Her Cinder Throne (Completed)

Chapter 73

A sound like a sigh slipped through the air, and then the black shape sunk from the air and to the ground. As the bottom hit the ground, the shadows morphed into a pair of black boots, touching the grass with a feather light landing. The boots were followed by leather trousers, a vest and shirt, and then a pale face traced with black veins. Cole froze, panic flashing through her.

"Bastian?" she choked out.

"You could call me that," he said, his voice now louder and clearer. She knew the others must have been able to hear him now, as Tanwyn and her mother both stared with their mouths open at him.

"What's going on?" she asked, running forward until she was right in front of him. Up close she could see that his veins were pulsing, pushing the black liquid through him instead of blood. His once wary eyes were now as sharp as obsidian, and his black hair floated around him as if underwater.

"You're to come with me," he said, his hand rising slowly until it was extended between them two.

"Where?" Cole asked, trying not to stare at the changes in his face.

"Back to my father," he replied. His voice was cold and emotionless, nothing like how she remembered it. He seemed now to be nearer to that facade of ruthlessness that he had worked so hard to keep up in the castle.

Cole took a step back. "Why would I go to your father?"

Bastian's hand fell back to his side. "He needs the stone that you stole from his mines. The Sparkstone belongs to him."

Cole let out a humorless laugh, sure that there must be some sort of joke being played on her. She turned to look at Tanwyn, expecting to see the stone in his hand and a grin on his face. He had to be casting magic, tricking her for some sick reason. But he was just as stony as Bastian, staring at the prince with his lips pressed tight and his hand gripping her mother's arm. This was no joke.

She turned back to Bastian. "What happened to you? Is this what your father did to you?" she asked, her throat tightening as she remembered Meegan's message about Bastian's change.

Bastian shook his head. "No. It's what you did." He paused then, his eyes travelling over her shoulder to look at her mother and Tanwyn. "What magic did."

"Start speaking sense, Bastian," she said, almost desperate to sprint forward and grab him around the shoulders to shake him until he went back to the prince she had left at the ball.

Instead of answering, he reached down to his black waistcoat and pulled the ebony buttons loose. They fell away, revealing a silk shirt underneath. But what caught the eye was a dagger hilt, sticking out from the left side of his chest, right where his heart should have been beating. Below the hilt, she could just make out around an inch of the blade, enough to realize that it was twisted and shimmering black. With a jolt, she realized that she recognized it.

"That's my blade." It was Tanwyn who had spoken. He was now at her side, jaw clenched. "I gave that to you, Cole. How does he have it?"

A chill ran down Cole's spine. "I- I have no idea. I lost it when we were running from the dance. He didn't even see it fall, as far as I knew."

Bastian redid his waistcoat, the hilt seemingly vanishing as the fabric drew taut over his chest. "Gethwine has been quite useful. Without the rightful heirs to the throne sticking their noses into business that is not their own, she would have never agreed to join forces." He pressed a hand to his chest. "My father saw a weakness in my heart, and he did me a favor in turning it into my biggest strength."

"Cole, we need to leave," Tanwyn whispered. "He's been enchanted. Cursed."

"What? Cursed?"

"Let's go," was all Tanwyn said as he gripped her wrist and wrenched her backwards. She realized then that he held the stone in his hand, ready to use it to transport them elsewhere.

Bastian held his right hand in the air, flicking his fingers. A moment later, dark creatures dissolved out of the dark sky, plopping to his side as heavy as stones. It took them a moment to materialize completely, but once they had, Cole felt bile rise her throat. The same twisted creatures from the cave, the ones guarding the Sparkstone they now held out in the open, were swaying by Bastian's sides.

"You can come with me peacefully, or I can kill you right now and take the stone back myself," he said, and with each word he spoke, his voice seemed to warp and multiple. It gained a hissing quality, and Cole realized that it was melding with the voices of the cave creatures.

Tanwyn stiffened. "What's this?" he demanded, his voice slipping back into the commanding tone of royalty that he had once used on Cole so many times. "No one can control those creatures. They are made from the Sparkstone to protect it. Pure magic. Earth magic."

Don't leeeeeave your toys laying around wherrrrrre just anyone with a strong ennnnnnough will can find them, Bastian's voice hissed in their skulls.

Tanwyn whipped around. "Aderyn, grab my hand!" he shouted to Cole's mother. Her mother immediately lunged forward, heading for Tanwyn, but just as her palm hit his, Cole ripped hers away.

"What are you doing?!" Tanwyn demanded. The stone had just begun to glow between his palm and her mother's, and he had to shake it in the air as if cooling it off.

"We can't leave him like this!" Cole shouted, thrusting her hand in Bastian's direction. "Something's gone wrong, and we can't just run away."

Tanwyn exhaled, his eyes biting. "We can just leave. He's the spawn of Thijs and somehow you're only just noticing what that means just now."

Cole ignored Tanwyn and turned back to Bastian. "You don't have to do this. You wanted to be free of your father. You wanted to be good. To be more than what people believed of you. Come with us. We'll all disappear together." Now she was the one to extend her hand between them.

Bastian cocked his head, but didn't seem ready to answer just yet. The painfully thin cave creatures next to him stared at her with their unblinking, milky eyes.

"You can be just Bastian. We can live where Thijs has no hold over you," Cole tried again, her hand stretching out for his, hoping, hoping, hoping....

One of the cave creatures lunged forward, its long fingers wrapping around her waist and yanking her toward Bastian.