Page 128 of Claiming Glass

I rushed out the way we came, calling behind, “Repair all you can. Don’t let it break.”

Maybe if we held the crowns together long enough it would stall the rest. At least until the dead arrived.

Mage lights danced around me, stones flew under my feet, as I followed memories barely sharper than dreams.

Months ago, I ran down these cavern-like hallways searching for an escape. Inessa left me in the treasury with the Book of Bloodlines and royal secrets. And on a shelf, I had seen the replicated crown. Dimi had said he left it there.

Hope should no longer live inside me. When it had soared, I’d played into Ealhswip’s hands, each decision leading here. I only knew two things she could not have predicted: Dimitri had been unable to leave me dead, and I had returned the real crown, unable to lie to him.

Centuries ago, Ealhswip told her daughter that the only thing that could conquer death is love. Perhaps she had been right.

Last time, I had run as straight as possible, thank the Wishmaker, and after only two false turns I arrived at the sigil-protected wall hiding the Talian royalty’s riches.

Inessa had pricked her finger and her blood opened the door, like mine had in thetunnels.

Mother had claimed us descended from nobles, Morovara and the Book of Bloodlines confirmed it, and we bore more than a passing resemblance to Helia von Heskin. But even if royal blood flowed in my veins, it was the wrong royal line.

Unable to do anything else, I pierced my thumb on the spike next to the door and smeared my blood across the sigils.

They warmed under my hand but did not awaken.

I pressed harder, blood trickling down my palm.

The stone did not move.

Inside, my bond to Lumi stretched, like she was pulling away again.

Somewhere in the middle of the very earth itself, something rumbled. A presence too vast for me to comprehend. Like the old gods without the limitless night sky separating us.

The Goddess was coming.

“Open,” I prayed and commanded, cajoled and hoped, pushing my magic into the door.

Below my palm, the sigils burned, and a whisper of earth and stone and darkness, barely audible above my heartbeat, joined the music inside me.

Though time was running away like the Taliell in a storm, I did what Morovara had told me. I listened, then I added my own parts to the melody, bending the song by instinct. The sound of Lumi’s laughter, of Dimitri’s exasperated sighs, and Inessa inviting me inside. And my absolute certainty that I was allowed to traipse through the most secure chamber in Tal and that I bore the royal family no ill intentions.

What Ealhswip was doing below pulled until I closed myself off completely. I needed to focus.

Something clicked.

With creaking gears turning, the door swung open. It seemed even sigils had hearts to turn, or perhaps enough of them together imitated the mind of its creators.

Thoughts spun as I rushed past gold and jewels until I spotted the crown. A breath I had not realized I held released with awoosh. Dimitri had not had it removed or destroyed, despite disbelieving me.

I lifted it reverently.

It did not spark my blood, the glass coldly perfect, remaining unaffected despite the sentience awakening below. The sigils meticulously etched into the glass no more magical than a painting of a field carried the scents of summer.

With my arm thread through it, I walked up to the doorway again and placed my hand on the faintly glowing sigils.

“This isn’t a treasure so I’m not stealing. I’m no thief,” I declared to whatever magic might hear me. For once, it tasted like truth.

I did not dare to hesitate any longer. With a running start, I threw myself out, protecting the fragile glass.

When the sigil door slammed shut behind me, the crown remained whole in my hands and I alive.

Instantly, I followed the bond back to Lumi, racing faster than ever before.

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