Shame when my mother lashed out at me or hit me or looked at me with disgust in her eyes…times a thousand.
My flesh was searing hot and burning cold at the same time. My insides thrashed in agony as if needles were stabbing into my veins and forcing poison into my bloodstream. Both my head and heart were splitting in two—physically and emotionally—betrayal, devastation, jealousy, hatred. Emotions so strong it made me want to cut out my own heart and give it to dwarves—sealing away my pain so I could never feel again.
Just to make it stop.
Maybe Myriana had been right to get on that altar surrounded by dwarves. Make it stop.
Then something under my hand twitched.
Zach.
I focused on that one sensation. That I still had hold of someone.
Someone who stood with me, hands on a sword, burning in black flames, to save the kingdoms.
Someone who loved me when I cried.
Someone who loved me even if I yelled at him.
Someone who loved my freckles, my imperfections.
Someone who wanted to love me, and did.
I couldn’t use words to give him my answer. He’d never hear me. But I could show him.
Once, just once, before we burned and drove the sword into the dragon’s mouth and probably died, I would have that kiss—the kiss I’d craved since the Master Mage joined our hands…for reasons I hadn’t realized then.
I stood up on my toes. Somehow, through all this pain, I was able to move. I touched his cheek. Flames licked our bodies—nothing could compare to this agony. Razor teeth loomed over us now, the very heart of the fire only feet away.
And I kissed him.
His lips weren’t soft or full. They were rough and chapped. He smelled like smoke and sweat and blood.
Still, it stopped time. It pulled the sun from the sky and tossed the stars into the sea.
Or maybe it was all in my head. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except this kiss.
Zach dropped the sword and wrapped both arms around me, pulling me tighter, kissing me back.
I let the sword fall from my fingertips as well, lost in his kiss.
The mountains moved. The sick were healed. The flames stopped.
The flames…stopped?
A small part of me realized that was not in my head. It was real.
As our lips briefly broke apart, a breath away from each other, I vaguely noticed Zach and I were both encased in gold.
Shining, gleaming, shimmering in pure, beautiful golden light like we were children of the sun.
As Zach shifted his lips against mine, deepening our kiss, letting our breaths mingle as one, a giant cascade of gold like a tidal wave washed out of the cave, dissolving the dragon into a thousand orbs of congealed light.
When Zach released his hold on me, letting me slide out of our kiss, I finally looked up, blinking through all the golden light and dust.
The dragon was gone. The shell fragments were gone. The darkness in my chest was gone.
I looked back at Zach, my mouth open in shock.
Clearly just as surprised, he blinked, and slowly, his lips spread into a grin.
“Looks like I have my answer.”
Chapter
Thirty-Six
Lead By Example
Even as we picked our way through the tunnels, back out to the light of day, all of us now healed thanks to the Golden Effect, or rather the magic of True Love, I could not escape Zach’s smugness.
So maybe I was in love with him.
And maybe our kiss had killed the dragon and sent a golden wave through the cave that could’ve spread our magic over an unknowable distance.
But he needn’t seem quite so full of himself.
Of course, I couldn’t keep from smiling the whole way, either.
Millennia stretched out her arms and sighed, her face lifted toward the sun. She wasn’t as pale now, with rosier cheeks and her eyes less of a deep-blue and more of a gray-blue. I wondered how much of the queen’s spirit had altered Millennia, physically and otherwise.
“I haven’t felt so light in months,” she said.
“Do you remember how she possessed you, Millennia?” I asked.
She frowned and tilted her head. “I remember going into the forests back home right after I’d tried to save Tarren. Then the next few days were blurry…” She shook her head. “I just remember waking up and knowing I had to leave Raed. It feels like the last few months have been like that. I decided to do something, but I never remembered the thought process of the decision. But…I was still…me.”
Her face clouded over as she talked, as if she was worried she had done terrible things while being possessed and was suddenly remembering them all.
I placed my hand on her shoulder. “It doesn’t matter. You’re free now.”
She tackled me with a hug. I laughed and wrapped my arms around her shoulders.
“If you hadn’t reached me back there,” she said, her voice right next to my ear, “that evil old hag would’ve been eating at my soul for eternity.”
The two of us pulled away. “That was you. I can’t imagine how you could forgive the Legion, but I’m glad you did.”
“I was able to forgive them only because I met you, princess. When you asked me about Tarren, and about Love, you proved to me that Royals aren’t cruel. Just ignorant.” She gave me a wink.
I squeezed her hands. “It’s true. We have a lot to learn. But I promise, we’ll get Tarren out of the dungeons.”
With tears in her eyes, she kissed my cheek.
“So can you still do magic?” Bromley asked, sitting with his back against a tree, also enjoying the sun after the darkness of the cave.
Millennia shook her head. “I haven’t tried. I’m not entirely sure I want anything to do with it anymore. I’d much rather sit and listen to Tarren sing every night.”
Zach looped his arm around my shoulders like it was the most natural thing in the world—I tried to stop myself from blushing. “Not that I don’t think spending every night in a theater is a wonderful thing, but I wish you’d reconsider. You’re a good fighter. Something tells me that wasn’t all the Queen in there. We could use your skill against the Forces.”
Millennia squinted up at the blue sky. “I’ll think about it. Maybe once Royals and Romantica finally see eye to eye, but who knows when that will happen.”
“It may take some time, but it is going to happen. It has to,” Zach said. He turned his hand over, studying the Mark of Myriana that still remained. “We have to assume that if our marks are still here, then the curse on the Royals still exists. But now that we know the truth of the Kiss, we can finally gain the upper hand.”
For the first time since our kiss only hours ago, anxiety crept back in.
“I’m going to get some water,” I announced, brushing off Zach’s arm and walking away from the cave’s entrance, toward the stream running down the mountainside.
Millennia’s and Brom’s voices, talking about the events of the battle and the dragon, faded and were soon replaced by the sound of the little waterfalls cascading over rockslides. I dipped my fingers into the icy stream. It felt heavenly. Cupping my hands, I sipped from the clear brook.
Soft footsteps came up behind me, and I didn’t move as Zach reached over and filled his own hand with the refreshing water. “I know what you’re thinking, Ivy.”
“Can you blame me?”
“No, but—”
“It’s impossible.”
“That’s what you said about Love.”
I brushed back strands of hair with my wet hand, leaving droplets across my cheek. “This and that are different.”
Zach knelt in front of me and took my cheeks in his hands, his thumb brushing away the water. “Only a little. Getting the Legion to believe in Love won’t be as difficult as you think.”
“You obviously don’t know the Legion.”
“And you’re underestimating Love again.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but then closed it.
Did I really need a reminder of how powerful Love was after what we’d just been through?
I smiled. “I guess I am.”
“You have to be the one to tell them, though. No way am I breaking the news to those stubborn geezers.”
“Zach!” I jerked back and splashed him.