CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
RULE
Mother approached, her ire fixed on Esmerelda. “I’ve been looking for you for a very long time.”
Esmerelda straightened, refusing to let my mother diminish her pride. “Your son is very powerful. He kept me safe. Just like he will now. Isn’t that right, Rule?”
Mother laughed. “Your tether to him is no stronger than the one he and I share.”
“That’s not true, and you know it,” Esmerelda insisted.
“Rule, whose tether to you is the strongest?” Mother asked, eyes still fixed on my heartmate.
The heels of Mother’s shoes clicked closer. “Don’t do this,” I warned.
“It must be done!” my mother exploded. “I am sick of your fickleness.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Esmerelda cried out from behind me. I whirled around to see her clutching her chest. Mother made a squeezing motion with her hand and my heartmate’s mouth popped open. She couldn’t even scream.
“I know how to sever it!” I yelled, stepping into her line of sight. “Mother, you can sever the bond between me and my heartmate. Between me and whomever you want.”
Mother’s hand relaxed infinitesimally. “You learned how it can be done?”
“Yes,” I admitted, raising my hands in surrender. “And I’ll let you cut whatever you want if you give your word to let them go. Without the tethers, they won’t mean anything to me, anyway. It won’t hurt for them to be set free.”
For a moment, I thought she would refuse. “As long as the tethers are cut, you have my word.”
I took the vial from my pocket. “You need something very personal and very sharp, like this,” I offered, untying the leather cord from around my neck. “This potion will illuminate my tethers, but I don’t know for how long, so you’ll have to cut them quickly. I won’t do it. I can’t,” my voice wavered.
All my life, I tried to be strong enough to be loyal to my queen. I tried to keep her from hurting the ones I loved, but in the end, she won. She always won.
“How did you come by this information?” she asked shrewdly.
“I went to Virosa. Luna helped.”
“You cannot trust a witch!” she raged. “She would just as soon kill you as help you.”
“I’m willing to risk it.”
Somewhat mollified, she accepted the mirrored shard, not hesitating to risk my life, as long as it suited her selfish needs. “Illuminate them,” she commanded.
I drank the vial’s potion and watched as one by one, threads, vibrant and alive, crackling with power, extended out from my middle.
Luna had said that if I focused on one tether, it would shine brighter than the others. I called on my tether to Arabella.
Arabella moved in my periphery, laying Carden’s head down and standing up. The cord between us intensified, lightning striking between us, setting my hair on end. Her once golden gown had somehow faded to gray. Esmerelda smiled from just behind her. Oryn stood at his sister’s side. Mother looked over and gasped.
“How dare you wear that color in my court?” Mother’s lips began to tremble in rage while Esmerelda’s curled up cruelly. The Queen’s fist curled around the mirrored shard and gold blood began to seep from her palm, dripping onto her gown.
“You gave your word not to hurt them,” I reminded her, strategically placing myself between the women.
“She crossed the line!” Mother raged, pointing her gold-stained hand at Esmerelda. She started toward her, ignoring the lightning forking between me and Arabella.
“Arabella and I have the strongest tether, Mother. Now that Carden is dead, it’s stronger than the bond Esmerelda and I shared. It’s stronger than my bond with you. Touch one hair on her head, and I will end you,” I roared. The ground shook at the sound of my voice.
Mother appeared in front of me. I stopped focusing on Arabella’s tether and instead called on the one stretching between my mother and I. She quickly jerked the shard across the largest glowing strand, severing the tie. The resulting impact was sudden and severe. Mother and I were blown apart from one another. As I lay on the ground, trying to figure out what felt so different and strange, Mother cried out.
She scrambled to her knees and crawled quickly toward me. “What have I done?” she gasped.
Surprisingly, Arabella’s brother Oryn helped me stand. Two strands were still alive and vibrant. The strongest pointed where it belonged, straight to my heartmate. Esmerelda stood tall, giving me a proud smile.
I looked down, unable to believe it.
The larger cord—the only tie I ever wanted cut—was gone.
It worked. It all worked. I closed my eyes and released a shaky breath.
Mother screeched, clawing at her middle, “How can I restore it? How can I fix this?”
“You can’t,” I answered calmly.
She screamed, throwing the shard of mirror into the hedges.
Arabella started to laugh. “You mean you managed to cut the only one you wanted him to have? How poetic.”
Esmerelda grinned, too. She knew the whole time what I had planned. She knew me better than anyone. I smiled at her. My heartmate. The woman I’d loved since first clamping eyes on her. The woman I was kept from. The woman I had to protect from… her.
My pulse quickened. My vision changed. And then, so did I.