Total pages in book: 147
Estimated words: 139662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 698(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 698(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
“They’ll see her when they look at me,” he says. “The Unseelie will see Queen Arya when they look at me. They deserve better too.”
“We’ll prove that you’re worthy,” I promise. My stomach twists with the grief I feel through our bond.
He holds my hand tight, so tight in his grip it would hurt if I weren’t so distracted by the waves of emotion flowing from him. He reaches out and brushes his fingertips across my neck before pulling the green fire gem from beneath my dress. “I almost expected you to destroy this.”
I’m struggling to follow his volatile mood, but I shake my head in response. I’m surprised I didn’t destroy it in those early days, when my anger felt like it might eat me alive. “Somehow I knew I needed it. It amplifies my power, right?”
He huffs out a breath. “It would if it were a fire gem, but it’s not. You’re just that strong.” His smile is tender. “Mab’s bloodline was always stronger than Gloriana’s. It made my mother crazy. That’s why she was so obsessed with collecting fire gems and stealing Unseelie power.”
“If it’s not a fire gem, then what is it?”
“It’s something else.” In one sudden movement he yanks it off my neck, snapping the chain. He studies the gem in his palm. “My mother dedicated her life to finding fire gems, but in her quest to collect as many as she could, her servants found another element beneath these mountains. An element even more scarce than the fire gems . . . When Mab died in the Goblin Mountains, the gods saw the injustice and mourned the loss of a loving mother in a cruel world. They brought her back to life and gave her the choice between magic and immortality, or a mortal life with a court of her own.”
“And she tricked them into giving her both,” I say. “Finn and Kane told me the story. What does any of this have to do with the fire gem?”
Sebastian lifts his gaze from the substance in his hand. “This isn’t a fire gem. It’s a bloodstone.”
I shake my head. “Mab destroyed the bloodstones.”
“Mab was tricky, but the gods were trickier. They hid the remaining bloodstones deep beneath the mountains where they’d be shielded from her powers. My mother never believed that the gods would allow Mab to destroy them all, and for years she’s had her Unseelie captives search for the sacred stones. I claimed and hid this one before she knew they’d been successful.”
“What are you trying to say?”
He closes both hands around the gem and repeats an incantation under his breath three times before opening them again. Now, instead of a gem, he holds a pool of liquid in his palm. It rolls around like mercury and is the gray-blue of a stormy sea. “I’m trying to tell you that all this time you were wearing the very thing that could’ve given you back your mortality and allowed you to pass on the crown. I’m saying that even now, you could take this sacred water of the bloodstone into your body and become human again. But if you do, there’s no turning back. You could never become fae again.”
All I wanted a few short weeks ago was to be human again. To be free of this power and have the choice to live in Elora with Jas. But now . . . “Why didn’t you tell me about this before?” I ask. “That first night I came to you and asked you to dismantle your mother’s camps?”
“Because I’m a selfish bastard, and I wanted you more than I wanted your power.” He swallows hard. “Do you wish I had?”
I might have taken advantage of it if I’d known. “I’m glad you didn’t tell me. I have work to do here. This court needs me, and I . . .” I need more than a mortal existence to love Finn, and I need this power to truly help this court.
“I know,” Sebastian whispers, taking my hand. Before I realize what he means to do, he uses my hand to shove his cupped palm to his lips. All at once, there’s a flash of light. Nothing but power surging in front of and through me. And then I feel it—a rush of power, of magic, of life in my veins. My back arches as the power of the court thrums in my blood.
Sebastian collapses, and I fall to my knees. “Bash? What did you do?”
Finn rushes into the cavern and drops to kneel beside me. “What’s wrong, what’s happened?”
Sebastian’s still for far too long as we stare down at him in horror and my tears spill onto him. “Come on, Bash. It’s not supposed to end like this.”
Fear ripples through me, but I close my eyes and exhale, releasing it, making room for hope. In this world of magic, I won’t believe this will be the end for him.