Tale of the Heart Queen (Artefacts of Ouranos #4)

Chapter 27

C HAPTER 27

I n a daze, I follow my grandfather through the garden until we reach a quiet corner surrounded by hedges. He gestures to a stone bench and invites me to join him. A small table sits next to me, and a moment later, a silver tray topped with a plate of pastel-colored desserts and a decanter of pale wine appears out of thin air. My grandfather chuckles at my blink of surprise.

“The Evanescence provides everything you need. Help yourself.”

I’m not really in the mood for sugar, but alcohol—that I can do. I pour myself a generous glass and knock it back before I go for another.

My grandfather watches me quietly, assessing. It doesn’t make me feel weird for some reason. It feels natural. After I drain another half glass, he folds his hands together and rests them on the table.

“Now, do you want to tell me what you’re doing here? Where is your father?”

I finish the rest of the glass and pour out another before I begin. I recount the last few months. Being sent to find Lor. Finding her. Finding out she’s my mate. Being killed by Lor, apparently, if Zerra was telling me the truth. I rub my chest at the ache sitting behind my ribs. I can’t tell if it’s because of what she did or because I miss her so fucking much. Probably a little of both.

“And then Zerra locked me up and wanted to marry me,” I say. “So I busted out of my room, and I fell . . . here.” I sweep out a hand. “I saw Lor’s magic across the sky. She might be here somewhere, and I have to find her.” I pause. “Where am I exactly?”

My grandfather spreads his hands. “You are still in the Evanescence, but Zerra’s domain surrounds us, and we are at its core.”

“I’m not sure I get it.”

“You don’t have to. It’s one of those things that simply is.”

I shrug and take another long sip of my drink, trying to settle the constant shake of my limbs.

His smile drops off his face a moment later. “Your father,” he says. “I always hoped he would change.”

“He didn’t,” I say. “He’s only become more twisted and cruel.”

“I heard you,” Garnet says. “When you spoke to me.”

I blink. “ You did?”

He nods and reaches out to squeeze my wrist. With no other parent figure to talk to, I’d often pretended my grandfather was still alive and would speak with him, but the last time was after the Second Sercen War. I’d returned from the front lines a broken shell of a man. Mael and I spent many years healing together, and when Amya was born, she became the only bright light in my life for a very long time.

I confided in him, talking to him for hours about what we’d seen and done. It felt like he was the only one who’d understand.

“I wish I could have answered you,” he says sadly.

“Can you see what happens to us?”

“Only those who share Imperial magic and only when you call for us.”

“I wish I’d known that,” I say, and he gives me a sad smile.

“I won’t lie and claim I was always a good king. I made mistakes. I did so many things wrong, but my greatest regret will always be how I failed my only son.”

“How did you fail him?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “I wish I knew. As a small boy, there was always something dark about him. A deep remorselessness. I put it down to the immaturity of youth, but as he grew, it never really went away. When I realized it was a problem, it was too late to do anything about it. He was already his own person.

“But when you spoke to me, I understood you turned out . . . differently,” he says, tipping his head as he studies me. “And when I realized that, it eased so many worries.”

“I’m no saint,” I say. “I’ve done many things I’m not proud of.”

“Perhaps, but you’ve never carried that same darkness, Nadir. You don’t delight in the suffering of others the way he always has.”

I huff out a wry snort. “That might be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

Garnet throws his head back and laughs. It’s a warm sound, and my chest constricts, thinking about how different our lives might have been had he remained with us longer.

“Is what they say true?” I ask, needing to know. “Did my father force you to descend?”

The smile vanishes from Garnet’s face again.

“It wasn’t my choice,” he says. “I didn’t want to leave you or your mother. When you were born, I saw the way he looked at you. The way he—” My grandfather’s eyes flick to me with pity.

“Hated me,” I say. “It’s okay. I know.”

Garnet sighs and waves his hand as a goblet appears in his grip. He takes a long sip and sits back.

“He blamed your mother for entrapping him, but that is not the kind of woman she is. He built up this fantasy in his head where he was the only one who’d been wronged. She loved you from the moment she fell pregnant, but I know she wished she could go back and undo everything, too.”

I nod because I know that’s exactly what happened. My father played stupid games with his lover and lost. He used my mother and then blamed her for it when things veered off course .

Garnet sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “Though the Withering had ravaged me almost completely, I held on, terrified of what he might do without me around. I fought against the descension as hard as I could, though I knew he was doing everything to undermine me.”

“So what happened?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “One night, he came to my room, lifted me into my wheelchair, and took me to the throne room. I don’t know what became of my guards and nurses, but I have my suspicions. I was too weak to question what he was doing, but I had enough presence of mind to ask the Torch what was happening. If it knew anything, it didn’t answer.”

He closes his eyes as the memory haunts him. I want to reach out to him, but I’m not sure he’d welcome it. I think of the way my father always reacted to any kind of affection with disdain. Lor is the only one I’ve ever felt comfortable touching without limits or fear of judgment.

“And that’s when I knew my end had come.”

“How?”

“I’ve had many years to contemplate what happened that day,” my grandfather says. “I believe he manipulated the Torch. Somehow, he found a loophole in the Artefacts’ conditions.”

“How is that possible?” But just as I say it, I suspect I already know the answer.

“He used magic I’ve never seen before,” Garnet says. “There was another voice. Someone else inside the Torch?”

“Someone else?”

My grandfather nods, his expression pinched with confusion. “It was a voice I’d never heard before. It was instructing him on what to do. I don’t really understand it all, but the voice explained how Rion needed to contain the magic from breaking free so he could claim the crown.”

As I stare at his face, I think about how my father hurt us all so much. He didn’t care about anyone but himself.

“Was the magic black and made of shadows?” I ask.

He looks at me and blinks. “How did you know that?”

“Because he’s still using it,” I say.

Garnet considers that. “I can’t say I’m surprised.”

“Do you have any idea what it might be?”

“Something older and murkier than Fae magic,” he says. “Your father has always had a way of finding the world’s darkest places.”

I’m gripping the glass in my hand so tightly that I’m surprised it doesn’t shatter under the pressure.

“You can’t see him?” I ask. “Like you can me?”

He shakes his head. “No. He’s been lost to my sight for a long time.”

“Because of the dark magic?”

“That is my guess.”

“Is there anything else you can tell me?” I ask. “Why would he have wanted the ark of Heart?”

“I don’t know for sure, but with everything you’ve told me, I wonder if it’s all related to that voice.”

I consider that, biting the inside of my cheek.

“I wish I could be more help,” he says. I see the regret in his eyes. Part of me wants to stay here for hours and ask him a thousand questions about my family and his life, but I have to find Lor .

“What are you thinking about?” he asks softly, and in his expression, I see years of loss and the man my father took from me. Add that to the list of everything he’s taken. I haven’t seen my mother in many weeks, and now I can’t even get a message to her. I pray that she’s okay.

“I need to get out of here,” I say. “I have to find Lor. She might be here too.”

“Your mate,” he says, a small smile lighting his face. “You’re very fortunate. Tell me about her?”

“She’s . . .” I break off. Where do I even begin to describe her? Her bravery and her loyalty. Her stubbornness and her vulnerability. The way she rushes into anything without a care for herself and would do anything to protect the ones she loves. How do I even begin to describe how fucking alive she makes me feel? Knowing she’s out there alone, being subjected to god knows what at my father’s or Zerra’s hands, is tearing me apart.

“She makes me want to be the best version of myself,” I say, realizing how true it is. “She’s like the sun, and everything else is just the stars lucky to be moving around her.”

Grandfather smiles at that. “Well, she sounds very special.”

“She is.”

“Then you’ll need to find her.”

“What if she landed here too?”

“We’ll ask Greye. She always keeps an eye on these things.”

Garnet rises from his seat, and we enter the garden once again. A few curious stares find us as we weave through the tables. I see the same female High Fae that greeted me and Garnet waves to her .

“Can you tell us? Has a young woman found herself here?” he asks Greye.

“No,” she says very confidently. “I’ve been watching for his bonded, but no one else has entered the garden. It’s very peculiar. Are you sure he belongs here?”

“Thank you,” Garnet says. “No, he doesn’t belong here.”

He turns to face me. “She must have ended up back in Ouranos. Let’s get you back to her.”

“Can you do that?” I ask.

He nods as he starts walking again, and I follow. “Lucky for you, I happen to know the way out of here.”

We pass through the garden, where we’re met with more curious stares. My grandfather smiles and says hello as we exit out the other side, leading us back into the strangely symmetrical forest.

“This way,” he says, winding down a narrow pathway lined with bushes. A cave materializes out in the distance, and he points to it.

“Through there. It will take you back to the surface.”

“How do you know that?” I ask, eyeing the dark opening warily.

“Oh, you’re not the first living person to wander in here,” he says. “Zerra does like to play.”

I curl my lip at that.

“Can you go through there? Can you come back?”

“Oh no,” he says. “I’m dead. Once, we’d had a bit too much wine, and I dared your Great-Great-Great Aunt Sophie to jump through it, and for about seven long seconds, we thought she was gone, but then poof. She appeared standing right here next to us. So we spent all night tossing ourselves into it, but alas, we returned every time.” He laughs at the memory, and I find myself smiling as I look back in the direction we came.

“I wish I could talk to them all,” I say, and he gives me a sad smile.

“It’s not your time yet. You’ll get your chance, and when you come to see us, we’ll be waiting for you with open arms. Go and live, my boy. Do better than your father did.”

“I’ll try,” I say. “Thank you.”

“Go on. I hope it will be many, many years before you return.”

He opens his arms, and I hesitate.

“What is it?” he asks with a curious tip of his head.

“You’re not what I expected,” I answer. “Given how my father is . . .”

Garnet’s arms flop to his sides as he nods. “I won’t pretend I was always a good man or a good father, either. But sickness and death have a way of softening us all. I, too, regret so many things.”

That I can understand. He spreads his arms again and with a sharp breath I fold against him. He hugs me tightly, and I allow myself to revel in the comfort of his embrace. What might my life have been if someone had been there to hug me as a child?

“Live a long and happy life with your mate. I look forward to meeting her when it’s time.”

After another second, we pull apart, emotion knotting my throat. There are so many things I want to say, and he must sense what’s on my mind because he adds, “Someday, my boy, we’ll have all the time in the world to talk about everything. But for now, you need to go home.”

Slowly, I nod, turning towards the cave.

Standing at the threshold, I look back at him.

He gives me one last smile and then bows.

With a salute, I turn and step through the dark opening.

And then I plummet down.