I gasped, my eyes wide as I watched the last bit of the blue handle sink into the dirt as if in mere sand and not dirt at all.
And then there was a groaning and creaking noise which drew all of our attention to the same spot, the spot which had swallowed the sword.
Krew grabbed me by the waist and hauled me to my feet and back.
“So that happened,” Owen deadpanned as the forest went quiet again.
And then the ground was moving, branches shooting upward, causing all of us to step back in horror.
It was moving so quickly, there wasn’t time to think. I wondered if I should put a protective barrier around us all, but then I realized it was a tree. The forest was birthing a massive tree. At the exact spot where we had buried the sword.
In minutes, it was towering over us all, branches swaying.
“I have never—” River shook his head, taking off his glasses and putting them back on.
As the final roots sprawled across the ground and burried themselves in the soil, somehow avoiding where we were standing, a single purple bloom formed on the tree.
Purple. The same color as the queen’s magic.
Owen approached cautiously, looking around on the ground. “It’s gone. Or under the tree.”
“Hydrangeas,” Keir whispered. “Her favorite.”
It was the largest hydrangea tree I’d ever seen. And a circle of about ten feet all around the tree was also healed back to green grass.
Krew brushed a kiss to my temple. “Mark this off the list. We’ve found the resting place for the sword.”
“It’s beautiful,” I gasped.
“I will not be able to sleep for a week,” River said to no one in particular as he rubbed at his eyes. “I will be out here multiple times just to remember this really happened. That I was witness to this.”
“I am with you,” John agreed.
We stood there for countless minutes, all in varying degrees of shock. The forest had wanted the sword. And had given us the most beautiful space to keep it safe. I didn’t know why. I didn’t need to know why. But I understood that the sword was safe. It might be gone, it might not be. But the forest would keep it safe. It just felt...right.I knew the forest which had punished the king for his actions would keep it from falling into the wrong hands.
“Let’s go, love,” Krew said, as everyone was leaving to head back to the castle.
“One moment,” I said with a smile.
I walked over to the tree and placed my hand on the bark. The tree was so large I wondered if I could wrap my arms around the trunk of it. And when this thing bloomed in the spring, it was sure to be a sight to behold.
I felt a slight warmth and buzz beneath my fingers, the power of the queen’s magic. It wasn’t gone, it was just living in this tree. An extension of an amazing woman.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “Thank you for saving us in the throne room.” I inhaled a shaky breath. “Thank you for the messages in the journals.” I loathed the fact that I would never get to know this woman. “And thank you for raising kind men who will serve Wylan well.”
Just as I turned to walk back to Krew, I felt something fall and instinctively reached out my hand. The lone hydrangea blossom fell into it.
My eyes went to Krew’s.
This had to be a dream. There was no way the forest had just swallowed the sword and then grown this tree. And given me a flower. Yet we lived in a world where the impossible was possible right beneath our very fingertips.
“Unbelievable,” John gasped. “It—” he shook his head. “It heard you.”
“I think she likes you too,” Krew said softly, his eyes never leaving mine. “Or her magic does. Whichever.”
I turned the flower in my hand. “I feel like someone is going to wake me up at any moment now.”
“Me as well. Also, we need to discuss the protection of this tree,” River said as he and John launched into a discussion on the way back to the castle.
