoulder to the Lumnos portal, its obelisk dark and its cauldron empty.
“Child of Lumnos,” the Sophos Crown began, “may your blood now reignite the flames of your realm. With this ritual, your reign begins. May you serve your people well.”
“I will,” I murmured, and though the heartstone may have doubted my intentions, I meant that vow with all my heart.
I held my hand out, and the Sophos Crown dragged the jeweled blade across my flesh. My senses were already so overwhelmed by the agony of the Temple’s power that I barely felt the cut, though a tremor shook through my arm, knocking a single glittering droplet over the side of my palm and onto the glossy stone.
An earsplitting crack of thunder shattered the air. Out of nowhere, grey clouds rolled into place, blocking the sun’s light and blanketing the sky with a menacing shadow.
I shot a questioning look at the Sophos Crown. Their eyes were fixed on the blade in their hand, its opalescent stones now a smoky grey.
“Blue,” they whispered. “The stones should be blue.”
A series of popping sounds rattled around us as each of the obelisks and their fires died out, leaving the Temple cast in murky darkness. My hand jolted in surprise, squeezing instinctively into a fist. A thin trail of blood seeped through my fingers and onto the heartstone.
A bolt of lightning rocketed down from the heavens and into the jagged rock, sending up a cloud of sparks that had me staggering backward and tumbling onto the floor. The other Crowns shouted and clung to their archways while the ground quaked with a shockwave that rippled out from the Temple across the island.
When the chaos quieted, I scrambled back to my feet. The burning pressure of the heartstone’s defensive magic had vanished, leaving me lightheaded and shaky.
“You,” the Sophos Crown gasped. They stared at me in terror, eyes wide, their face deathly pale. Their horrified gaze dropped to the heartstone, and my blood froze solid.
The rock had been carved straight through. A gash ran down the center, leaving a web of tiny fractures splintering through the night-black stone.
“You did this,” they barked. “You broke the heartstone.”
“I—I didn’t—I couldn’t,” I stammered. “I only did what you told me!”
Their eyes shifted from surprise into a dangerous fury. They raised a single quivering finger, pointed in accusation. “You are not the Queen of Lumnos. You are an imposter.”
I shook my head and backed away, looking frantically around to the other Crowns and hoping for one of them to come to my defense. They were all frozen in shock, equally unable to make sense of what they had just seen.
All except the Queen of Umbros.
Her face was smooth with perfect calm and that cold, all-knowing smile.
“Her,” I yelled, pointing in her direction. “She did this! She knows something, she came to Lumnos and she—”
A flash of coppery red caught my eyes.
And a voice.
A voice I knew and loved on a soul-deep level. A voice I had been praying to hear again for eight long months. A voice calling my name as if my very life depended on me hearing it.
Just outside the Kindred’s Temple in the wild overgrowth beyond, her brown eyes bulging and her face twisted in fear, my mother sprinted toward me with arms extended.
“Diem!” she screamed. “Diem, run!”
And with a deafening boom and a blast of fire and rubble, everything exploded.
And my world went black.
Epilogue
ELSEWHERE ON COEUR?LE…
When the first Crown climbed the Temple steps, Auralie Bellator’s heart nearly burst with joy.
For eight months, she had been hiding out on this awful island, living in solitude among the shadows of her past and counting every passing day. Finally, her patience was coming to fruition. In a matter of hours, gods willing, she would be wrapped in her husband’s arms and holding her two precious children close once more.
The time away from her family had been a torment. She had woken up every morning with their names on her lips, and fallen into dreams every night with their faces burned into her thoughts. Perhaps if she had known how long she would be gone, she might have reconsidered her mission, or at least taken the risk of telling them her plan.
She wondered where they were now. Did they still believe her to be alive—did they hold out hope for her return? The thought of the happiness on their faces when she walked back through the door of their humble cottage on the marsh brought a wide smile to her lips.
They would be angry, of course. She was prepared to face their resentment and their demands for answers. She could only hope they would eventually come to understand how important this mission had been, how necessary their sacrifice for the greater good.
Another Crown emerged at the top of the Temple steps, and Auralie’s heart skipped a beat.
So close. She was so close to going home.
She leaned as far out of the brush as she dared, straining to make out which Crowns were present. Her eyes watered and burned under the bright sunlight. Over the past months, she had become nocturnal, moving under the cover of night to avoid being spotted by the army ships just off the island’s shores. She silently cursed herself for not taking a few days to let her vision readjust to the strength of the midday sun.
She sank back into the cover of the tall grass and closed her eyes. She took a mental tour across the island, retracing her steps over the last few months to confirm no evidence of her identity could have been left behind. After today, the Crowns would be scouring the island for clues, and she could not risk leading them back to her—or her family.
She peered into the heavy satchel at her side. A heap of jars containing bright red powder filled the bag to its brim. Another sizable stash was hidden in a shallow pit near the Lumnos dock. If all went to plan, she would grab it before escaping, leaving her with a decade-long supply—but if things went all to hell, she at least had this small batch to get her daughter through a few more years of hiding.
Though hiding would not last much longer. Even flameroot couldn’t quicken Descended aging. Soon, Auralie would be forced to unearth some truths she’d spent the last two decades desperate to keep buried. But not today—and with any luck, not for years to come.
A slight rustle of grass from behind her gave away that she was no longer alone.
Before she could react, a hand clamped over her mouth. Another hand wound around her ribcage, pinning her arms to her sides, and hauled her up against a man’s chest of rock-hard muscle.
She didn’t bother trying to scream—no one on this island would be coming to save her. Instead, she thrashed like a wildcat, ramming her elbow backward into his ribs and flinging her head back to smash against his face. He yielded nothing, as immovable as stone, taunting her with a low chuckle.
“Now I see where your daughter gets it.”
She stilled, the words chilling her to the bone.
The scent of moss and cedar wafted to her nose as the man growled in her ear. “You have a great deal of explaining to do, Auralie Bellator.”
As recognition washed over her, the terror in her veins turned to ice. She let her body go slack, and the man’s grasp loosened and released her. She jerked a blade from the sheath at her hip and spun to face him.