Capture the Crown (Gargoyle Queen #1) -Jennifer Estep Page 0,47

I’d joked to Leonidas about dying, but the truth was that I was already dead—my mind and body just didn’t quite know it yet.

“Don’t do that,” Leonidas snapped, intruding on my morbid musings. “Don’t give up.”

“I’m not giving up. I’m facing the inevitable.” I gestured down at my physical body. “My left arm and leg are both badly broken, and I probably have other internal injuries. I’m trapped deep in a mine on a ledge that could give way under my weight at any time. I’m dead. The only thing that’s left to ponder is if I’ll wake up—truly wake up—before the end.”

Leonidas’s jaw clenched, and determination flared in his eyes. “You’re not going to die. I’m going to save you.”

I barked out a harsh, bitter laugh. “How are you going to do that? Unless I miss my guess, you’re already back in Morta. Even if you could return to Blauberg in time, there’s no way you could get past Conley and the other miners, much less make it down into this chamber.”

He stared at me, his jaw still clenched tight, and the determination burning in his eyes never wavered or dimmed, not even for an instant. He truly thought he could rescue me. He was an even bigger fool than I’d realized.

Leonidas leaned over and nudged me with his elbow. The motion was careful, gentle, controlled, as if he was concerned that he would send my ghostly form tumbling down into the chasm just like my physical body had. To my surprise, I actually felt the sensation, as though he had touched me in real life, and I had to hold back a shiver.

“My friends call me Leo.”

“Do you have a lot of friends?” I asked. “Back home in Morta?”

Perhaps it was a trick of the gloomy lantern light, but I could have sworn that sadness flickered across his face. “There’s Lyra, of course. My sister, Delmira.” He paused. “And my mother. But I suppose she has to be my friend.”

Maeven’s smiling face filled my mind. I remembered the smug glee that had rolled off her as the turncoat guards had cut people down during the Seven Spire massacre, along with her silent words. I’m going to enjoy this.

I shuddered. “No, I don’t think your mother has to be your friend.”

“No, I suppose not,” Leonidas replied.

We sat there in silence, each of us lost in our own dark thoughts. I didn’t have the strength to sit upright anymore, not even in this ghostly form, so I pulled my legs up over the lip of the chasm and scooted back. Then I lay down on the cavern floor, using my right arm as a pillow to cushion my head.

“Goodbye, Leo,” I said, my words slurring a bit. “Enjoy the rest of your princely life. Oh, and pet Lyra for me. I always wanted to pet a strix, but I never got the chance.”

I must truly be dying to sputter nonsense like that. The thought made me laugh, at least in my own mind, but no sound came out of my lips.

Leonidas leaned over me, concern creasing his face. He shook my shoulder. “Hey! Stay awake! Don’t go back to sleep!”

But the sharp motion didn’t rouse me, and I was already asleep. This was just a dream, after all. Still, for some reason, I could have sworn that I felt the hot shock of his hand cupping my cheek before I tumbled back down the cliff into the blackness waiting in my body.

Chapter Ten

The blackness wrapped around me like the softest cloak, blotting out everything else.

I wasn’t sure how long I lay on the ledge. Minutes, hours, days . . . Penelope’s body quickly grew cold and stiff against my own, and I couldn’t tell where the ledge ended and she began. But it didn’t really matter since I would soon be as cold, stiff, and dead as she was.

Gemma! Gemma!

Every once in a while, Grimley’s worried voice would pierce the blackness, like a low, gravelly bell tolling in the night. But I didn’t have the strength to respond, and I tumbled back down into the darkness again.

Eventually, that darkness grew brighter, sharper, until it morphed into a river of dreams carrying me along and showing me all sorts of images.

Grimley crouching on a rooftop, snarling and staring at the mine entrance. Topacia standing in a barracks, speaking to a stern-looking captain of the royal guard. Conley sitting at a desk, letting coins trickle down through his fingers and spatter onto