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Overhead, a fast-moving black vapor blocked out the sun, the air turning icy-cold and unnaturally still.

The Dark One’s waspish voice was like sharp claws down Amelie’s back.

“Well, well—” wheezed Levissina. “Prince Davron, look at you.”

CHAPTER 36

Levissina continued her mocking. “Oh, sweet prince. You achieved the impossible. I’m almost impressed.”

Davron’s grip tightened on Amelie’s arms. Her breath shallow with fear, she tried to reach her satchel, but his hold was too firm. How could she communicate that she needed the Heartstone? She’d not had a chance to tell him about it since reviving him. He wasn’t aware of its true nature.

“I have never been so thrilled to be wrong,” crowed Levissina. “She loves you. She loves you truly and deeply. Tell me, how does that feel?” She gave an exaggerated sigh. “Does it feel wonderful? Better than you ever dared dream? Is the pain all gone?” This last word came out as an unearthly howl.

Davron backed up, almost causing Amelie to fall over. She still couldn’t reach her satchel. She tried to wriggle free of his grasp just a bit, but his grip was relentless.

“Amelie!” shouted Raphael. “She knows you’re here!”

Amelie’s stomach plummeted, willing her brother to stay away.

“Please,” she said, angling her head toward the Dark One. “Please don’t hurt my brothers. They did nothing.”

“Nothing?” asked Levissina. “The blond one tried to stab me.”

“Be quiet,” said Davron, directed at Amelie.

He addressed the sorceress. “Her return was unforeseen. I upheld my side of the agreement, and I will keep it still. You can have my life.”

Levissina laughed, a merciless wheeze. “No. Because she loves you now. That changes everything. I can finally have true revenge.”

“The curse is broken,” said Davron. “It’s over.”

“Oh, sweet prince. The curse may be broken, but I can still hurt you and your sweetheart. The only limit is my imagination.”

“Take my life, as we agreed, and be done with all this foulness.” There was a note of pleading in his voice now.

“Done? Done? It’s done when I say it’s done.”

Then, the Dark One uttered a stream of words in a cryptic language. The world went so suddenly and completely silent that Amelie thought she’d gone deaf. But it only lasted a moment.

Davron’s grip loosened, but before she could react, she was blown forward. She crashed onto the pebbled driveway, crying out in pain. Davron rose into the air, suspended by black tendrils extending from the Dark One’s chest. As they snaked around him, a fierce wind picked up, like the worst winter’s storm. Stones and leaves flew through the air, stinging Amelie’s face and eyes.

Coughing, she groped for her satchel, to find her shoulder bare. The force of Levissina’s spell had knocked it against the castle wall. It lay battered on the ground and Amelie prayed the Heartstone was unbroken.

Without hesitation, she ran for the satchel, the howling wind shunting her sideways. Levissina made no move to stop her. She concentrated on Davron, her shifting, dark face exultant. Her form was even larger than Amelie remembered, as if the blackness within her was growing.

To Amelie’s despair, the satchel contained only the silver rose and the book of folktales. No clamshell. She shook the bag upside down, sending the contents onto the ground. The shell was gone.

What on earth happened to it? The shell had been in her satchel in the castle. The only other place she’d been was the rose garden.

She recalled the black tendrils in the garden snatching at her cloak and bag as they tried to drag her into their depths. The shell could’ve easily come out as she struggled. Perhaps the vile tendrils had even sought it, to destroy it.

Davron’s skin was turning grey. The Dark One levitated, drawing parallel with him high in the air.

“Amelie!”

Raphael neared the top of the driveway, visible through the haze of Levissina’s filthy wind. Marcel and Oskar followed him. Raphael nocked an arrow into a bow and took aim at the Dark One, who was solely focused on Davron. She appeared to drain the very life from him, his skin turning pale grey.

Raphael loosed the arrow, which sailed through Levissina’s vaporous head. The arrow sent her black vapors surging, and she screeched with rage. With one hand, she directed a torrent of garnet-colored magic at Raphael, hissing an incantation. It hit him square in the chest and he fell to the ground in a heap.