“Tell me what you saw, my love,” he whispered gently.
My heart almost jumped into my throat at his words. Please don’t let this be the last time he calls me that.
I told him and Brom everything—of the memories I’d seen in the world of the mirror.
Throughout the whole story, Brom and Zach listened with rapt attention, and when I stopped talking, when my voice felt hoarse from all the words and the rock dust, Zach placed a gentle kiss on my forehead.
“You learned the truth, Ivy.” He said it in a way that felt like praise, and I glowed with warmth.
I lifted my gaze to the blocked cave entrance. “But it’s too late. Millennia—er—Myriana is surely going to hatch the Sable Dragon.”
“I don’t understand,” Brom said, also staring at the caved-in rocks with a frown, “if she’s really the Evil Queen then how come she hasn’t already made the dragon hatch? Why was she traveling with us? Shouldn’t she know where it is?”
“It’s because the Evil Queen is possessing Millennia’s body,” I explained, quickly recapping what Myriana had said about her last body not surviving the curse that created the Sable Dragon egg and the mirror’s shared memories of Myriana’s first host.
“You mean she didn’t retain the memories of the girl before her?” Brom asked.
I shook my head. “Even if she did retain them, this mountain range is huge. It could’ve taken her forever to find the egg on her own, and it doesn’t seem like she has the same Sense that Royals do.”
Zach snapped his fingers. “Maybe not as Millennia.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, look at how weak she was. Instead of trying to kill us directly, she used her earth magic to try to crush us. What if the reason she was so weak is because it was the first time she had attempted to fully take over her host’s body? What if she didn’t have enough power to control both Millennia’s mage magic and her body the whole time?”
“Which would mean…” I started, my mind racing, “that the Millennia we’ve been traveling with is still the real Millennia.” That thought gave me a surge of strength. Millennia was still there. She’d been there all along—probably fighting the Evil Queen the whole time—battling with an entire other consciousness causing insurmountable pain.
“Right. It would’ve been too difficult to control her and lead her to the Sable Dragon,” Zach said.
“But now that she’s fully possessing Millennia, she’ll be able to locate the egg,” I breathed.
“But it’ll take her forever to get there.” Brom pointed to a dark spot on the rocks that looked like drying blood. “You wounded her, right, Ivy? If she’s weak and injured, it’s going to take her some time.”
Zach inspected the light coming through the crack in the ceiling. “Time is all we need. That opening up there isn’t too high. Brom, do you think you can fit through?”
Brom squinted at the light, frowning. “I can try,” he muttered, standing and dusting off his trousers.
After some coordinating, and shifting as many movable rocks as we could to form a platform, Zach stood on the rocks, and Brom stood on Zach’s shoulders. I watched and prayed the whole time, to whom, I was no longer sure, but it made me feel better anyway.
Too many tension-filled seconds of swaying and reaching passed before Brom was able to grab the lip of the opening. I scrambled up next to Zach, and together we pushed Brom’s feet up. With a shout of triumph, Brom slipped his shoulders through the crack, then the rest of him followed. Lying on his stomach, he looked back down at us. “All clear. Sparrow harpies are gone, too,” he called. “The crack’s a lot bigger than you’d think. I’d guess you can both fit through.”
Zach and I breathed a sigh of relief. Grinning, Zach waved him away. “See if you can find our packs in the front of the cave. I’ve got some rope you can throw down here.”
“Got it. Be right back.” Brom’s face started to move away.
“Brom!” I yelled.
His face came back. “Yeah?”
“Please be careful,” I begged.
He smiled in return. “Of course, milady.” With that, he disappeared from view.
“He’ll be fine, Ivy,” Zach said, knowing how worried I was—with wraiths and goblins and sparrow harpies and who knew what else out there. “The kid’s strong and skilled. I wouldn’t have been able to kill that wraith without him.”
I knew he was, but that didn’t stop me from worrying—nothing ever would. My knees buckled, and I dropped to the little stone platform we’d raised. Wordlessly, Zach sat next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.
“I know,” was all he said.
I turned to him and buried my face in his chest, his arms enveloping me. As worried as I was for Brom, the events of the past hour came to me in full force, and I almost couldn’t breathe again. I clawed at his shirt, squeezing the fabric in my palms, wishing we were anywhere but right here. I wished we were back at the village on that bed, or in that forest with the golden sunlight, or at the Romantica’s bonfire.
“Myriana loved him, Zach,” I whispered, my voice muffled in his chest.
Zach didn’t reply, just ran his hands up and down my arms.
I tore myself from his chest to look at him. “But he betrayed her. Did Raed love her? Did he love Saevalla? Or did he just love his new kingdom?” I pressed my palms into my eyes. “I don’t understand Love. It’s not logical, it doesn’t make sen—”
The words died on my tongue. Love wasn’t logical. It was the opposite of everything the Legion taught. The Legion taught us to rule without emotion, to base every decision on reason and lead others to do so. Could that be because Love led to the very emotions that Myriana had fallen prey to? Anger? Hate? Jealousy? Revenge? Did the Legion teach us only of Lust because we needed to prevent the powerful, irrational emotions that accompanied Love?
If that was the case, then I could understand why the Legion had claimed it didn’t exist. Love was dangerous. It was a risk.
“It’s worth it,” Zach said.
I looked at him, jolted by his words even though they were soft, calm. “What?”
“I can tell what you’re thinking. You get that look every time I talk about Love. You’re thinking Love is the reason Myriana’s heart surrendered to all those dark emotions.”
“Well, isn’t it?”
“The Legion thinks opening your heart to someone and trusting them with it is too much of a risk—well, I’m telling you, it’s worth it.” He grazed his knuckles against my cheek, and flipped a curl behind my ear. “You’re worth it.”
I swallowed hard, my skin hot from his touch. “And if I hurt you?”
His hand moved onto my neck, and with his thumb against my jaw, his gaze captured mine. “Even if you burned me to ashes, Ivy, it’d be worth it. That’s the beauty of trees, remember? They grow back.”
“You’re not a tree, you fool,” I said.
“But don’t you think I bear a remarkable resemblance?”
At this, I finally laughed, and Zach ducked his head to kiss my cheek and jaw. “I love your laugh. I love—”
I placed a hand over his mouth, stopping his beautiful yet confusing words. “Don’t.”
I’d told him I believed him, and I meant it. I believed he loved me. I even believed Love existed, but I couldn’t let him say it to me again. Not when I couldn’t say it back to him. It would’ve been easy, too easy, to tell him the words he wanted to hear…but I couldn’t, not after he told me what Love really was, what it truly meant.
Love wasn’t manipulation. It was honest, trusting, open. How could I tell him I felt the same way he did when I didn’t fully understand it?
I knew I loved his goofy smile and loud laugh. His cocky shrugs and tender gazes.
I knew I loved the way he held me and the way he ran his fingers across my arm.
I knew I loved that he had stood in front of the Master Mages, my mother, and the Saevallans, and told them he wanted to be my partner.