Alone [Book 3 of the Life Hearts Trilogy, previously called Lost Hearts]

Curses

It did not feel great.

I stood over Sausage's corpse, panting. Blood darkened his red robes and stained the pine needles that crunched under my boots.

FWhip, Gem, and Lizzie walked over, their fight forgotten. I barely paid attention to them.

There was a long silence.

Finally, I said quietly, "What have I done?"

I felt terrible.

That was two Emperors gone.

Was I any better than the man I had just killed?

"I'll bet this is the reason," Gem said, kicking at a crown that had fallen off of Sausage's head in the fight. With a jolt, I realized it was the Red Crown.

"What do we do with it?" Lizzie said.

Gem picked up Sausage's staff. "I'll cast a spell that'll banish it away," she said. "It'll still be in this world. But none of us, not even me, will know where it is."

FWhip and Lizzie looked at each other and nodded.

"Wait, is that why we were all trying to murder each other?" FWhip said.

"Probably," Gem said bitterly, avoiding my gaze. I didn't blame her.

I hadn't moved since I had stabbed Sausage. My blood-soaked sword dropped out of my hands and landed on the ground, clanging as it hit a rock. The other Emperors glanced at me but didn't say anything.

Lizzie walked over to Joel and knelt next to him. "He's alive," she said with relief. "But he needs a healing potion."

"That can be arranged," Gem said, readying both her and Sausage's staffs. She pointed them both at the Red Crown and muttered a spell.

In a flash of light, the cause of wars, murders, and betrayals was gone.

Gem looked at the staffs in her hands.

"What'll happen to Sausage's staff?" I asked, finally mustering the willpower to say something. My voice was hoarse, as if I hadn't spoken in a while.

"I'll probably let Scar use it until he makes one of his own," Gem answered without looking at me. "Then I'll put it on display in the magic school I want to build when this is all over. It'll be a lesson, to prevent people from going in the same direction he did."

I nodded even though she still wasn't looking at me. None of them were.

"Everyone grab on," Gem said after another long silence. "We're going to get the items and pets we left behind, and hopefully avoid Rivendell. I don't want to see what happened there. I'll take Sausage's word for it."

"What about Joel?" Lizzie asked.

I took one of Salems' healing potions out of my bag, back from right after we had escaped the Downside-Up, and handed it to Lizzie without looking at her. If they were going to ignore me, I would do the same. No problem.

Lizzie poured the potion down Joel's throat and examined the wound on the back of his head. We all watched as it closed.

Joel opened his eyes. "Aw, who killed him?"

I looked away. "I don't feel good about it."

Nobody responded. Joel reached a hand to the back of his head and seemed alarmed when blood came onto his fingers.

"I don't feel like I hit my head on a rock," Joel said when he saw the blood on the boulder.

"Blue had a healing potion," Lizzie said. "How do you feel?"