Page 98 of Black Hearted
I smiled. “That’s not me.” I was familiar enough with my nature magic to know I wasn’t making that flower grow.
Zane stared at me in shock.
“Keep going,” I encouraged, just like he had.
It seemed that when I saved him, and my heart turned black, we’d fused ourselves together in such a way that we now shared powers. I could call lightning from the sky, and he could make flowers bloom. In that way, it was actually beautiful that we could share such a thing.
“Whoa,” Nellie exclaimed when a shockwave of energy exploded out from us, instantly turning every blade of grass green and restoring the flowers and trees.
Then, just as suddenly as it happened, our magic cut off.
We stood, looking around in wonder at the beauty we had just created. The trees were now heavy with green leaves and dotted with flowers. A carpet of thick green grass blanketed everything, and the flowers—oh, the flowers—were gorgeous. Pinks, purples, yellows … the colors were vibrant and alive.
I peered down at the earth, which seemed to have taken the crystal as a sacrifice and amplified our powers to create this.
“Thank you,” I whispered to it.
“Can I try at the next court?” Nellie asked, holding up Isolde’s dagger.
“No,” Zane and I said simultaneously, and then we laughed.
We spent the next several days traveling to the edges of the Fall Court and then the Winter Court, my least favorite because it was so cold, to heal the lands. Each time, our combined power caused the crystal to sink into the earth and spread its magic throughout the land, restoring it.
But there was still one place I wanted to fix.
“You guys mind if we take a little detour?” I asked. “Well, actually, it would be quite a big detour.”
Zane gave me a questioning look.
“Where? Somewhere fun? Will there be sweets?” Nellie peppered me with questions as she leaned her head on my shoulder inside the carriage.
Over the past few days, we’d really bonded, and she’d cemented a place inside my heart. Every morning, I did her hair, and she kept asking for more elaborate styles with braids. She told me she had always wanted braided hair, but her nana’s fingers couldn’t manage it in her old age. I felt for the girl and was so glad that Zane had brought her into our lives.
I laughed, looking down at her. “Not only will there be sweets, but there will also be puppies,” I told her.
Zane jerked his head in my direction, realization dawning. “You want to go to the Savage Lands?”
I nodded. “What if we made them … less savage? This is the portal the citizens of Faerie will be able to use to visit Ethereum. What if we cleaned them up and made it a travel hub of sorts?”
Zane’s eyes grew wide. “I love that idea. My men could put in a road. Or maybe I could help the courts build a train system here like the one we have in Ethereum?”
I nodded, feeling my excitement build. “We would need approval from the other courts, but I don’t see why not. Oh, it would make travel so much easier.”
It was settled. We traveled to the town where Zane had bought our puppies first and played with them, promising to return once they were weaned. After taking a night’s rest in an inn, we set off for the heart of the Savage Lands to show Nellie the tree where Zane had lost his life and saved our worlds.
Since the curse wasn’t trying to stop us, we moved quickly and with far more ease than before, but as we’d traveled, we’d taken in the devastation from the flood of black liquid that had tried to kill us. Half of the trees and foliage had been washed away. The areas that weren’t affected by the black flood were wild and unruly, with darkened trees and thick overgrowth. An ominous-looking place that was difficult to travel through.
When we finally reached the Tree of Transformation, the golden vine arch the Wise Ones had created with their magic was just as beautiful and awe-inspiring as I remembered.
“Whoa, this portal is pretty,” Nellie said as she slid off the back of her horse and took a few tentative steps forward.
“What are you thinking?” Zane asked me, looking around at the dead landscape around us.
I pulled out my dagger—the last one—and palmed it.
“I don’t want this to be used as a weapon ever again,” I told him, kneeling as I set it on the ground. “I wonder if the earth will take it and allow me to … redecorate.” I winked.
Technically, the Savage Lands, located at the very center of our converged courts, weren’t part of any one court but were still part of Faerie. The faestones seemed to carry magic we had never fully understood, so I was hoping that the pink moonstone would still work here.
