Love Between Two Worlds - Chapter 15

  

Chapter 15 — The Queen Beneath the Veil

The chamber shook again. This time the sound came from below — not a roar, not a heartbeat. A voice. Too deep for any human throat, and yet clear enough that Amelia felt every syllable land inside her own bones.

The heir has returned.

The stars beneath the glass flickered violently. Adrian pulled Amelia behind him. Caelan didn't move. Neither did the first Hart — both of them stared down at the darkness beneath the transparent floor, watching something rise.

Slowly, the black brightened from within, as if an enormous light were climbing up through an ocean of nothing. Amelia could feel it now, not just hear it — something looking at her, and somehow, impossibly, she knew it had been looking for her for a very long time.

"What is that?" she whispered.

The first Hart finally spoke. "The reason the original pact was made."

"You said the pact was between the Hart bloodline and the royal line."

"It was."

"Then what is that?"

The first Hart looked at Caelan. He answered instead. "The reason both bloodlines were needed in the first place."

The dark split open. A hand emerged — not human, long fingers formed from something like silver smoke pressed against black glass, reaching up against the underside of the world. Amelia stumbled back. Adrian's blade came up.

"Stay away from her."

The hand paused, then withdrew. The dark closed over it again.

Caelan looked almost amused. "You see? Even now, it listens when you speak."

"What did you do?" Adrian demanded.

"Nothing."

"You're lying."

"Not this time." Caelan turned to Amelia. "The thing beneath the Veil isn't your enemy."

"Then what is it?"

"The first king called it the Keeper."

Amelia glanced at the first Hart. "And you?"

She hesitated before answering. "I called it the Crown. The consciousness that governs the Veil."

"So when you said the Veil was alive—"

"I meant it has a will."

"And now it wants me."

"Yes."

"Why?"

The first Hart's expression softened. "Because you're the first Hart in centuries who can hear it clearly."

"I can hear it?"

"Not with your ears."

The ring on Amelia's finger — cracked, half-shattered — began to glow, and the voice returned, closer now.

Amelia.

She froze. It knew her name.

Come home.

Her chest tightened. "Where?"

Below.

The glass under her feet cracked. Adrian caught her around the waist and hauled her back before the fracture reached her bare feet.

"We're leaving," he said, staring at the crack.

Caelan laughed softly. "You still think you can leave."

"Try me."

"You don't understand." He gestured toward the first Hart. "Ask her what happens when the Queen refuses the Crown."

"What happens?" Amelia asked her.

The ancient woman's face gave nothing away. "The Veil chooses another."

"Another what?"

"Another queen."

Amelia's blood went cold. "Who?"

Caelan answered before the first Hart could. "Someone who's been waiting thirty-two years to take your place."

Adrian's expression shifted. "Lucien."

Caelan smiled. "No. The king doesn't want the crown for himself." His eyes moved to Amelia. "He wants his son to wear it."

"Lucien has a son?"

No one answered right away. Amelia's gaze moved from Caelan, to the first Hart, and finally landed on Adrian — who had gone completely, unnaturally still.

"You knew."

His eyes met hers. "Yes."

"Who is he?"

His silence answered before his mouth did.

"Adrian."

He looked away.

"Who is Lucien's son?"

The first Hart closed her eyes and said his name for him. "Adrian."

Amelia's breath caught. "No."

Caelan's smile finally vanished. "You understand now."

She turned to Adrian. "You?"

He didn't answer.

"You're the king's son?"

"Not exactly."

"That's not an answer."

His voice came out barely above a whisper. "I was born into the royal bloodline."

The room seemed to tilt beneath her. "You told me you were a Guardian."

"I am."

"You told me you were born outside the royal family."

"I was raised by the Guardians."

"That's not what I asked you."

He finally looked at her straight on. "My father is Lucien."

The words landed harder than anything Caelan or the Mother Beyond had said to her all night. Amelia took a step back.

"The king is your father."

"Yes."

"And you knew this the whole time."

"Yes."

"Since when?"

"Always."

Her throat closed. "Then Eleanor knew."

"Yes."

"And she still chose you."

Something flickered in his eyes. "Yes."

She laughed once, with no humor in it at all. "Of course she did."

Caelan watched her carefully. "Now you understand why Eleanor had to disappear."

"Because she fell in love with the king's son?"

"No." His voice dropped lower. "Because she found out what the royal bloodline had done to him."

Adrian's jaw tightened. "Caelan."

"She deserves to know."

"Enough."

"No." Caelan stepped closer, undeterred. "The first Guardian was never made to protect the Veil."

Amelia looked at Adrian. "What was he made for?"

"To control the Crown," Caelan said.

The silence that followed felt absolute. Amelia's fingers went numb. "Adrian?"

He closed his eyes. "The Guardians exist to keep the Crown from choosing its own king."

"Why would that need controlling?"

"Because the Crown doesn't serve the throne." His eyes opened again, steady and grim. "It chooses who rules."

Amelia looked down at the darkness beneath them. "And it chose me."

"Yes."

"Why me, instead of the royal line?"

His face changed. "Because you're not simply a Hart."

The first Hart stepped forward. "You're the completion of the original bloodline."

"I don't understand."

"The first Hart had two children." She glanced at Adrian. "One carried the Hart blood."

"And the other?" he asked, already dreading the answer.

"Carried the Guardian blood."

Amelia felt the pieces settle into place, cold and certain. "That's impossible."

"No." The first Hart looked between them both. "The two bloodlines were never separate. They were one family."

The stars beneath their feet burst into light all at once. Amelia cried out and covered her eyes as a thousand voices filled the chamber — kings, Guardians, Harts, all speaking together, all saying the same word.

Remember.

Then she saw it: a crown, neither gold nor silver, made of light and shadow suspended in the dark. Beneath it stood two figures, hands joined — a woman and a man. The first Hart. The first Guardian. And between them, not literally but close enough to stop Amelia's heart, stood a child.

A girl. Her.

A voice moved behind the vision, low and absolute.

The Queen is born when the Guardian chooses her.

Amelia's eyes snapped open. Adrian was staring at her.

"What did you see?"

She couldn't answer him yet, because she'd only just understood what the first Hart had really meant all along. This had never been a choice between Lucien's world and Adrian's. It had never even been about which world survived.

The Veil had already chosen her.

The only question left was whether Adrian would choose her too — and if he did, whether it would save both worlds, or finally set something far older loose upon them.

Caelan stepped back. For the first time all night, there was no amusement left in his face. Only fear.

"The Crown has awakened."

The dark beneath them opened like an eye, and a voice filled the chamber whole.

Guardian.

Adrian went rigid.

Choose.

The first Hart whispered one last word.

"Now."

The Crown turned its attention fully on Amelia — and the entire Veil went dark.