I rushed to my chambers, grabbing whatever I could. There was no time to waste, I had to find the stone and bring her back.
The room hung heavy with the smell of roses. Kathera’s smell.
Briar followed me in, her quiet footsteps echoing as she crossed the room and sank gracefully into the sitting chair.
“Lyrian,” she said softly.
I ignored her. My heart already knew what she would say.
“I have to,” I whispered. “I have to be the one to go.”
The crown pressed into my skull like a reminder of everything I couldn’t abandon.
“You can’t,” she said. “You know that.”
“But I have to save her. I have to bring her back.”
My voice cracked.
“You need to watch over her people,” Briar said gently, her voice a lullaby. “That’s what she would want.”
I crossed the room and fell to my knees beside her, resting my head in her lap as tears ran down my face. She slipped the crown from my head and placed it on the table beside her, then wrapped her arms around me while I shook from the pain tearing through my chest.
All I wanted was to feel Kathera’s light again.
Briar’s voice was soft when she spoke again, half lullaby, half confession.
“After the first time she met you, she came to me and said, ‘I didn’t think I would ever find someone who could love me. I thought I would never have a Soulfated because of my duty to the people. But I’ve met the man I’ll rule beside. He already cares for them as his own. He is already an Emperor. All I must do is give him a crown.’”
Briar’s words hung in the still air long after she finished. For a while, neither of us moved. My tears had slowed, but the ache remained—deep and dull, like an old wound reopened.
When I finally lifted my head from her lap, the crown glimmered faintly where she’d set it aside. It looked smaller on the table, almost fragile. I reached out and ran a trembling finger along its edge.
“You’re right,” I whispered. “She’d want someone to watch over her people.”
Briar nodded once, eyes soft, but her silence said she knew how much it cost me to agree.
I rose slowly, wiping my face. The crown stayed where it was.
For the first time, I let it.
“I’ll send them,” I said. “Ami. The soul carrier. Whoever else we need. But this time…”
My voice steadied.
“…we will not fail her.”
Briar stood with me, resting a gentle hand on my arm. “Then lead them as she would have, with faith, not fear.”
I nodded, though faith was a language I was still learning to speak.