Page 78 of Heavy is the Crown
In the blink of an eye, Oisin’s in front of me, hand wrapped around the chain again. My magic flows out against my will in a glittering expansion. I want to scream, but I can only stand there as he plays with his pretty puppet.
“Time to show them where your allegiance lies,” he whispers into my ear.
I cringe as my will is drained back out of me and the strings are pulled taut once again. Shadow lunges forward, even as Ciaran continues to break down the wards. Flames meet the transparent barrier as my mate fights with everything he has to get to me.
“Get that fucking collar on her,” Oisin screams at my mother and Lady Ornate, who have taken the job from Cordelia. The zombie-witch is looking rapidly through the grimoire, no doubt for something to help Oisin. The two women seem hesitant to approach Astrea, whose eyes have gone wholly black now, and the golden vines are smoldering.Holy gods, she is going to break through the magic. If I can stall this for a little longer, she could break free. We could win.
Oisin’s voice pulls me away from her and back to Shadow and Ciaran as he addresses them. “I would like to introduce you to my new wife.” He walks us forward, my body following him like a loyal puppy. Shadow’s flames and Ciaran’s magic cut off, neither willing to risk hurting me. “She looks beautiful, doesn’t she? Tell them, my dear, tell them all about our time together.”
Whether it's true or not, Oisin forces my mouth open, and half-truths and lies pour from me like an avalanche. Shadow’s devastated look would gut me if I could feel anything. Oisin commands the words, and I repeat them. Ciaran looks furious, the runes burning brightly across his head.
“We will kill you,” Ciaran vows, his knuckles white as they hold his sword.
(“Paint It Black” – Hidden Citizens)
A scream from Astrea has me glancing back to her, only to see her magic faltering again, and the golden collar being placed around her pale neck. The pieces suddenly form together in my memory. This—this is how my vision starts. The realization is enough for me to push through the small fissure in that wall holding my will back. Tears silently track down my face as I realize this is the end. That despite it all, we are still losing.
Oisin drags me forward, the train of my white dress dragging behind me. Shadow is screaming my name. Ciaran’s eyes are locked on my mother as she firmly locks the collar around Astrea.I need to fight this. I need to get them out.
I pull against the inner chains binding me. I hit that small fracture, cracking it wider and wider until it splits open and I’m breaking through the magic. My purpose is clear. It’s my magic holding Shadow and Ciaran back. My magic they cannot breach in time. I might not be able to access it with this collar, but I can sure as hell cut Oisin off from it. A strange sense of calm washes over me like a gentle ocean wave pushes over a rock. There is strength in the knowledge that you know how something will end. Even if it’s terrifying.
My magic wanes as Oisin pulls and pulls, taking more than he should, before he finally releases me and allows my body to drop to the floor near Astrea, but not close enough to touch her. He blasts a wave into Ciaran and Shadow, sending them flying backward. Shadow manages to land on his hands and knees, but Ciaran hits the back wall with a resoundingcrack.
“CIARAN!” Astrea’s broken scream cuts through the room as she sees her mate's limp body crumpled on the floor.
“This is working out better than I planned. Not only will I have two dragons, but I’ll have the Harbinger as well.” He sneers at Shadow as he grabs me by my hair, pulling me back to my feet. “I’m going to keep you alive, dragon. You will have a matching collar to the one she wears; you’ll be at my service, whether youwant to be or not. You thought the prison Alexi kept you in was bad? Mine will be so much worse.”
My sobs echo around the room as I think of what that will do to him. My chest cracks in two like the land on a fault line during an earthquake.
Oisin glances back to Astrea. “She’ll look beautiful tethered to me. A matching set, if you will.” His eyes are hungry.
The palace shakes, and plaster starts to fall from the ceiling. Outside, screams and shrieks echo through the air amid the sounds of Elkers and other hellish beasts that should never have been set loose. But it’s the roar in the distance that I focus on the most. Drago is not far; I can taste his magic. In a matter of moments, he’ll be here, and my gut tells me that will be the nail in the coffin. I close my eyes, steeling my spine, and give another shove against the magic of the collar.
Shadow lifts his head, eyes full of fear and panic as I give him a sad smile. One that I hope conveys how much I wish we could have had longer together, that this isn’t his fault, it's just our fate. He opens his mouth to yell, but I shake my head as I manage to pull control from the leash for just a moment.
“Oisin,” I say. He jerks his head toward me as I yank myself out of his embrace. I pull the crown from my head, the spikes atop it brutally sharp. I walk backward, away from him and my family. “Let’s see if you can keep that magic with its source gone.” My voice is hard, anger strengthening it.
I shift my eyes to Shadow, ignoring the pounding of my heart. “I love you. Please take care of Drago.” Oisin lunges at me, but I’m too quick as I drive the crown’s spikes across my throat in one brutal slash.
The last thing I see is Shadow unleashed, his dragon roaring to life as he rushes toward me. Astrea’s pained screams echo in my ears; my name being wrenched from her on a sob is the last thing I hear.
Drago
(“Bigger Than the Whole Sky” – Taylor Swift)
It’s the fear from Shadow that stops me in my tracks first, followed by agony and anger from Ava. Then a sharp pain, and she’s justgone.My chest cracks open, raw as I finally break through the magic that has held me out. No, I don’t break through—the magic itself is gone. Only remnants of it remain in the wind. My dragon fades away as I drop back into my human form. The space next to Shadow’s bond is empty now.
A portal opens for me, Shadow seeking me out without realizing it, and I step through with no hesitation, searching for visual confirmation that the missing bond is a lie. My eyes snag on Ciaran’s crumpled body off to the side of the room, before finding Astrea bound in the middle of the room by vines of gold magic. I go to take another step toward her, but her magic explodes out of her, releasing her from whatever they were attempting to bind her with.
“You,” Astrea screams. I watch her eyes go fully black as they narrow on Oisin, who is backing away from us. “I am going to make you suffer.”
Her black, smoky magic fills the room alongside her snakes. Oisin has the decency to look utterly terrified. His eyes dart around, and before I can tell her to grab him, he mists out of the room. She lets out a scream of frustration, before our attention is pulled toward two women who are attempting to scurry from the room. One I recognize as Ava’s mother, and the other is the half-rotten corpse of the reanimated Cordelia Fairmore.
“We will kill them all,” Astrea hisses, her voice no longer one I recognize. She ghosts out of whatever was holding her and moves toward the two women. I watch, almost mesmerized, as she appears behind Cordelia, snapping the dead woman’s neck with a smile across her tear-streaked face. Buttercup moves up behind her and swallows the witch’s corpse in one bite.Ava’s mother looks terrified as she has the full attention of the Harbinger now on her.
“Please! You cannot kill me! I can help you!” she begs.
“Like you helped your daughter? You didnothing, and now, she’s gone. I hope wherever you end up, she can torment you,” Astrea says. She puts herself directly behind Ava’s mother, dragging one of those blades across the woman’s milky skin, a wicked smile painted across her red lips.
