Page 73 of Crown of Ellova: Vol 1

“The key to get into the mountainside door you entered through,” Nueena answers quietly.

This betrayal of deliberately creating the curse attached to the crown was another way Alvina failed this family and her realm. For a brief moment, I thought her journal was going to redeem her, that history would be kinder to her once we had seen she tried to do something good, but that wasn’t what we found at all.

Returning the crown would wash away a sliver of her transgressions, but there will be no redemption here and only my death at the end of all this. Her shortcomings will be paid for with my own body. To restore the crown to its rightful place in the fae realm means I will never see the crown wielded by someone who can control its wild magic and finally use it to bring prosperity instead of destruction again.

Rage fills me; bitterness draws me near with its claws. Leon places his hand on my shoulder, his concerned eyes on me. His touch calms some of the storm within me fighting to break free.

My heart stops when Tavien turns to the next page. Something is pressed between Alvina’s agonizing words that makes all of us take in a sharp collective breath.

An herb.

“Could it be?” Nueena whispers, hands over her mouth.

Light from the fire highlights the herb’s dark green scalloped leaves, preserved in magic with something written underneath it, teardrops warping the page at the bottom. Nueena picks it up and twirls the stem gently between her fingers while Tavien reads aloud the words beneath it.

“The last thing Inara ever gave me, salvidah leaves for my healing. It is all I have left of her.”

This cursed crown is going to kill me, but we can stop it from taking any more lives. I may not be able to control it, but the crown is stagnant atop me, not pouring out magic but at least no longer taking anything either. I stand, pulling on Nueena’s hand. “Come on, Nu.” I all but run to the greenhouse attached to our wing.

The west tower greenhouse’s large planters are filled with flowers and towering plants.

I kneel next to the first planter, Nueena following behind me. “You can create all the salvidah plants we need tonight, and we will be one step closer to a cure for the mortals. Adreania needs this. They deserve better. They always did.” My breathing becomes labored. I try to ignore the pressure from the crown, the heaviness of what I just heard, and the burning in my eyes from unshed tears. Making the elixir is all I can do to correct the mistakes Alvina made. It needs to be the last thing I do before the crown claims my life.

As I hang my head, I see Nueena about to comfort me, but Tavien places his arm across her chest, stopping her.

Leon kneels next to me. His eyes are full of understanding and empathy. “It’s not your fault,” he whispers. “You took back your ancestor’s creation, and it will no longer harm the mortals.”

“Yes, but think of those it has killed. The crown stole the life right from the land and starved them. It stole their essence as punishment for Drystan’s crime. Enough is enough. I need to help them before the crown kills me too.”

He connects our foreheads and I breathe in his luscious scent.

“We’re going to figure it out together.” We reach for each other at the same time, locked in an embrace on the cool green stone ofthe floor. Leon’s distracting touch is soft on my hip and shoulder, but I shove down any rising feelings.

I want to believe him. I truly do. But the crushing weight of the crown, the unimaginable power trapped within me, is an immutable reminder that my mortal body will perish beneath it.

The last life the crown will take.

CHAPTER 30

Tavien pulls Nueena to his chest, his head resting on her head for an intimate embrace, before she moves to the planter.

“Ready?” I ask Nueena.

The salvidah herb is held to her chest when she speaks. “Yes.”

With a wave of her hand, Nueena clears the planters, leaving behind a blank bed. Her eyes flutter closed as she digs her fingers into the fresh soil. I close my eyes too and send up a prayer to Ellova that this will work.

Weneedthis to work. So many lives depend on it.

“Open your eyes.” Leon’s lips are near my ears and I shiver from the sensation, but I do as he says and gasp. Light shines before small green buds that stretch and rise slowly from the dirt. Hundreds of the lifesaving herbs are growing under moonlight.

Nueena shrieks with joy when she sees them, happy tears erasing the grief from before. Leon and Tavien both release us at the same time as Nueena and I launch ourselves at each other, our laughter filling the small greenhouse.

“We did it!” Nueena cheers.

We all stay there for a minute, wrapped in silence, feeling theweight of being so close to the cure and the relief at the sight of the thriving sprouts.

I turn to Tavien. “When will they be ready?”

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