“We can take them both.”
We didn’t have much of a choice, did we? It wasn’t as if we could linger or ask the Queen for assistance. We would take them both and cross our fingers that one of them worked. I stretched a hand toward the closest one.
“Look.” Aveen pointed to the second heart, which seemed to beat faster as my fingers approached.
My fingertips grazed the bars, and the door flew open.
After all these years, I’d finally found my heart.
“Let me do it,” Aveen said, as if she’d noticed my hesitation. I let her take it out, feeling a pinch in my chest as she cradled the organ against her.
“We need to put it back,” she said, looking up at me through clear blue eyes.
I towed her toward the entrance, my eyes quickly adjusting to the brightening light at the end of the tunnel. “When we get back to the cottage.”Thenwe could put it back.
“We do it now.”
“Aveen, there isn’t time—”
“Then stop wasting it and put your heart back where it belongs.”
I hurried as fast as I could between the walls until we made it back to the Queen’s chambers. Aveen appeared too busy staring at my heart to notice me forcing the wall back into place.
There wasn’t time for this. Wasn’t time for any of it.
We certainly didn’t have time for an argument. But from the stubborn tilt to her chin, I knew that’s where this would be headed. So instead, I ripped off my coat and opened my shirt.
My heart spasmed where she cradled it against her chest.
When I took a calming breath, the heart slowed.
I recited the spell Eava had taught me, balancing between hurrying and making sure each word was correct. With magic swelling in my palm, I breathed on my fingertips until they glowed, then traced the scar left by the Queen. It felt as if someone were holding a hot coal to my chest. Sweat beaded on my brow, my head swimming with the pain. “I can’t . . .”
Aveen scooted closer. “Can I help?”
I gave her my hand, willing my magic to pass like a conduit to her, fully expecting to find it blocked the way it normally was when doing this with a human. But there was no block. My magic passed seamlessly from me to her until her hand glowed.
“Finish it,” I croaked.
She brought her burning hand to the scar, flaying me open as if she’d used the dagger.
Black magic pulsed through my veins, drawing my darkness to the surface. “My heart.” I couldn’t hold on much longer. If she didn’t hurry, the shadows would surely take control.
Aveen collected my heart, staring down at it as if mesmerized by the way it pulsed.
“Against the cut,” I wheezed.
By some miracle, I managed to whisper the two final words, completing the spell. My heart vanished from Aveen’s palm, and I gasped at the wrenching pain, as if someone had pried open my ribs and stuffed me with stones.
“Did it work?” Aveen whispered.
“I don’t know.” Suddenly, the pain in my chest eased, and a thrumming pulse flooded my ears, as if I was back in that hall surrounded by hearts. “I . . . I think it did.” Feckin’ hell. It had worked! It had really worked!
“How do you feel?”
“Like shite.” Like I’d been chewed up and spit out and then stomped over and over again. I checked my pulse. My stomach leapt when I felt the steady beat beneath my fingertips.
She’d done it. She’d saved me.