Page 110 of Heart of the Summer Queen

As the strange magic lowers him down, I scramble up and race over on shaky legs, almost tripping over my own feet.

“Elaric! Elaric!” I cry.

I crash into him, wrapping my arms around him in the tightest embrace my arms can muster.

When my arms finally yield, numb from having squeezed him so hard, I place my palm against his chest and gaze up at him in disbelief. Though his tunic is torn and stained with blood, not a scratch lies upon his skin. “You’re alive,” I whisper, and clutch his tattered tunic, barely believing that he’s here with me.

He takes my hand in his and threads his fingers through mine. Then he presses his lips to my forehead, and warmth rushes through me at his touch.

“Of course,” he says, breath caressing the top of my hair. “Never will I leave you, my queen.”

forty

Dawn pierces the sky with its crimson rays, as if the heavens have conjured flames to melt away all remnants of Isidore’s magic from Eruweth.

With no sign of witchcraft remaining on the streets, the panic raging through the crowds dies down. Of course, there’s still the deep chasm running through the market square and the countless demolished stalls and buildings, but the people begin to calm and instead question what has happened. I can only imagine what it must feel like to be fleeing from fatal danger in one moment and then in the next, awakening from a daze three hundred years later. How will they feel when they discover three centuries have passed in the blink of an eye?

His curse now broken, Elaric stands before me as flesh and blood, as entirely mortal as I am, and that means the magic imprisoning my sister must have also lifted.

“Home,” I whisper. The word is quiet compared to the bustle of the confused city around us. “Let’s go home.”

Elaric exhales deeply and then is silent for a moment, scanning across the market square. “We’ll need a ship,” he says.“Since Eruweth is an island kingdom, there’s bound to be a harbor nearby. If we’re lucky, perhaps we’ll find a ship there.”

If Isidore left a vessel intact during her sacking of Eruweth, that is.

I keep my doubts to myself as I say, “Perhaps if we ask around, we might find someone who can tell us where the harbor is?”

We don’t hesitate before swiveling around and hurrying toward the city gates, though the countless people flocking through the streets makes reaching them difficult.

We pass some citizens who are fleeing, fear plastered across their faces, while others stroll aimlessly down the streets, confusion glazing across their eyes, as if they are not yet entirely awake from their centuries-long sleep.

Elaric and I call out to several people, but neither the panicked nor the confused so much as look in our direction. It’s as if the busyness of the city has rendered us invisible.

It isn’t until we’ve almost reached the gates that an elderly woman stops at our shout.

Wrinkles weather her face, and her silver hair is scraped back into a green bonnet. She clutches the hand of a young girl who is drowned in heavy layers of petticoats and can be no older than six.

“Excuse me!” I call. “Can you help us?” I step forward, closing the distance between us. Elaric follows.

Her attention flickers between us and the street ahead, as if weighing up whether her business—whatever it is—can wait long enough to stop and talk to us. Finally she relents and says, “What is it?” The words are clipped, thinly veiling her impatience.

“The harbor,” I blurt before she can change her mind. “Do you know where it is?”

She eyes us curiously, glancing across at our torn and dirty clothes. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

I shake my head.

“And yet, you don’t know where the harbor is?”

I squeeze my fists, hoping she won’t ask how we arrived at an island kingdom without entering its harbor. We can’t afford to linger and for people to ask questions. We must return home as soon as we can. Dalia will already be awakening, as will the three hundred other Summer Brides. I dread to think of the chaos which will be erupting through the Crystal Palace this very second.

Thankfully, the woman doesn’t press us any further.

“The harbor is on the southern side of the island,” she says, pointing to the city gates behind us. “Follow the main road out the city and through the forest. Before long, you’ll reach cliffs, and the harbor lies at their base.”

Elaric dips his head. “Thank you.”

“If you seek to escape Eruweth,” the old woman says, “every ship will already be full. I doubt they’ll have space left for the two of you.”

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