Page 109 of Heart of the Summer Queen

But then his fingers slacken around mine, and I’m losing him.

I cling to him with all my might, yet I can’t stop him from falling.

“Elaric!” I scream when he stops twitching. My whole world is awash with pain. Devoid of light. “Elaric!”

I cradle his head to my chest and rock back and forth, wishing I could stir him from this dream. But he doesn’t move. No matter how many times I scream his name, he doesn’t move.

“Don’t leave me,” I choke. “Please don’t leave me. I can’t lose you.”

Everything around me ceases to exist until there’s just me and Elaric’s lifeless body.

He’s gone.

Just as Belinda said, it was too late.

My hands tremble uncontrollably. My body quakes so violently it’s as if my flesh itself will split apart.

“Please,” I wail to the heavens, begging any god who will listen. “Please don’t take him away!”

But only silence answers my prayers.

“Elaric,” I rasp, white hot grief spilling down my cheeks. Wrenching through my soul. “I love you, Elaric. I love you so much. Come back. Please. Don’t make me live this life without you.”

A tear trickles from my cheek and lands upon his forehead. Then another. They hiss and fizz, spreading across all of him.

Before my very eyes, Elaric disintegrates.

“No!” I yell, clasping his shoulders. Refusing to let him go.

I press my fingers to his forehead, trying to prevent my tears from harming him any more than they already have.

But I can’t contain the damage. The tears spread across his face, warping his features until they become unrecognizable. “No!”

A force rips him from my arms. I scream into the roaring wind, but it doesn’t return him.

Thunder cracks.

I stumble back, slamming into the ground.

A gale rips through my hair, billowing around me so wildly I struggle to see what is happening.

Blue light bursts from Elaric, shattering and dissipating into dust. The surrounding maelstrom quickens, and then a feminine voice pierces the howling wind.

Wherever you go shall forever snow,

And all you hold will grow cold.

For eternity this spell will be,

‘Less your Summer Queen thaws you free.

The chanting voice drones on, each syllable a deafening drumbeat.

Magic flows from Elaric’s dissolving form, swirling around him as he’s suspended in the vortex. I watch half in awe, half in dread.

Color floods his cheeks, more than I’ve ever seen on his alabaster face. Golden strands weave through his hair, consuming all silver.

And when he opens his eyes, it isn’t blue eyes which look at me, but green.

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