Page 82 of Black Hearted
“Good work,” I told him, my voice edged with cautious optimism. “Now let’s—”
A sharp, concentrated beam of light cut through the shadow box like a welder’s flame, forcing me to leap out of the way. Theedges of the box buckled as Liliana relentlessly slashed at it. Stryker lashed out with a shadow rope to reinforce the structure, but her light beams sliced through it effortlessly, creating a doorway she stepped through with chilling precision.
“Her magic is stronger than ours,” Stryker muttered, his tone laced with disbelief.
Queen Liliana stepped forward, her head tilted as she surveyed the three of us. The faestone dagger gleamed in her hand, and her calculating gaze darted between us as if deciding who to carve up first.
The shield. It had to go. Without it, I could kill her.
Summoning another black shard, I prepared to launch it, ready to do whatever was necessary to break her defense. But before I could strike, Liliana froze. Her eyes went wide, her mouth opening in a silent gasp.
Her hand flew to her chest, clutching a locket I hadn’t noticed until now. The locket cracked, purple mist escaping in wisps until it revealed a tiny, shriveled black heart no larger than a walnut.
“Is that our ancestor’s heart?” Adrien asked, his voice thick with revulsion.
Stryker unsheathed his sword, his movements slow and deliberate. “She dies now.”
I was about to agree when a sharp, piercing pain exploded in my chest. It felt as though something vital was being ripped from me.
I staggered, my breath hitching as grief and despair settled like a weight in my chest.
I turned to my brothers and found the same haunted expressions mirrored on their faces.
We all felt it.
Zane.
He was gone. I wanted to deny it to myself, to push the feeling aside, but I couldn’t. It was pulsing through me somehow, the loss of my brother.
I’d always shared a connection with my brothers that felt almost physical. Stryker’s energy was heavy and unyielding, Adrien’s vibrant and resilient, and Zane’s—Zane’s was pure and brimming with life. That bond had been with me for as long as I could remember, a constant thread tying us together.
When we were twelve, we even tested if we could read each other’s minds. We couldn’t. But we could always feel each other’s presence—until now. Now, there was only a void where Zane’s presence had always been.
“He could just be unconscious,” Adrien said softly beside me, his voice thick with hope.
“No!” Stryker roared, throwing his head back as anguish tore through his voice, raw and primal.
Zane.
I clenched my fists, my heart heavy with the weight of his absence. Zane was the best of us, full of light and purpose, and he had so much left to live for. How could this have happened? Why did it have to be him?
“They did it,” Queen Liliana said, her voice filled with disbelief. “They ended the curse.”
“Mother!” someone yelled, and we all glanced up. Dawn was at a window. Looking exhausted and horrified. “If the curse has ended, then it’s over. We are all safe. The fae of both lands can live happily side by side in safety. Mother, we are all free.”
But Queen Liliana’s face twisted with rage as her gaze turned from Dawn and locked on me.
“No,” she shouted. “We must rid all lands of the Ethereum lords and their black hearts.”
“If you mean that, then you will die,” Dawn called down, sadness as well as resignation in her voice.
“They can’t be allowed to live,” Queen Liliana all but growled. And the look in her eyes made it clear she wouldn’t stop until I was dead.
Any lingering guilt I might’ve had about killing her vanished. She was a monster. A mother that was willing to kill fae who she knew were innocent. And one that her daughter loved and married.
With a flick of Queen Liliana’s wrist, three beams of sunlight shot toward me. I dodged, but pain seared across my ear as one of the beams grazed me. Warm blood dripped down my neck as I hit the ground.
Stryker and Adrien roared in unison, their shadow whips and ropes pounding against her shield as her beams of light retaliated with deadly precision.
