Page 3 of Cold Hearted
We knew from journals and historical records that most champions killed their mark and retrieved the heart in less than twenty minutes.
“She’ll be back when she’s back,” my mother trilled, trying to take the pressure off of me, which I was grateful for.
Master Duncan released my shoulders and pointed to the ancient mirror.Each court had one, but only the Summer Court’s portal, which opened on the night of the summer solstice, had ever been activated. The other mirrors were said to open on their given season’s solstice or equinox, giving each princess a chance to retrieve the heart of one of the villainous lords if the one before them failed.
I had thirty days to complete my task, but I couldn’t imagine being gone for that long. Six days was the longest a champion had ever been in Ethereum. Her lord had run, and she’d needed to track him before eliminating him.
My mother reached out and smoothed my hair nervously, before looking back at the bulky gilded mirror. “Remember, to make the portal bring you right to an Ethereum lord, you have to hold the image of his black heart in your mind as you enter it,” she said, tapping the glass locket at her chest.
When I was younger, the heart inside was so much bigger, the size of a small fist. Now it had shriveled to the size of a walnut. I nodded to indicate I’d heard my mother, but to be honest, this was the hardest part of all of my teachings.
Meditation.
Holding a vision in my head for a long time was not something I was good at. My thoughts wandered and I always had a hard time focusing on just one thing. It was a nuisance at times, but it also meant I was able to read five books at once while holding all the data in my head without forgetting anything. I loved learning. I would do my fencing routine while thinking about my potion recipes. I called it multitasking, but Master Duncan and my mother said it would be my downfall if I couldn’t learn to concentrate when needed.
And now was the time I needed to ace meditation.
I stepped up to the ancient mirror and squared my shoulders. This was it, my moment, everything I’d worked so hard for.
Taking a deep breath, I patted the sunstone dagger at my waist for comfort and allowed the noises of the people in the throne room behind me to fade away. My mother fidgeting with her light hair beside me became a blur, and even the stern yet loving gaze of Master Duncan vanished from my mind.
I closed my eyes and focused on the heart… the cold, dead, black heart of an Ethereum lord. There were four Ethereum lords alive at any given time. When I killed this one, another would pop up in his place, a male fae given extreme powers by a dark magic we knew little about. They were evil monsters, and yet we needed the magic contained in their hearts to keep our world healthy. Faerie only worked when nature was in balance. And for the last ninety-nine years and eleven months it had been. But the month before solstice every hundred years—
“Dawn, it’s opening. Concentrate,” my mother hissed, and my eyes popped open.
The mirror before me, which I’d stared into a thousand times before, began to ripple. Swirls of metallic silver danced on its surface, and a sudden terror gripped me.
My gaze flew to Master Duncan, but he looked as calm as ever.
“Remember your training. Focus on the heart. Kill the target. Bring the new heart home,” he said, unruffled.
If only I could be as serene as Master Duncan.
I nodded once, and then closed my eyes again.
The heart. The heart of an Ethereum lord that beats with the magic to save my people.
I could do this. I was chosen. The champion of my generation. When I returned to my kingdom, my mother, and trainers, and subjects would—
“Focus,” my mother snapped.
I’d done it again. Gotten sidetracked.Stupid meditation!My least favorite class.
Taking a steadying breath, I pulled the vision of the heart that hung from my mother’s neck up in my mind and prepared for the biggest moment of my life.
Stepping closer to the mirror, I focused on the image of the black, beating heart, thinking of the thick purple magic that used to encompass it when I was a little girl. And as I walked through the mirror, my mind wandered, and for a split second I wondered what the man looked like that had been attached to the heart my mother wore in the necklace at her throat.
No.
Heart. Theheartof an Ether—
It was as if I’d been yanked at the navel by a fishing hook. There was a pinch and then a pull and I whooshed forward out of the realm of Faerie and into Ethereum.
The heart. The black heart of an Ethereum lord.I panicked and started to chant in my head. This meditation was going sideways.
Every single champion before me had landed at the feet of the lord they were meant to kill, so when I fell into a dirty horse barn, staring a fat potbellied pig straight in the face, I knew I’d made a grave mistake.
Chapter 2
