She called upon her gifts and closed herself off to all the other metals, leaving herself open to the silver only. Its energy sank into her, brightening in a way that felt like a connection. That was a good start. She loosened her grip and held her hands over the metal the same way she would if she was creating a piece of jewelry.
The silver seemed to shimmer in response to her.
Encouraged, she closed her eyes and, with the small, quiet voice in her head, spoke to the silver. That’s it, let me in. I’m a friend. I understand you and respect you. And I need you to help me. Unwind yourself from this tangle and stand free.
A gasp went up from the crowd. She opened her eyes to see the single thread of silver snaking out from the twist. “Come to me,” she said softly, holding out her arm.
It twined around her wrist like an elegant bracelet.
One down. Easily.
She grinned. The sense of accomplishment coursed through her, buoying her spirits. She could do this.
Kyanna looked over and scowled. She had yet to free any of the threads.
Willa wasn’t so dumb as to think that meant she had gained an advantage. Not yet. Not with so much work yet to be done. She finally snuck a look at Nick. Shay was still in his lap and grinning like mad. Nick winked at her, and she gave him a little nod in return.
Zane’s loud cry of “Hah!” rang through the space. The audience made more noise. Willa looked over to see Kyanna had freed the first metal thread. The copper one and only about an inch of it. Copper was easy. One of the most pliable. Willa refused to be impressed.
She bent her head and went back to work, focusing this time on the gold, but it took her a few moments of purposeful breathing to get her concentration back. She reminded herself that this wasn’t just about freeing the crystal, it was about freeing it in one piece.
The gold was being stubborn. It was proud of its inclusion in the Oracle’s Egg and didn’t want to leave it. She closed her eyes and channeled good thoughts about how bright and beautiful the gold was, about how its gleam was like sunshine. How nothing compared to the brilliance of gold. Imagine how many eyes will be on you when you get to stand alone. How many will see your gorgeous shine once you’re no longer hidden by the other metals.
It warmed under her hands and trembled with energy. She allowed a tiny smile, then eased her hands back and opened her eyes. That’s it, untangle yourself and come to me. Silver did it, so I know you can. Show everyone how gorgeous and elegant you are.
The gold flexed and bent and flowed out of the braid like a ribbon being pulled free. Willa held her wrist out, and the gold joined the silver. The crowd rewarded her with soft whispers of praise and nods of appreciation.
Nick beamed with pride. Even her parents looked joyful at her success. She smiled at them all, though a sudden exhaustion swept through her.
She brought her head down to hide her inability to hold the smile, exhaled hard and realized she was trembling from the exertion. She took her hands off the egg and rested them on the wooden platform, giving herself time to catch her breath and regain some energy. The situation was stressful enough, but add the use of her magic on top of that and she could have easily quit right then to rest.
Her muscles felt leaden, but she couldn’t give in to it. The hardest strand was still to go. She bent her head from side to side and rolled her shoulders, trying to release some of the tiredness. What she wouldn’t give for a few minutes with Nick’s talented hands.
She glanced over at Kyanna. The copper was out and coiled in a messy lump on the platform next to the egg. That meant Kyanna still had steel and titanium to go. Steel would be tough, but nothing like the titanium. Willa had worked with that metal on occasion. It was fickle. Hated change. Hated to be told what to do.
Kyanna’s choice made Willa question her sister’s experience. Kyanna either knew something about the metal Willa didn’t, or she’d made a very poor choice. If it was the latter, Willa should be okay. If it was the former, Willa was in trouble, because there was no rushing tungsten. It was brittle and tricky and did what it wanted when it wanted.
New urgency straightened her back and firmed up her resolve. She could rest when this was over.
She put her hands on the egg and almost pulled them right back off. The remaining strands were in a confused mess of new emotions and sensation. Some were angry over the silver and gold leaving. Some questioned why those two metals had been separated out as something special. Some were sad and despondent.
Worse, the tungsten was sulky and practically non-responsive. Willa’s spirits dropped. This was not going to be easy. She was about to close her eyes when a roar went up from the crowd, throwing off her concentration.
Kyanna had the steel free. She lifted it over her head like some grand achievement. Willa wanted to ignore it, but couldn’t. Kyanna had just moved even with her. And quickly.
Willa bent her head and forced herself back to work. She put her hands on the strand of tungsten and closed out all the other metals. It wasn’t a matter of just lifting the last strand free. It was bent into the shape of the cage and twisted into the other strands at the top and bottom. She was going to have to appeal to the metal’s pride, which it had in spades. She closed her eyes and began her plea.
Noblest of metals, most rare and precious, I saved you for last for a reason.
The tungsten sighed but made no other effort to respond.
I wanted the sight of you gleaming like a captured star as the last impression in the minds of those watching.
Nothing.
Your filaments bring light to the world. You strengthen other metals. Armies rely on your fierceness. You are the best of all the metals.
Crickets. The tungsten was having none of it.
She dropped her head to her arms and tried not to panic. The last thing she wanted to do was send negative vibes into the metal. She focused on happy things. Shay’s sweet face. Nick’s strength. Jasper’s silliness.
“No!”
The shout brought Willa’s head up and opened her eyes. Shay was on her feet standing in front of Nick. Her gaze was pinned to Kyanna.
Willa turned to look.
Kyanna had coaxed a half inch of the titanium free.
Willa had clearly underestimated her. The trembling in her arms and hands intensified, and her head was starting to ache. She wasn’t going to last much longer without rest.
More movement caught her eye. Her mother had gotten to her feet and was staring at her with such intensity that Willa could almost feel it. Without question, Willa knew Melinna was trying to transfer courage and power into her daughter.
It worked.
Willa smiled. She knew what she had to do. She gathered the strength she had left and focused it on the task at hand. Then she closed her eyes, found the strand of tungsten and opened her mouth.
“Precious flower, rest your head, by the river where you grow. Moon and stars come swiftly in, and off to sleep you now go.”
The tungsten stopped sulking and came to life beneath her hands. Willa forced every last ounce of power into her voice, keeping it soft and quiet and directed entirely at the metal.
“In the morning you will rise, bright and new and beautiful. Bright and new and beautiful.”
The metal twitched, a hard jerky movement that Willa took as a sign of success. It opened to her, enough that she felt like she’d made enough progress to take her hands off and guide the metal with the force of her magic.
The tungsten’s energy vibrated through her, happy for the first time. She didn’t know any other verses of the lullaby, so she sang her directions in the same tune as she coaxed the strand to come away from its fastenings.
“Precious metal, come to me, free yourself from this cage.”
With the stiff movements that spoke to the metal’s brittleness, it inched its way free from the shape of the cage.
She kept singing. “Show the others just how strong you are, as you leave them far behind. With this freed
om you will rise, bright and new and beautiful. Bright and new and beautiful.”
The tungsten continued to disengage from the other metals, but there was no way this strand would curl itself around Willa’s wrist. She had no idea what Wyndellia had done in order to braid this difficult strand with the silver and gold, but that level of magic was beyond Willa’s ken.
A new sound trickled through Willa’s concentration. Someone else was singing. She looked up. Not her mother, but her mother’s angry gaze pointed out the culprit.
Kyanna.
Willa’s sister stood arched over her wood platform, hands curved around her egg, voice belting out a song in faeish that Willa didn’t recognize.
Kyanna shot Willa a haughty glare as if to say, “Thanks for the help.”
The titanium was nearly free.
Heart pounding, Willa went back to the tungsten. Another inch, inch and a half, and the strand would be loose, and the entire braid of metal would have been removed. With the braid gone, there would be plenty of room for Willa to slip her hand in and extract the crystal.
Please, she begged the tungsten. All the way out now. Free yourself. Show the crowd how amazing and—
A shout went up from beside her. Zane’s voice. A shout of triumph. Of victory.
Willa slumped. She didn’t need to look to know that Kyanna had separated the titanium in its entirety. She felt like crying. Instead, she cajoled the tungsten the rest of the way out, doing her best to block out the cheers and boos from the crowd.
But the amount of noise they were making was almost impossible to ignore. Maybe asking for an audience had been a dumb thing to do.
The tungsten slipped free and lay in her hand, a stiff, worn-out strand of metal. She placed it gently on the wood platform and risked a glance at Kyanna.
Her sister smiled, a stretched, unpleasant grin that made Willa want to slap her. “Looks like you lost, sister dear.”
Kyanna stuck her hand into the cage, grabbed hold of the crystal and pulled it free. She hefted it over her head. “Behold your new queen—”
The crystal shattered into a thousand pieces, raining down over Kyanna like glass and tinkling to the floor in a cacophony of disjointed clinks and clangs. She brought her hand down and stared at the bits left in her palm. Then she spat out a curse and hurled the remnants of the crystal into the audience. “This was rigged.”
“Silence,” Gerard called out. “It was not rigged. The eggs were designed so that the crystal had to be removed properly or shatter. The warning was built in. And since you failed to heed that warning, All Seer Kyanna, you have been disqualified.” He shifted his gaze to Willa. “The crown is now yours to lose, Willa Iscovian.”
The crowd sucked in a breath, and all eyes turned to her. She felt the weight of their stares pressing down. Then the murmuring started. Speculation, no doubt, about how she would remove the crystal without shattering it the same way Kyanna had.
But just because Willa had heard the crystal’s warning didn’t mean she had any better idea about how to remove it.
She stood there, staring at the crystal that still floated in the center of the cage. There was only one other way she could think of to remove it from its prison. And it was something she’d never attempted before.
The weight of the idea almost buckled her knees. She grabbed hold of the platform and leaned on it like it was a crutch. She stared at the crystal. She should test her idea. See if it was even possible.
She focused on the crystal. Let herself sink so deeply within its clear structure that the hard lines of reality blurred. Her focus was on and in the shard. She became part of the shard.
Then she willed it to turn.
And it did.
She held her breath. No one else seemed to notice what she’d done. Except Gerard, whose eyebrows gave the slightest twitch. Had she just figured it out? Maybe. Hopefully. Because she was out of ideas and her energy was nearly spent.
She braced herself on the platform, locking her arms to keep herself upright, then went back into the trancelike state she’d just been in. Reality blurred away until all she saw was clear crystal, icy in its perfection.
She imagined the shard loose and free of the magic holding it inside the cage. Imagined it being controlled by a string of pure energy that teased it out through the narrow gap in the metal strands. In her mind, it slid through with only a hair’s breadth of space on either side. Her eyes watered, and her arms shook like she was on the verge of a seizure. She blinked to clear her vision and saw that the crystal was now outside of the cage.
Tears streamed from her eyes, but she held on, slowly lowering the shard to the top of the wooden platform. It came to rest with a soft thunk and lay there, whole and perfect.
With a hard exhale, she released her magical grip on the shard and let herself relax. A wave of dizziness hit her. She panted for air, sucking in deep gulps in an attempt to keep herself from passing out. She lifted her head enough to look at Gerard, hoping he could read the question in her eyes without her having to speak.
He nodded, smiling and proud. Then he turned to face the crowd, thrusting his arms skyward with an unmistakable joy. “Ladies and gentlemen, the challenge is ended. Behold your new queen!”
Kyanna’s screams were drowned out by the cheering crowd. Willa smiled. And was vaguely aware of Nick and Shay and her parents rushing toward her.
Then she passed out.
Chaos swirled around them, but Nick blocked all of that out. All that mattered was the woman in his arms. Nick cradled Willa as her lids fluttered open.
She looked at him and blinked a few times before she spoke. “What happened?”
“You’re awake!” Shay answered before he could. She crouched at his side, her little face masked in worry. “You fainted.”
Nick nodded. “You went down like a stone. Your breathing is back to normal, so that’s good. How do you feel otherwise?”
She gave Shay a little smile as she answered. “Wiped out, but that’s how I should feel.” She did her best to sit up. “All that magic took it out of me. How long was I out?”
“Not long. Thirty seconds maybe. You want to stand?”
“Yes. Help me.”
He put his hands on her waist and lifted her, maybe more help than she wanted, but he wasn’t taking any arguments over it.
Shay grabbed Willa’s hand. “You did great.”
“Thanks.” Willa stared at Shay for a long, hard moment. Then she bent and kissed her little sister on the cheek.
Her parents walked up, her mother teary-eyed but beaming. “We’re so proud of you, sweetheart.”
Her father nodded. “Well done, Willa. Brilliantly done.”
“Thanks.” She held on to Nick’s arm and looked around. “It’s crazy in here, huh?”
The guards had let Nick and Willa’s family through the ropes, but the rest of the crowd remained outside them. Barely. A very celebratory atmosphere had taken hold of them.
Except for Kyanna and Zane, who huddled in the far corner of the stanchioned area, glowering at Willa.
Jarrel sighed. “I need to speak to Kyanna. And Zane.”
Melinna put her hand on her husband’s arm. “I don’t know, Jarrel.”
“It’s got to be done. Enough is enough. She must face this new reality with dignity. They both must. I know it’s not what she—”
But before he could say another word, Kyanna stormed toward them, eyes blazing with anger. She stabbed a finger at Willa. “You cheated.”
Jarrel shook his head. “Kyanna, the challenge is over and you must accept—”
Kyanna turned on Jarrel. “You stay out of this.”
Willa made a face and stepped between her father and her sister. “How do you figure I cheated?”
“Your crystal didn’t shatter.”
“That’s because I listened to the warning that you ignored.”
Kyanna scowled. “What warning?”
Willa crossed her arms defiantly. “It was the
first thing I heard when I laid my hands on the egg.”
Kyanna’s chest heaved with indignation. She searched the crowd until she found whoever she was looking for. “Gerard! Gerard, get over here now.”
The steward was talking with a group of guards, giving directions for the rest of the day, Nick supposed. Two of them headed off toward the castle’s interior.
Gerard strode toward Kyanna. “Yes, All Seer?”
She spat out a breath. “I should be queen. You gave me a defective egg.”
“I did no such thing. The challenge was perfect. As were the eggs and the warning contained within. Whoever removed the crystal in one piece would become queen.” He nodded at Willa. “Your sister achieved that.”
“No.” Kyanna’s shout made it over the sound of the revelry. Those in the crowd closest to the ropes turned to look. “I should be queen.”
Melinna glared at her. “You’re behaving like a child.”
Zane tugged at Kyanna’s arm. “Let’s go.”
She shoved him away. “No.” Then she pointed at Nick. “You. Let’s go.”
He laughed. “I don’t think so.”
She stared at him. “You can’t refuse me. You’re wearing my bracelet.”
He lifted the arm wearing the slave cuff and looked at it. “Am I?” He shook his wrist. “Doesn’t seem to be working.”
“Of course it’s working. Any other option is impossible.” She snarled and stepped closer to him, her voice a gravelly whisper. “Kill Willa. Then fly me out of here.”
“Like hell I will.” He held her gaze. “Guards, this woman just ordered me to kill your new queen.”
Kyanna’s eyes rounded. “You ignorant fool.”
Willa slid in beside Nick as the guards rushed forward. “You’re the fool, Kyanna. He’s wearing my bracelet.”
“But I—how is that possible?” Kyanna’s mouth hung open as the guards took hold of her.
Willa lifted her chin. “And once I’m officially queen, I’m banning slaves for good.”
The Gargoyle Gets His Girl Page 20