Chapter 24

TWENTY-FOUR

COLLINS

“Actually, Peggy?”

She popped her head back into the room. “Yes?”

“Do you have any hematite? I’d rather use one I didn’t summon myself.” I shrugged. “Bit more of an anchor that way.”

“Coming right up!”

My eyes met Bash’s moonstone gaze. His glare was both cold and burning hot. My instinct was to snap at him, to say something cruel just because he was standing there looking at me. It made no sense. I loved that man with every fiber of my soul, yet I didn’t seem to be able to stand him recently. It had to be the stress of Tephine. Had to be. There’d been enough jokes about Ellie and Stellan fighting before they won their war, so it had to be par for the course. Because every second he was out of my sight, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Even now as I wanted to smack that look off his face, I needed him to be standing there right in my line of sight.

“For the love of Araqiel,” Savina said with a sigh. She grabbed both of their arms and dragged them farther into the kitchen. “Let them focus on this without you two hovering.”

“Okay, what do you need me to do?”

I shook myself and looked over to Ellie. “Um, well. Shit, I don’t know. This feels more like a mage’s moment than mine. You’ve seen how I called to Riven with the moonstone?—”

“Yes, but this is your?—”

“Please, Ellie. You weren’t even there yet. MoVaun told me to take you with me.” I scrubbed my face with my hands. “If you have advice here, even if it’s just a gut feeling, then please voice it. You’re going in there with me.”

“Right. Does feel rather witchy. Okay, let’s see . . .” She nodded and pursed her lips as she glanced around the room. “Oh, Peggy, can we get a few candles too?”

“Got it!” Peggy yelled from somewhere in the house, probably waking her whole family.

“Stellan and Bash?”

They both stuck their heads through the doorway.

Ellie smiled. “Your jobs are to make sure no one breaks this connection. Stellan, throw ‘em out. Bash, blind them or block us. Whatever y’all gotta do.”

Stellan cracked his knuckles and nodded. “On it.”

Bash just nodded once. Lately he seemed to be reverting back to his silent prince days. I hated it even though I didn’t want to hear him speak. This is so confusing. How do I love someone I suddenly cannot stand?

Ellie rubbed her hands together. “Okay, let’s move the coffee table out of the?—”

Silver magic wrapped around the table and lifted it up and over our heads, then carried it into the kitchen. Stellan smiled and nodded.

“Let’s sit on the carpet cross-legged and facing each other.” Ellie grabbed my arms and positioned me with my back to the kitchen. “You need to remain focused the most, so I don’t want any accidental distractions.”

I nodded and sat down at the same time she did. But panic grabbed me in a chokehold. “Wait, no, Bash, I need you in my line of sight. I can’t not see?—”

“Fine,” he grumbled. He may have had his arms crossed over his chest and that glare still on his face, but he moved to stand against the far wall of the living room. With quick movements, he opened what apparently was a pair of French doors that led outside. Cold air rushed in and little snowflakes tumbled onto the hardwood floor. He stepped outside and I gasped.

“Where are you going?”

He froze mid-step and sighed. “My presence will be a hindrance.”

“I didn’t ask you to go outside?—”

“I’ll be right here, Collins?—”

“But wait until we start?”

He gave me a curt nod but quickly closed it again, leaving it open just a crack. I took a deep breath and nodded. Deciphering why we currently and suddenly hated each other every other second was not on my agenda for pressing issues. We’d figure that out if we lived long enough. Until then he needed to stay where I could see him.

“Okay, candles and hematite!” Peggy raced back in the room. She didn’t waste a second running to sit them in between Ellie and I on her carpet. Her blue eyes sparkled. “You’re both naturals. Remember that and trust your gut. You’ll do great.”

“Thanks, Peggy.”

“Thank you.”

I exhaled roughly and shook my arms out.

“Yeah, we need something to ground us. Some kind of calming circle.” Ellie set the candles up in between us. “For both of us.”

“We both have earth magic, right?” I sat the hematite down in front of me, then gestured in a circular motion. “We both create a circle around us in flowers?”

At the same time, we held our hands out and magic billowed from our palms—hers a vibrant purple, mine a pretty turquoise. Our misty magic hit the carpet and then looped around us, leaving a trail of lavender and passion flower, both known for reducing anxiety.

“This is a form of astral projection, so I’ll make a protective fire ring around us when we start.”

“ Astral projection? Damn. We need crystals.” I looked over her shoulder to Bash. “Know any that might be good for this?”

He glared at the ground for a long moment. “Creedite, tektite, astrophyllite.”

“Okay—”

“And I’d throw in orthoclase.” He rocked back on his heels. “For insight and ancient wisdom.”

I’d never heard of those stones, but I trusted him. I licked my lips and took a deep breath, concentrating on the names of the stones he’d said as I pushed my magic. Four very different colored stones appeared within our circle of flowers. An orange-ish stone that looked like fried chicken, some kind of navy-blue, dark green color, one that looked almost like a chunk of wood, and the last was black and white.

“Thank you.”

He nodded again. I might’ve been imagining it, but I thought maybe that glare was a little less glare-y. He arched one eyebrow. “What?”

“You have any experience in something like this?”

He sighed and shook his head. “But I can feel your senses. I will get you safely out if I feel you’re in danger.”

Ellie’s shoulders relaxed. She glanced over my shoulder, and I knew she was saying something to Stellan with her eyes.

I looked down at the piece of hematite. It was a bigger piece than I expected Peggy to have in this stone, probably about the size of an apple. The bottom half of it had raw edges and looked more like a rock, but the top half had that iconic silver shine.

“Okay, let’s get this going before she wakes up.”

Ellie held her hands up and all five candles lit at the same time with little golden flames. She moved her hands to the side and wiggled her fingers. Purple flames shot up about a foot off the ground all around us and our circle of protection. She grinned. “Ready.”

“Nice.” I smiled. “Right, so since I’m the stone girl?—”

“The little whisperer,” she whispered with a smirk.

I chuckled. “ Petite chuchoteuse. Get it right, Violette. ”

She laughed. “Sorry. I get weird when nervous.”

“Well, I’m nervous this is about to get weird, so buckle up. I’m going to close my eyes so I can concentrate.” I put one hand on the stone, closed my eyes, and focused on it with my magic. “ Hello, new friend. Can you hear me?”

I spoke out loud so that Ellie would know I started.

Light sparkled in my eyes in shades of orange and purple, then I saw my face followed by Ellie’s. There was a question, not fear but curious.

“This is my friend Ellie ?— ”

Instantly, I saw the Astral Stone shimmering a bright, glorious purple in its resting place in Second Realm. I grinned. “Yes, that’s her. The Stone Keeper for the Astral Stone.”

Ellie sat up straight.

Stellan must have moved because suddenly I saw his face in my eyes. This time the energy around me was sharp and moving toward me, but it felt like it was moving around me.

“That’s just her soulmate, Stellan Wentworth. He is a friend.”

The energy calmed and slid back to within itself, but I still saw Stellan’s face in my mind. I smiled. “Bro, back up a teeny bit? This is a protective stone, and it knows you’re outside the circle.”

“ Oi. Sorry, mate. ” I watched through the stone as he backed away but peeked his head around the frame to watch. “Is this all right with you lot?”

It’s okay, my friend. He’s protective just like you. Promise.

I felt the stone take a deep breath.

“You’re good, Stellan. Thank you.”

I knew the instant the stone felt Bash’s presence because it went ice-cold. Its energy felt like a cat with its back arched and fur standing up while it hissed. The room spun around me as it searched for the presence.

“Bash, step closer for a second?—”

When Bash’s face moved into the stone’s peripheral vision, it did a double take and then zoomed in on him. Sometimes it was hard to understand just how I knew what it was thinking and feeling, yet I just did. The hematite’s energy scanned Bash until it got down to the moonstone on his chest—then the stone sighed. Actually, it seemed to sag with relief. All of a sudden I was seeing Bash from the ground looking up through a heap of snow—I gasped. That was Third Realm.

“Yes, our friend is showing you us taking it from Crystal Henge. Right?”

In an answer, I then saw myself handing it over to MoVaun. I braced myself for fear and anger, yet instead I felt warmth and excitement. The hematite went from feeling like a hissing cat to a puppy who couldn’t stand it was wagging its tail so hard. I shook my head. Before I could decipher the energy shift, I saw myself handing the stone over to Gaston. Then there was darkness, but the stone felt only determination. Then I saw a female figure lying on its side. She had pale skin and dark hair—and then she was red.

I jumped.

In place of the girl’s body, I saw nothing but a glowing, pulsing red aura. It grew up and around me, swallowing me whole. It was warm and tingly, and I found myself wanting to cuddle up and take a nap. Gaston’s face was barely visible above the red glow, catching only a glimpse of it in the silvery moonlight from nearby. My pulse quickened. That was Augustine. The red aura was coming from her. But that made sense. She was the Stone Keeper for Fourth Realm.

And apparently she’s over two thousand years old.

That had to account for the intense strength of her aura.

Had to.

Suddenly I saw myself again, sitting in Peggy’s living room with my eyes closed.

“Thank you for showing me that.” I smiled. “Actually, that’s why I’ve brought you here tonight.”

Again, I was between the pulsing red glow—and then back to me again. The stone was clarifying what I meant.

I nodded. “Your hematite friend is why we’re here. My soulmate and I had to take it from Crystal Henge to give to the girl in the red aura.”

I heard my group gasp around me, but I ignored them.

MoVaun’s face filled my vision.

“Yes, we had to give it to MoVaun.”

More gasps and one subtle groan from Stellan.

“The girl with the red aura, the one your friend is with now, we need her help with something. But she is very, very old and cannot remember what we need to know.” I licked my lips and felt the stone warm beneath my hand. “We need to ask her memory for help. MoVaun says you and your friend can help us talk to the girl’s memory?—”

Once more I saw the Astral Stone, then the view from within Crystal Henge.

“Yes, she is a Stone Keeper.”

I saw Stellan scowl. My vision of him narrowed.

“Crystals are very smart, Stellan.”

He snorted. “Sorry, sorry.”

I waited until I saw myself again, then smiled. “My friend Ellie and I need to talk to the other Stone Keeper’s memories. Do you think you and your friend can help us?”

Ellie’s face came into view. It was calm and peaceful, just watching us.

“Ellie, put one hand on the crystal and the other on top of my hand.”

I waited until I felt her hand cover mine on the crystal, then I opened my eyes so I could cover hers with mine. We were kind of yin-and-yang. We both had one hand on the crystal itself, while the other lay atop the opposite person’s.

“We’re ready if you guys are,” I whispered to the stone but also to signal the others we were about to start for real.

Thank you, my friend. We would not bother you if we were not in desperate need, I said to the stone silently.

Now that we’d started, I didn’t feel the need to keep the others in the loop. Ellie was in here with me like she was when we spoke to the Astral Stone. I felt her presence like a warm hug in the corners of my mind.

I saw myself and Ellie through cracks of light and then it was only darkness. It amazed me how this stone never truly felt scared. I’d always known hematite was protective and grounding, but I’d never felt it firsthand. I made a mental note to make sure I wore a piece of it from now on.

My vision came back in a glowing red haze.

In rapid succession it showed us my face in Third Realm, then MoVaun’s, then back to Gaston lowering it into the red glow. The stone felt comfortable and happy, like it never wanted to leave where it was.

Hello. I’m the one who delivered you to her.

MoVaun’s face reappeared, then mine. I felt the question in the energy around me. I took a deep breath and prayed that what I asked made sense to a crystal. Because if this girl was as old as MoVaun claimed, there would be a plethora of memories to sort through, and we didn’t have that kind of time. Nor did we really know what we were looking for.

You’re from Third Realm, from Crystal Henge. You know Queen Tephine.

It showed me her face, but not just her face. It was her stealing pieces of Crystal Henge and implanting them within the chests of her children. I saw each of her daughters receiving their stones, their evil selfishness oozing out of them with every cackle. Cleopatra, Helena, and Venus were fully grown adults when they stole their piece of power. Aryk and Marigold were young girls yet somehow more self-righteous and entitled than their elder sisters. This hematite lashed out with energy in a desperate attempt to protect its friends of Crystal Henge.

And then I saw a small boy with pale-blue hair and the lightest blue eyes I’d ever seen. He couldn’t have been more than three. He sat there all alone playing with the snow like it was sand at the beach, building castles with happy peace on his face. A soft song spilled from his lips, and it soothed the ache in the stones. It was little Bash, that was obvious . . . and my heart just wanted to hold him. To protect him from what was coming. But the visual the stone showed us was of a peaceful little boy who, despite the snow, sat shirtless and played with bare hands.

“ Bastien. ” Tephine’s hissing of his name echoed through my mind a split-second before she appeared in my vision. She looked exactly the same as the first time I met her. “We’re not here to play. Get up so we can get your stone.”

The moment she spun away from him, little Bash smiled down at the crystals and whispered, “ Please give me a nice one. I’ll be nice to it. ”

A thick green vine coiled around Bash’s arm and yanked him to his feet.

I squeezed my eyes shut despite them already being shut. I don’t want to see him hurting, please.

In response, the stone showed me snapshots of Bash growing up. Each image was of him sitting within the stones of Crystal Henge just reading or humming a soft tune as he sharpened his weapons.

Then I saw Tephine.

My stomach tightened into knots. She is why we’re here. We know what she did. We know she bound herself to Third Realm. We need help. We don’t know how to sever that bond so that we can destroy her forever.

The glowing red haze returned. I saw Gaston sitting up beside her reading a book but glancing down at her every other second.

Yes, Augustine knows the answer. MoVaun says it’s buried in her memories. She says you can help us. I exhaled and tried to think of how to explain this to the stone but then remembered telling Stellan they were smart. We drank a potion made by powerful mages that will help us see into her memories.

The red haze burned brighter and taller until it consumed me. The ground turned cold for a second before an ice-cold breeze rolled up my body, leaving in its wake a warm tingling sensation. Every muscle in my body went lax and loose, like I was floating in a pool . . . like I was sleeping.

All at once I realized this was not going to be like any of my other experiences communicating with crystals. I was terrified and excited all at the same time. Hope flared in my chest. I just prayed we got the answer we needed finally. As that warm, tingling sensation intensified, my other thoughts subsided.

That red glow turned into bright orange flames. They flickered and danced in front of me with the night sky sparkling overhead. A golden full moon sat low in a sky that still clung to the blue tones of sunset. I sat there unmoving as something approached up ahead. A tall, dark figure cut through the stars and the flames and emerged wearing a dark hooded cloak pulled low over their face. Pale hands reached up and pushed the hood back, revealing a face I’d recognize anywhere.

Prince Riven.

He had long black hair that was braided back off his face like a mohawk. The angles of his face weren’t nearly as sharp as I was used to, like perhaps he still had youth to soften his features. Beneath his dark cloak he wore an equally dark tunic with a belt that shimmered as if it were made of silver or gold. His gaze was narrowed as he scanned left and right. It was an expression I’d seen on him before.

My view of him changed, like I was sitting upright now.

Those pale, icy-blue eyes shot right to me—and widened. His jaw dropped. This expression of awe and reverence was not one I’d seen on him before. Slowly, as if he had no real control of his body, he raised his left hand and waved.

And then my view latched on to the red markings on the inside of his left forearm. It was a series of geometrical shapes. Triangles, diamonds, and circles all positioned in different ways that kind of reminded me of a constellation. Prince Riven glanced down at his own arm with a frown, then he turned back to me and arched that one eyebrow he always arched—because apparently some habits never died.

But when my view lowered down to the pale, thin arm attached to my body, I saw the exact same image on my arm.

I gasped.

It was a soulmate mark.

I was seeing memories through Augustine’s mind. I recognized the arm in front of me now as the one I’d seen through the hematite right before Gaston put the necklace on her. As my view lifted back to the Vampire Prince and my own arm raised, I saw both soulmate marks at once. They were identical.

In the rush of an instant everything made sense.

Augustine was Prince Riven’s soulmate.

And they met a long, long time ago.

No wonder he refused to give her up. No wonder he refused to help us. Suddenly that moment in his club when we’d questioned why he wouldn’t help us became clearer—he’d looked right at all four of our soulmate marks. He’d been trying to tell us from the beginning. Because I know what is at risk if I give you the help you request, and for that . . . I cannot, that was what he’d said to us. He refused to endanger his soulmate.

My heart swelled for that tricksy vampire.

And then it broke a little.

Because it meant that at some point in the last two thousand and nineteen years, he’d lost his soulmate. Sure, she lived, but MoVaun said she had no memory of her life before, which meant she had no memory of him. I tried to imagine my long immortal life without Bash. I tried to imagine how I’d cope with living over two thousand years without him, and my heart hurt so much I wanted to vomit.

The images began to change. At first, it was a lot of Riven through the eyes of Augustine, and I had to admit it altered my own personal view of the man. But I barely had time to register what I was seeing before it slowed on a memory with a different man. Riven stood beside him. Both men had hair as black as night, both had sharp glistening fangs, both wore dark tunics. But the man on the right had sapphire-blue eyes and scruff on his jaw . . . and I recognized this face immediately. It was Lexington Prescott. Except it couldn’t have been. Lex wasn’t old enough for the style of clothing and the setting around me.

“Mon amour, voici mon ami Howard Prescott, ” Riven spoke in a soft, warm voice. “ Et c'est mon ame s?ur. Ma femme.”

Howard Prescott. That had to be Lex’s father.

“ Enchanté, ” Howard purred with a wide, fangy smile. “I have heard so much about Riven’s wife. I thought I would never meet her. But here you are, as beautiful as every word he’s described you with.”

Wait. WIFE. She's his wife? They were actually married?

My stomach rolled.

My friend, why are you showing me this? This hurts. I don’t need to feel bad for Riven.

The memory almost seemed to speed up, like the stone had hit fast forward. That was when I spotted a small brown leatherbound journal in Howard’s other hand. Riven shook his head and sighed.

“We already agreed they were right?—”

“ Je sais mais c'est insensé. C'est imprudent et dangereux .” Riven spun away from us to stare into the horizon.

"Of course it’s dangerous and insane, Riven.” Howard held his journal up. “But we have no other choice?—”

“No, I refuse to accept that.”

“ Riven —”

He spun to face me with dark eyes. “I just found you. I will not lose you before we exhaust every other option.”

I groaned. This was not helping. This was only showing why he’d refused to help us, which was nice to understand but still left us at ground zero. Please, this does not answer the question of how to sever the bond with Tephine. As if I’d hit the fast forward button, the memories flew by at hyper-speed. And there were a ton of them, so I assumed a good amount of time went by.

When the slideshow finally stopped, it landed on the one face I never wanted to see in Augustine’s memories.

Venus.

There was no question who that pink hair belonged to. I tensed. The image panned out and I spotted Venus in the reflection off the lake’s surface as she hovered in the air above two people cuddled together beneath a tree. It was as if Augustine had not seen Venus’s approach but her subconscious mind did. Augustine was too preoccupied by the grapes Riven was hand-feeding her to notice the enemy approaching.

Except Venus did not attack or harm them. She merely lowered from the treetops like a spider dropping on its string just low enough for her to stretch her bony-thin finger out and touch Augustine’s pale-blonde hair. Instantly, Augustine’s entire demeanor changed. She went from a soft puddle in his arms to pushing away from him. Venus reached behind the tree trunk and touched Riven’s shoulder at the exact same time Augustine snatched the grapes off the ground and threw them right as his face. Riven snarled and lunged to his feet.

The image changed.

Wait a second. Hold on. No, no, go back. I need to see that! Hold up ?—

But the show didn’t slow or pause. It moved right to the next slide, which consisted of me looking down at a large map drawn in an elegant scroll on a piece of parchment paper. In my peripheral vision, Howard Prescott flew into the room.

“Where is Riven?” When I didn’t answer, Howard shook my shoulder. “Where is your husband?”

“He won’t be my husband for long if he does not change his behavior,” I heard myself, or Augustine, snap.

Howard gasped. His eyes widened. “My lady, I do not understand. You love him. He’s your soulmate?—”

“He is recklessly selfish!” she snapped. “How can he expect us to sit by and watch Tephine destroy everything and everyone she touches when we have the answer right in our hands? We know how to finally defeat her?—”

“I know, but?—”

“We can kill her and bring peace to the world?—”

“Yes, I want that, but?—”

“I can save my parents?—”

“They are probably already lost, my friend?—”

“ You don’t know that! ”

Howard threw his hands up and backed away. The journal was laid open on the table between me and him. He sighed. “Riven loves you. He is merely afraid of losing you.”

I looked down at the book. “I know. But something happened, I do not know what, I just am so angry with him I cannot look at his face. He is losing me whether we follow your plan or not.”

“You cannot mean that?—”

“Ah, but I do.” A teardrop hit the wooden table beside the open journal. “Either by a broken heart, a broken plan, or a body broken beneath Tephine’s hand . . . I will lose him.”

“What are you saying, your grace?”

I picked up the journal and pressed it to his chest. “If I am to perish, I shall perish with fury in my veins and her blood on my hands.”

Howard’s blue eyes widened.

“Are you with me?”

“Your grace, I am with you.”

“Tell me what I am to do.”

He sighed and closed his eyes. “We have to reclaim the Blood Stone.”

I felt myself gasp.

Howard tapped on the journal. “To see my plans through, you are the only one who has a prayer of retrieving it.”

“Then I shall retrieve it.”

I could not believe Augustine was going to go behind Riven’s back and put herself in danger without saying a word to him. They were soulmates. They were husband and wife. She was going to risk her life just because she was angry with him and couldn’t even remember why — OH MY GOD. It hit me like a brick wall. It’s Venus! She touched them both and they turned on each other. Oh my GOD. My mind was a tornado of thoughts and emotions. I tried to focus on the images being thrown at me of Augustine sneaking through a castle but all I could think about were the fights Bash and I had had recently. Each time we’d gone from perfectly happy to suddenly ripping each other’s throats out.

Augustine crept down a dark stone staircase lit by only one torch at the top.

As she descended into darkness, so did my heart. Think, Collins, think back to the first fight. Where was it? What happened right before —I gasped. For the love of Araqiel. It was inside Riven’s club. After he’d refused us we went to leave and some random woman had crashed into both of us. That was when we fought the first time.

Augustine moved through the dark, led only by a faint and pulsing red glow in the distance.

Wait a second. The kiosk girl. I’d never been jealous like that in my entire life. And that explained the outrageous jealousy Bash showed about Daniel. I remembered standing outside MoVaun’s the second time Riven refused us, getting comforted by Bash. And then we both fought her in Third Realm. It was all clearing up in my head. That confusing anger and hatred I’d been feeling for him was because of Venus.

In the back of my mind, I prayed Ellie was watching what Augustine was doing because I apparently was thrust into a downward spiral. Venus had torn Riven and Augustine apart, two soulmates who had actually been married. She’d wreaked so much havoc that Augustine had gone off on some suicidal plan without him. I needed to tell Bash. He needed to know we didn’t hate each other. We weren’t even really angry with each other. It was all Venus. But I was trapped in this memory until we got our answers, so Bash would have to wait.

The image went pitch-black.

I gasped. No wait. That can’t be it .

The red glow seeped through a crack in the stones. An explosion rocked the castle, sending stone and rubble down on me. The images flipped into fast forward again. I tried to watch each and every one flying by. Our answer was right here but it was going by too soon.

And then everything froze.

Right in front of me was a dark red stone about six inches tall that radiated the brightest, most intense red glow I had ever seen. The castle rocked all around me again and again. In the distance I heard screams of battle and approaching footsteps.

“ The Blood Stone, ” I heard myself breathe.

A cold chill slid down my spine.

“Howard, we did it.” Augustine reached for the stone—and her fingers passed through the surface. She whimpered. “No! It’s liquid? How?”

She scrambled around the dark, dingy room in a panic as a war raged overhead. Finally, she found a large glass bowl with a broken handle. With a victorious chuckle, she raced back to the altar where the Blood Stone rested in a stone-made bowl. I’d forgotten vampires were insanely strong until her thin hands snapped the stone altar in half to lift the stone bowl up. With careful hands, she poured the liquified Blood Stone into her glass bowl. The precision of her execution amazed me, I would have made a mess.

But when she scooped the glass bowl up and charged out of the room, she only made it about fifty feet when fire crashed through the wall and sent her flying. I held my breath and watched the Blood Stone pull up on one side of the glass like a tsunami sucking in the ocean’s contents before pummeling the coastline. I had to give her credit, she tried everything she could to keep the red liquid safe in her bowl—and then the glass broke straight up the middle.

The world seemed to slow as she gripped the two halves of the glass and held them together. She was on the floor with the stone walls’ rubble all around her. Ashes floated in the air. Her skin was burned and blackened around her ankles. The castle was under attack, and she was all alone in there.

Augustine sighed, then her voice came out in a whisper, “ Riven, I am sorry.”

Flames burst through the stone wall two feet away from her.

“ If I move, the Blood Stone is lost,” she whispered to herself, her voice breaking. Her fingers trembled as she tried to keep the glass together but it wasn’t going to hold long. “ If we lose this Stone, the world will be lost to her forever. ”

The ground shook.

Augustine cried out. “ Riven, what do I do? How do I save the Stone? ”

He wasn’t there with her. I knew it. She’d known it too. But I understood why she was talking to him like he was . . . because a soulmate is always there, even when they’re not. She sat there with the castle crumbling around her and flames licking her bare skin just praying out to a male who would not respond.

She looked down into the dark-red, almost maroon and cried. “ I almost cannot believe this is the Blood Stone, for it looks no different than one of your glasses of wine ?— ”

She gasped.

“Wine.” A wild, manic sort of laughter slipped through her lips. “Riven, you are brilliant. It is but wine.”

Then, to my absolute horror . . . she drank it.

Augustine drank the Blood Stone.

I watched the last burgundy-colored drop slide off the glass onto her tongue and then the vision changed. The world was smoke and ash. Fire shot to the heavens all around us. Augustine reached down and scooped up a wooden staff.

“ But where is the Blood Stone?” Howard whisper-shouted. “We have to?—”

“I have it. Do not worry.” She grabbed a giant ruby from within Howard’s satchel and attached it to the top of the staff. “Just tell me where to go.”

Howard’s face fell. He reached down and pointed to his journal.

I tried to look at what he was showing her, but the image changed too quickly. Augustine looked up to the smoke-filled sky and screamed. Glowing red light burst from within her—and then the world exploded into white light. I felt myself thrown backwards. I was still flying when Prince Riven leapt into my view.

Except it wasn’t the Riven I’d seen in Augustine’s memories.

It was the current Riven, with short hair and modern clothing. He lunged for us and bellowed with a rage unlike anything I’d ever heard, “GET OUT!”