Zach raised his sword and sprinted toward Millennia. She lifted a hand, curling her fingers like a claw, then thrust it to the side. Zach’s feet swept out from under him as an invisible force knocked him into the cavern’s wall. I screamed for him and tried to run, but my legs were heavier than lead, and I fell to the floor. The darkness was collapsing on top of me. My lungs were filled with it.
I was drowning again. Like I had when my mother raged at me. Like I had in the well. I remembered the way the cursed water had pulled my body, twisting my muscles and making them scream in agony.
What had saved me?
Zach.
His name came to me as it did then. He said he was going to protect me that night by the fire. I believed it with every ounce of hope I had left inside me.
I crawled toward him as the cavern floor shook under my hands and knees, praying to every star I knew that he was still alive. I barely registered that the egg’s shell began to crack. Whatever star was listening answered my prayer—Zach shifted on the floor, groaning and shaking his head.
A surge of strength flowed through me, and I managed to get to my feet. He was alive. That…that was all that mattered. If he was alive, I could figure out something else. We could still defeat Myriana. As long as he was still alive.
Zach was the secret strength that had saved me in that well, just as he saved me now by giving me the strength to keep moving. If Zach did that to me, then what would the thought of Tarren do to Millennia—her one true love?
With great effort, I changed course, stumbling over loose rubble from the craters in the floor. Millennia was still in there—I just had to reach her.
I walked toward Myriana, aware of the cracks in the eggshell growing, the mountain shaking around us, and Zach struggling to his feet behind me.
I stopped a few paces from the Evil Queen.
“Myriana!” I screamed over the booms coming from the egg.
Myriana twitched but didn’t look in my direction. Darkness flowed from the air into her body then out through her hands, entering the shell like she was some sort of conduit, feeding the Sable Dragon the energy it needed to hatch.
“You didn’t fail them!” I yelled.
She looked over her shoulder at me, her violet eyes blazing.
I spoke the words I knew that somewhere, deep down, she needed to hear. Underneath all that evil. All the hate. She was a mother.
“Those babies. The ones you couldn’t have—you didn’t fail them. It wasn’t your fault.”
She wrenched her hands from the egg and lunged for me. Her hands wrapped around my neck with such force that I fell to the ground. The stone collided with my back and rattled my bones.
Straddling my stomach, Myriana’s hands began squeezing the life from me. “Don’t talk about them.”
I struggled to form words. My vision blackened.
“Y-you d-didn’t fail Tarren, either.”
Myriana’s hands froze on my neck.
“Just because you couldn’t rescue him on your own—you can’t blame yourself, Millennia,” I whispered through the rasp in my throat. “It wasn’t your fault.”
The queen’s eyes burned a violet so deep they turned indigo. “I wasn’t strong enough.”
Millennia. I tried to shake my head, though her hands still held a viselike grip around my neck. “Yes, you are. You’re plenty strong. He gives you strength, doesn’t he?” I gripped her wrists and squeezed gently. Because it’s what Zach gives me.
The violet in her eyes flickered to a deep blue. There was something there.
“That’s what Love does, right? It makes you feel pain, but courage, too.”
Millennia’s hands twitched, barely loosening their hold.
“The Legion is wrong.” I forced the truth out of me as if I were cutting into my own skin and baring all. “We’ve always been wrong. We put power and blood and logic above everything else, when we should’ve been ruling with our hearts.”
Hearing myself admit this was like making another incision into my skin. But I couldn’t stop. I had to keep going so I could sew the wound back up tight. So that it could heal properly.
“Love does exist. I saw it in the way you talked about him. You still love him. You always will. And it makes you stronger. You’re not weak like her, Millennia. You didn’t cut out your heart or abandon your feelings—you embraced them.” I grabbed her hands, feeling Tarren’s ring on her finger. “Why else would you still wear this ring? I know you can push her out. Please, please don’t let her win.”
She blinked. Blue irises.
Overhead, a crack in the egg splintered. The loudest boom yet shook the floor as the black tendrils reached the top and seeped into the open cracks.
“Remember Tarren.” I tore her shaking hands away from my throat and threw my arms around her, squeezing tight. “Come back to him, Millennia. Come back,” I cried as the egg gave a gigantic tremble.
Millennia’s eyes cleared into her beautiful ocean blue as Zach caught up, standing over us. “Tarren…” she whispered.
From above, a great claw the color and texture of obsidian broke through the shell, sending a fragment flying into the cave wall and shattering.
The Sable Dragon was awake.
Millennia’s face twisted in pain. “Ivy—I can’t hold her back—Myriana—”
She held on to me—held on for dear life. I opened my mouth to respond, to tell her to fight back, feel the love she had for Tarren. To drive the Evil Queen from her heart.
“Kill me, Zach.” The words were barely out of her mouth before Zach had the blade of his dagger pressed to her throat.
Shocked, I couldn’t move. The Queen was still inside Millennia, and if we killed Millennia, then we would kill the Queen. It had been the plan all along, but…
Around us, the mountain was crumbling. Rocks and stalactites fell from the ceiling. The obsidian claw scraped against the shell from within, causing more pieces to fall like giant boulders.
“Kill me—hurry!” Millennia cried, tears running down her pretty cheeks, bringing red blotches to her face.
Zach’s hand shook. He stared at Millennia in horror, but the dagger pressed deeper into her neck. Droplets of blood gathered at the edge of the blade.
Logic said to kill her. The Legion said to kill her. Perish emotions and vanquish doubts. Lead by example.
I tugged on his wrist. “Don’t—please, don’t.”
I couldn’t let him. How could we kill an innocent girl whose only crime was loving someone too much?
“Do it. I don’t want her to use me as a puppet. I want her out, even if that means taking her with me.” Millennia tried to shove me away.
I held strong. “Then get her out. Get rid of the feelings that make her stronger.”
“I—I c-can’t.” Millennia pitched her head forward, sobs shaking her body. “I’ll never stop hating the Legion. I can’t let these feelings go.”
“Then change them.” I grabbed her shoulders, just as another dragon claw broke free. “Forgive the Legion. Forgiveness is harder than giving up. I won’t let you give up like she did, Millennia. Tarren would want you to love.”
Millennia stared at me through her tears. Zach jerked his blade away, his face a mixture of doubt and anguish. He couldn’t do it and, for the first time, I felt so grateful for what I always thought was his weakness—his faith in Love.
Millennia collapsed into my arms.
I held on to her until Zach jerked me back. I almost fought his grip, but then I saw why he’d ripped me away. Purple flames bloomed from Millennia’s chest and spread, dancing over her shoulders and neck. She gazed upward, cheeks streaked with tears, her face calm and peaceful.
“I’m sorry, my love.”
With her words, screams ripped through the cavern, echoing louder than the booms of the egg that shook the mountain.
I’d heard these screams before.
They were the screams of Myriana when the dwarves had cut out her heart.
As the screams echoed, the purple fire rose off her and disappeared into thick smoke, a twisting mass of shadows and fog—the warped heart of Queen Myriana. Then, as quickly as it rose, it burst into golden dust. It was as if the Heart could not withstand Millennia’s pure act of love—forgiveness.
Millennia passed out in my arms. Who could blame her after holding an evil spirit inside her for months?