Page 122 of What did you do?

“This is all your fault.” Her voice trembled. Her hands shook the illuminated blade slightly, causing the amber glow to dance like fire in her eyes. “You ruined everything,” she whispered. “I set your life up to be the best it could have ever been.”

A loud bang sounded as the doors opened and Eli pushed out.

With a beating red heart in his hands.

He had it.

“Eli!” I cried out, unable to believe what was happening.

“You will not touch a hair on her head, Mother!” he shouted, placing his body between us.

“How did you do it? How did you break the spell?” the queen demanded.

Walter slipped through the door, moving to stand a few feet from Eli and Saracen.

I could have fainted from relief at the sight of both men unharmed.

Eli grabbed something around his neck and held it up—Mendax’s necklace. My tooth. “Apparently all I needed was a little desperation and bone,” he said, turning to cast a slight nod at Mendax. “Here, take this to its rightful owner. It’s been too long apart,” he said, moving to pass the crimson heart to Walter.

“No! Don’t be a lovestruck idiot! She will destroy everything in her path, Aurelius. You don’t know what Artemi can do like I do. You must destroy her and the heart,” Saracen cried out as she grabbed at her son.

Eli passed my glistening heart to Walter and removed the blade from Saracen’s hand, tightening his hold on her.

Taking two steps, Walter held it out for me.

There it was.

After nineteen years, I was about to have a whole heart again.

“Give her some space! Who knows what’s going to shoot out of her once her powers are restored,” Mendax said, sounding excited.

Walter gave me a solemn nod of encouragement. He was the only one that knew the truth.

I looked into Eli’s kind eyes. It would probably be the last time they ever looked at me like that.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered to him.

His brows wrinkled. “Don’t be sorry. You’ve got this,” he encouraged.

I hovered the beating heart over my chest and looked at Saracen.

Taking a large gulp of air, I pressed the organ to my skin, just above where the other half lay.

The air around us stilled as everyone watched with bated breath to see what would happen.

At first, the heart did nothing. It pushed against my skin, making horrible squelching sounds, and I began to worry I had miscalculated, that possibly it had been twenty years and not nineteen and eight months…but then it all happened.

My chest burned like a fire was erupting when the smallest crack appeared in my skin, no bigger than a quarter. The heart in my hands moved to the opening and slid in, looking like a deflated balloon, until it was completely inside my chest.

The fissure sealed up with a pop, and I felt my chest fill as I gulped for breath.

It was finished.

I had done it.

“How do you feel? Are you okay?” questioned Eli as both he and Saracen gawked.

“Do you need anything?” Walter asked.

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