Page 234 of Of Nine So Bold

I opened my eyes only to squint at the light.

A thin and familiar face swam into view. “Harran?”

The steward stared down at me. “Princess! Oh, thank the gods, you’re all right.”

I blinked in confusion and struggled to move. Dirt and rocks lay beneath me, and a cloudless blue sky hung overhead. Wincing, I started to rub my eyes. “How did I?—”

My gaze caught on my arm. A pale shimmer clung to my skin, like the barest sheen of frost.

A groan came from my right. Pressing a hand to his head, Clay sat up and then froze as if registering what he’d just done. “Wait, we’re… we’re not dead.”

His eyes found me, relief splitting his face into a massive grin. Beyond him, Lars stirred.

“Princess?” Niko’s voice came from my left.

I turned. Byron and Demon were near his side, the wounds on Demon’s chest glowing like banked fire, as if his powers werealready working to heal him. A surge of relief and love poured through my link to Ozias behind me, while just ahead, Dex and Casimir sat up groggily.

Confusion crossed my scholar’s face. “H-how are we not dead?”

Clay laughed. “Don’t question it, man.”

Breathless chuckles came from Lars and Dex. A smile tugged at Niko’s lips like it wasn’t sure it should be there, and I suspected my expression was similar.

Because I wondered the same thing. Moreover, I wasn’t the only one with a strange sheen to their skin. We all had it. The shimmer was faint, and it didn’t look like my stepmother’s silver gleam. More like frost, and unless the light hit it just right I wouldn’t even know it was there.

Other details of the courtyard registered. Harran and the nine of us weren’t alone.

I froze. While the old steward hovered nearby, looking anxious, all around the courtyard beyond him lay green-skinned men, shifters, and harpies, each of them unmoving.

“Hey, Cas,” Clay said. “You all right?”

Casimir didn’t answer, looking past me to something at my back.

I turned. My lips parted in shock.

Wealsoweren’t the only ones who looked different. The royal tree stood behind us.

Every inch of it now glistened, as clear as if it was made out of a diamond.

“What the…” Lars whispered.

Unsteadily, I pushed to my feet and walked toward it. As I drew closer, I could see more detail. How it wasn’t simply clear. Inside, the crystal held rings like those found in a tree trunk. Thin veins of glistening liquid pumped through it all.

“It’s still alive,” I said.

A strange, ethereal feeling brushed over my mind, like distant chimes. On impulse, I reached for the trunk.

“Careful,” Dex cautioned.

I nodded, not turning. Gingerly, my fingertips rested on the glass.

My eyes widened. In an instant, my awareness spread out, as if somehow I was here but also… everywhere. In the city. The countryside. In Gentresqua and Cioloren and… my gods, even the Wild Lands.

Everywhere my stepmother’s apple trees on the ley lines had been, but those trees had now become like diamonds. And from it all, that same whisper of chiming carried through my mind.

I pulled back with a small gasp. “It… it took the blast too.”

“What?” Niko’s footsteps came closer.

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