Page 67 of To Steal the Sun

“But…why?”

The girl must be even more foolish than she appeared.

“Because trust is as much an illusion as love,” Celandine snapped, her eyes drifting back to the hidden latch on one side of the portrait. “No one truly trusts any other person. Of course you would want to see his face—to be sure he was who he said he was. Love and trust are both illusions that make you weak and vulnerable—and easy to manipulate.”

The girl paled and stepped back, but the prince caught her around the waist, steadying her.

“You’re wrong.” He looked at Celandine without flinching. “Fear is what cripples us. Fear is what makes us vulnerable. Love is what gives us the strength to throw off fear. You discounted love and trust and that has been your undoing. Gwen and Easton never wavered, and now they have taken back everything that is rightfully theirs.”

Celandine cried out, feeling his words like a dagger straight to her chest. Done with analyzing, she threw herself forward, her fingers reaching for the latch.

She found it, tearing the portrait open and revealing the dark space beyond. The prince shouted and tried to grab her, but she slipped from his grasp, darting forward into her most treasured place.

She didn’t hesitate, her hands reaching for the object that would destroy them all.

CHARLOTTE

Somehow Celandine slipped through Henry’s grasp and fell into the room behind the wall. Charlotte cried out, both of them scrambling to follow. They had been trying to find that latch when they’d heard Celandine’s arrival. If only they’d known where it was, they might have been able to intercept her before she got inside.

Night had fallen outside, but enough light came through the room’s windows and spilled from the lanterns in the bedchamber beyond to illuminate the scene before them.

The chests that overflowed with gold lay neglected along the walls, the focus of the room on the many plinths that were scattered through the middle of the room. Each one held a different object, except for the empty plinth in the middle where Celandine stood. Her hand was clasped around something that looked like a short scepter, and her mouth was turned up in a smile that held no true emotion.

All the anger, fury, and fear that had danced over her face earlier were drained away, leaving her terrifyingly cold and empty. How was it possible to change so quickly? Was it due to the object in her hand?

Both Henry and Charlotte stopped warily just inside the room, but Henry began to advance slowly forward again, his eyes on the deposed queen.

“There’s no point to any of this,” he said. “Put down the object, and we can report that you cooperated.”

Celandine laughed, mirthless and high. “You have no idea how hard I worked for the power I hold. I will never choose to lay it down.”

Henry took another step forward, his eyes on the object in her hand.

“What is that?” he asked, his voice reasonable and calm, although Charlotte knew him well enough to recognize the underlying note of tension.

“I was going to flatten the path before Gwendolyn with this,” Celandine said. “She claims I’m so awful, but I was going to give her everything. I was going to flatten the mountains for her.”

Charlotte gulped, staring at the winking jewel on the tip of the scepter. Could that small thing really do so much?

“But Gwendolyn doesn’t want what I can offer,” Celandine said. “And she has turned my people against me. Now she will see what happens when I turn the mountains against her.”

“You can’t do that,” Henry said. “You shouldn’t do that.”

“You think I’m lying?” Celandine’s lips curled upward, and she thrust the scepter toward one of the windows. “This object can do even more. She thinks the sunset saved her, but I will steal the sun away. See who will follow her when the sun never returns.”

As she spoke, dark clouds rolled across the sky, too quickly to be natural, stealing the last of the dusk light and obscuring the stars and moon. The only light left in the room was the lamplight coming in from the bedchamber.

Charlotte shifted uneasily, staring at the stark blackness out the window. Surely Celandine’s words were empty boasts. She couldn’t really steal the sun, could she?

Celandine cackled. “First the sun, and now I’ll take her precious mountains. I was going to flatten them for her, but instead I’ll send them crumbling on her head.”

Henry lunged toward her, reaching for the scepter, but she jumped backward out of reach. A rumble began outside. It sounded like thunder except it built and built until Charlotte could feel it rattling through both the stones beneath her and her bones.

She staggered toward the window, gripping the sill and trying to peer outside. Were the mountains collapsing toward them? It sounded like it.

Henry lurched, the ground beneath them shaking and disrupting his footing as he tried to chase Celandine through the plinths. She evaded him, her knuckles and fingers white around the scepter.

The rumble grew until Charlotte pressed her hands to her ears, her eyes watering. Celandine was going to destroy them all, not caring that she would destroy herself in the process. And what about the valleys and the kingdoms beyond them? Celandine would destroy everything if she blocked the sky and brought down the mountains.

---