Samuel surged toward her, then stopped where he was.
She'd flinched, just a little.
"It's just been such a .
.
.
I was so sure Phin was dead--that they'd killed him trying to get it, and it would be my fault." She wiped her eyes again.
"I'm not usually like this, but Phin is .
.
.
I adore Phin.
He is so much like my son who I lost a long time ago .
.
.
And I thought he was dead." "Now you know he lives?" Samuel asked.
"In fire or in death," Jesse said, understanding it before any of the rest of us did.
"That's what the fairy queen said.
That if she killed Mercy, or if they burned it, it would reveal itself.
But if it still belongs to Phin .
.
." "If they had killed him, the Silver Borne would have revealed itself to them," Ariana agreed.
"They wouldn't still be looking for it." "Why did you make it that way?" asked Jesse.
Ariana smiled at her.
"I didn't.
But things of power .
.
.
evolve around the limits they are given.
That's why, even though I thought it did nothing, I kept it with me.
Because even unfinished, it was a thing of power." "How did you figure out that it .
.