Page 120 of A Cage of Crystal

Teryn’s heart raced as he strode between them. He knew this was only a memory, but he couldn’t help wanting to protect her from him.

Morkai stepped closer just the same. “I can give you half my heart.”

“Half your heart?” Cora said with a sneer. “Is that what you consider a proper proposal?”

“The other half doesn’t belong to me. But you could. I think my heart would like you. It’s a jealous heart, but it could come to understand.”

Teryn recalled what Morkai had said when he’d first trapped Emylia inside the crystal. How he’d cried out when he’d brought her hand and the stone to the marking on his shirt.

I’ll bring you back. I’ve given up half my heart to do so. It belongs to you now.

“Working with the ethera takes great sacrifice,” Emylia said. “To trap me, he had to sacrifice half of his heart-center—the spiritual aspect of his heart. That’s what made him colder. Deadlier.”

She waved her hand again, but the scene had only slightly changed. Cora was now doubled over, and a shaft of an arrow was protruding from Morkai’s ribs.

“I will give you time to choose me,” the sorcerer said. “And you will. You will choose one half of my heart willingly, or you will take the other half unwillingly.”

The image froze in place.

“Morkai no longer has even half a heart remaining,” Emylia said, “for binding his soul to the crystal with his dying breath stole the second half. He is heartless now, both halves trapped in the very crystal that holds our etheras.”

Teryn frowned at her, unsure why she was telling him this. Was she trying to make him understand the sorcerer? Pity him? But a far more pressing realization rose to his mind. “He said if she didn’t take half his heart willingly, she’d take his other half unwillingly. Does that mean…”

His mind spun. He couldn’t bear to say it out loud.

Emylia did so for him. “Yes. With his goals so close to being realized, he’d chosen his next target. He selected Cora to house my soul. Once he has the power of the Morkaius, he’ll do to her what he’s trying to do to you. With the power he seeks, Cora won’t have a fighting chance.”

Rage tore through him, boiling his blood, quickening his pulse. It took all his restraint to steady his breaths. “Tell me the truth, Emylia. What do you want? Whose side are you on?”

“Yours,” she said, but her voice was empty. Tired. “I don’t want to come back, Teryn. I just want to be at rest.”

Teryn studied her for a few silent moments. She’d lied to him. Kept vital facts from him. After what she’d shown him, what she’d confessed to doing, he was even less sure he could trust her than he’d been before.

And yet, she was his only hope. He needed her to unravel the weaving in her memories, seek the pattern Morkai had used to strengthen the crystal’s density. Only then did they have any chance of getting free.

Unless…

Had Emylia been telling the truth when she’d said her memory had been too hazy? That she’d been too distant to see the pattern clearly?

She narrowed her eyes, and her expression hardened. “Think what you want of me. Hate me if you must. Distrust me. Just please believe that all I want is to be free from my cage and take the monster who trapped me here with me.”

Teryn was taken aback by the sudden ferocity in her tone. The rage that rippled through her, strong enough to match his own.

He gave her a curt nod. “Then we continue with our plan.”

“We take him down,” she said.

To himself Teryn added,And protect the woman I love, no matter what it takes.

48

For the first time all day, Mareleau was no longer nauseous. She wanted to believe her calm stomach heralded a finite end to her morning sickness—a misleading term, by the way; she’d thank the seven gods if her roiling gut were relegated to morning—but her relief was likely due to the piece of candied ginger she’d just popped into her mouth. It was a welcome deviation from her constant refills of ginger tea and was all thanks to Ridine’s cook. Mareleau had recently learned that if she came to the kitchen to request a refill of her tea in person, the cook would dote on her and hand her a plate of the latest sweet she’d whipped up. The most recent gift being the handkerchief full of candied ginger she now held in her hand.

Mareleau suspected the woman had gleaned the reason behind her constant need for tea, hence the doting. While she’d normally be averse to such babying—she was a queen, after all—she rather liked the woman’s attention. And she certainly preferred the candied ginger over the tea.

She meandered away from the kitchen toward the keep but found her feet moving past the correct staircase in favor of a different one. One she’d already visited twice today and was forbade entrance—

She pulled up short once she reached the stairwell in question. It was…empty.

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