She felt the strong urge to make that clear the kind of place it used to be.“I should fix this.” Ivar grabbed her hand and shook his head. “Not yet.”Elena frowned, raising her head to look him in the eye. Why?“It’s not convenient right now, but we will come back and fix this.” He answered her silent question. “Trust me.” For some reason, the sight made her heart ache. Long after they had crossed the area that had been reduced to just a depressing view, her mind kept rewinding to that moment. Perhaps it was worse because now she knew that there were beings whose entire existence depended on the magic that this forest could provide for them.

Hugo Montenegro poured himself some wine, and waited. It wouldn’t take long for that woman to recover consciousness, and he wanted to see her face when this place burned down and took the forest with it.From the moment the Crown Princess was imprisoned, he knew it was a matter of time before he followed her, but if that was going to happen then he would take her with him too. Elena Valverde, no, Elena de Alba was a thorn on his side, whenever he thought about her. That was the girl he rejected, someone much inferior to him. Her only real advantage was her looks Although she’d barely left her family home, everyone knew about her unparalleled beauty, a delicate flower who would be the object of pride for whoever got her hand. Hugo went to meet her for this very reason, but found a girl too opinionated and who looked at magic with fascination.It

“Sister!”The child jumped out of the carriage and ran towards her. It had only been a few months, but Milan had grown a few inches since the last time she saw him. “I see you are not tired from the trip.”“I’m not. Camping was fun, and Mariela took me to a festival in Lagos. I think Mother would have liked it.”Elena had thought her mother would leave behind her aversion to her and come to take care of Milan, since her father approved of the visit and it was going to happen anyway. But she still refused to come, and so it was arranged for Mariela to go with some of the Black Knights and escort Milan to Alvor.It would be a lie to say she was disappointed (she stopped expecting

Given that it had come to this point, Ivar decided it was useless to keep hiding the truth.“Come with me,” he said, seeing that Elena wouldn’t move or say anything in response.But she still followed him to his office, walking down the stairs that led to the underground springs.“Why are we here?”“It’s the only place inside that palace that’s spacious enough. So you can see with your own eyes what I really am.”Elena barely had time to grasp what was happening in front of her, as he changed into a large, two-winged black creature so frightening that her trembling legs did not want to move when all she wanted was to step back. Just his head was the size of her whole body.

In hindsight, Vivian should have known it from the moment the midwife exclaimed it was a girl. She couldn’t get pregnant before Elena, in the same way she couldn’t carry any of her pregnancies later, as if the whole purpose of having the girl was to continue hiding the Heart.When Milan was conceived, however, she knew that much like her mother before her, her daughter could access that magic. It was because of her misery and Elena feeling sad for her that made it happen.But should she be happy about it?“My mother and her mother before then, for hundreds of years, they lived that kind of life. Do you think I would have been anything else than a slave if they thought I had magic too? My father, the very generous, kind-hearted Baron de Lagos, would have kept me prisoner the rest of my life. The wor