A/N: oops, I lied. TWO more chapters, plus an epilogue lol. Happy reading!

"Quickly, my love, we must move quickly."

"Shh, Eron, do not wake her. Not now." I looked at the child in my arms. So peaceful. So innocent.

A voice from the doorway. "Your majesties, they're at the gates."

"Keira, my love, we must go..."

Tears slipped down my cheeks but I nodded, letting my husband wrap his arm protectively over my shoulders as we rushed out the door into the corridor, babe snuggled into my breast, oblivious to the horror that was coming.

"Tori, where's Jovian?" The king was asking.

"Im here, Eron." Jovian ran up next to us, taking his place on my other side as we turned into the hidden door in the wall, though it would not remain hidden for long.

"Remember what we discussed? She cannot use her magic. Not ever. Not until she is ready to fight. And, oh kraken, Jovian, don't let her go into the Black Mountains without someone worthy at her side. A Shadow. Be sure its a Shadow. And her marks, you need to be sure it stays hidden as she grows or—"

"I know, my friend. We've spoken of this at length." Jovian reminded him, attempting to quell the worry.

We entered a small room, seemingly useless it was, except for the hidden passage out. I bent, my daughter still in my arms and pressed the correct stones one at a time with a shaking hand as the men kept speaking.

"Be sure she knows about the Grey Stone, how it cannot harm her specifically. She needs to know that if she's to defeat Carigus. No. Marqis. Make sure she doesn't fight Carigus Beoworth, wait until he's dead and his boy takes his place as king. She needs to know the Stone will refuse to harm her blood. If it's forced to, it will crumble and we don't know what would happen then. I suspect it will kill all of the bloodlines but... no, don't tell her that. If I'm wrong she'll sacrifice herself, if she's anything like her mother."

"I am not sacrificing myself." I said firmly, finally standing as the wall slipped inward.

He took my arms. "You should be with our daughter."

"The Stone knows my touch. Carigus will find me in mere days. It's you who should go."

"I cannot pass the boarders." He swallowed tears and bent, kissing Meira on the forehead. Then he let out a breath and turned, pulling out ink and placing it on the table next to the parchment. "I should have had this done already, but I thought we had more time... what can I say to her? What could I..." His eyes were struck with sorrow and guilt. "We've failed her, Keira, we've failed them all."

I put a hand on his shoulder as the sound of a crack echoed from the slit of the window, a sign the gates were breaking. "Say what needs to be said. Jovian will tell her of our love and who we were, just write what she needs to know." Another crack. "Quickly, Eron."

I removed my hand to shift my daughter up closer, hoping the sound of the gates did not wake her. I turned to Jovian who was bundling his mage robe and putting it into a sack so none would take note of him missing. I smiled, if briefly.

"It's been a long time since I saw you without that robe on, Jo."

Jovian returned the smile best he could, though at that moment we heard the cracking of the castle gates. They would be entering the castle itself soon, and all would be done. "Probably back when I was a knight for your father." He put the sack over his shoulder then took mine, like he had when I was a little girl and he needed to tell me something important. "I will protect her, Keira. And I'll teach her how to protect herself as well. Do not worry for her in your last moments."

"But... the Black Mountains, Jovian." I whispered. "We are sending her to the Black Mountains—"

"I'm not mentioning that in the note." Said my husband, still scribbling. "I say only mountains. Tell her of what I truly mean only if you find a way to get past the gates. Only the Elven king is aware of it though, and getting it from him will be mighty difficult—" the castle gates opened, we could hear the thunder from the room.

Jovian took my shoulders again. "Do not fear for her. Trust in me, as you always have."

I felt a sob but surpressed it. "Love her, Jovian. Show her love for us."

His eyes softened. "I—"

There was a slam up above. Close. Too close.

My eyes widened, they had found us so quickly!

Jovian yanked the note out from under Eron's quill and turned to me. There was no time for goodbyes, Jovian took my baby girl and rushed out the door as quickly as he could. Together, Eron and I pushed the door closed and it looked sealed once more.

My husband turned to me as the sound of boots hammered on the stairs. "I love you, Keira."

I pulled out the knife from my belt and kissed him. "I love you." I told him as well, then reached out with my magic and hesitated.

He gripped me hard as someone tried to kick door in. "Now, my love. Do it now. They must not be able to find her. They can't take us alive."

I let out a cry and used my magic to snap his neck.

My hunsband fell lifeless to the floor. I turned the knife on myself just as the door opened and Carigus Beoworth himself came in, his eyes widened when he saw my knife. "No!"

"You will learn nothing from me." I said simply and then plunged the knife deep into my stomach.

***

I woke, sucking air in so harshly I almost gagged on it. My eyes opened wide and just as quickly I slammed them shut as the sun was too bright, even at sunset.

"Ah, you are awake. Good." Said Marqis, cheerfully. "You almost missed your own death."

I was being dragged, I realized. My feet dragging on the ground, one arm gripped tightly in each guards hands, Marqis just behind me. There were more guards, so many more.

Ahead, the gates leading from the castle into the Viewing Square stood tall.

No. No. I wasn't ready. I wasn't done yet

I threw out my magic, yanking out a tree and—

Pain engulfed me and I screamed, but even before the scream could continue its full course, the pain was gone completely.

"You have two choices before you," said Marqis as the guards kept dragging me. His words were a horrible echo of what I had said to his knights to bring me here. "You could die screaming in pain, or you could show your people one last bit of strength and die with dignity."

My lips were dry, too dry to speak. But I stood, my body aching but having none of the pain Marqis could wield.

He chuckled. "Thought you may wish to walk. Open the gates, cousins, the people are waiting."

Cousins? I looked on my left and right. One of them was the blue cloaked man who had brought me in. It was no wonder he wanted me dead. He was family. He was a Beoworth.

But that fact slipped my mind as the gates were pulled open.

The platform was only a couple of steps from the ground, but I was lifted up higher. Up onto the stone casing of the Grey Stone itself.

Here I stood on what was the greatest power of my bloodline. Two twigs wide and two long, it had a spike jutting out the top. The Grey Stone demanded sacrifice, and it looked just as gruelling as I had once dreamed as a child.

But it was the people that brought the most emotion.

The Viewing Square was packed, just as it had been when we came looking for Arion. All eyes were on me now, and I saw that same hope shining in their eyes as they'd shone at the words of Marqis. Hope that I would not die. Hope that I had a few tricks up my sleeves. I gave them hope, even now.

But just like Marquis, I would prove to crush their hopes.

I realized with a slight terror that I would actually die today.

My eyes shifted to the rooftops, searching for Arion... but of course, he could not save me this time. Instead of Arion, white dragons were perched upon the roofs, prepared at any moment to attack anyone below who even dared shout a word, never mind try and help me.

The dragons. Could I use the dragons? Escape perhaps?

But no... not with Marqis so close and ready to give me that blinding pain at any moment in time.

I would die today.

I could barely believe it.

I would die today.

I. Would. Die. Today.

Then my eyes landed on someone. Someone I knew.

Jovian.

He stood in the shadows of a roof, his hood up, his figure hidden nearly as well as a Shadow... but it was Jovian. I knew it. I would recognize him anywhere.

He must have seen me looking because he pulled back his hood so that I could see his face, then pressed his hand to his heart.

I wanted to tell him I loved him too, but I forced my eyes to move away as too many people were watching except... why was he looking at me like that? With fear, yes, but also hope. How could he hope? Could he not see that if was about to die?

Could he? I could almost hear Jovian ask. Asking me a question in answer to my own question, making me think for myself when I want to know what his opinion is. Now, I asked myself.

Could he have hope? If he had hope, then why? Was there something I was missing?

"All set, your highness."

Ropes had been tied around my ankles and wrists while I'd stood there. But my mind was on the question.

I knew the answer too. It was quite simple really: if jovian had hope, then there was a reason to hope, and that was that.

But the my thoughts were interrupted as I was lifted by my wrists and ankles hard enough up to jolt every ache in my body. Looking up, I see the dragons lifting me. I knew if I turned my head, I'd see the spike of the Stone ten feet below me. They would drop me on it, I realized with horror.

I realized this too late.

There was a cry from the crowd and I was dropped. I felt the spike pierce my back, slipping between my ribs, going through my body, and breaking another rib on its exit upward just over my heart. It had missed my heart by an inch but that would not save me.

My back cracked across the stone edge and my spine broke with a snap that I only felt for a second. Then I no longer felt any pain. I no longer felt anything at all.

My head was back on the stone platform, limbs splayed useless around me. In the corner of my eye I could see Marqis, watching me die with a small, victorious smile, and everywhere else I could see people. Crying or turning their faces away or reaching out to me.

But my face was now facing west, and I could see the bright orange-pink of sunset, but it was getting blurred by the blackness clouding my vision, the blackness of death approaching — unfortunately, I knew it well.

I forced my mind into the three states joining as my eyes stared at the beautiful sight that should only be viewed on good days, not days such as these.

I'm sorry father! I shouted in my mind. I have failed you! I'm dying on the very stone that...

That would protect me. That would not accept me as something to harm, yet they just killed me with it.

I thought back to that odd dream... had it been real? It had felt real, and I could remember it as well as any memory, not like a dream at all. The Bloodstone perhaps?

It didn't matter. If it were real, then that meant what he'd said was real.

Don't tell her, or she'll sacrifice herself...

The Stone would crumble...

Kill off all the bloodlines...

Jovians look of hope.

Then I remembered Orro's words, about distryoing the stone. He's been speaking of the Bloodstone, of course, but...

"To destroy it, I suspect, you'll have to force it to go against its purpose. Such as using a Ruberous to harm someone instead of heal them."

"What would happen if it were destroyed?"

"Can't say, but if history is any indication, I'd guess it would kill off whatever caused it to go against the force it was. Best not be you who tried to destroy it then, yes?"

Two guesses, perhaps, maybe, but...

I felt sure that though I lay dying... that though I would die... so would Marqis and the stone.

At my surge of joy, I lost concentration and I lost the hold on my three minds. As the blackness blotted out the vision of the beautiful sunset, I could only think that perhaps it was a wonderful day after all.

At my last moment in life, when my vision was gone, my heart stopped, and I lay dead. In that brief moment before my soul left my body, I could have sworn I felt a rumble.

A/N: ahem, note the poem at the beginning of the book ;)