Chapter 28 is up! You can read the full chapter–and nearly the full novel–here.
“No! No! No! No!”
Blossom ripped her eyes away from her mistress and turned toward the anguished cries. She squeezed the stem of the chalice so hard the worked metal cut into her palm. The prince cradled the girl’s tiny body in his arms. They sat in a sea of blue and white flowers while crimson seeped from the girl’s gown, staining his tunic. He chanted the word over and over as if it contained magical power.
She pressed her lips together and faced her mistress, even as shards of glass seemed to be jamming themselves through her heart. She would end this now. If the potion in the chalice could free the girl from her enchantment, then it could free Blossom of her mistress’s dark magic. The prince’s chanting and the silvery birdsong blended together as she lifted the chalice and tipped it toward her mistress.
“No!” Her mistress’s eyes widened. “Blossom, don’t!”
The thread connecting her to her mistress bit into her heart with tiny hooks. How had she never seen? She’d faithfully served her mistress for years, and all this time she’d been nothing but a pawn. But she wasn’t powerless. Quite the contrary. On one arm, she held the sky. On the other, the girl’s heart. And in her hand . . .
She threw her head back and tipped the contents of the potion down her throat. It burned her tongue as it went down. Like swallowing frost and winter and tiny diamonds of ice. The potion slid down her throat like the finest of silk. Her body grew heavy while a fine mist settled over her mind, blotting everything else out. A distant part of her heard the clang of metal hitting stone, and then she was falling.
Falling.
Falling.
Falling.
© 2011 by Danyelle Leafty. All rights reserved.