Henri lifted his head and looked at her in the eyes, giving Sophie access to look deep inside him. She didn't look away.

"You won't have to say goodbye," Henri said, gravely.

"What do you mean?" she said, whispering because she felt afraid. Afraid of Henri's devotion.

"Jou-Jou, I will give you my heart. It has always belonged to you."

Tristan Palace Royale, eclat, Gemmes "Merde."

Tristan couldn't believe it. Tamsin and Emel had laid it out for him, but still. The entire story was outrageous.

The final stone, the garnet he dreamt of for years, close enough to feel.

He couldn't stop dreaming of Sophie since he met her. Because of her heart of stone. Because she was the missing piece, the reason he found the other stones in the first place.

Tamsin's connection to Sophie drew them together and now the stone would expire, disintegrate, dissolve.

Unless.

"I know what you are thinking, Tristan, and the answer is no," Tamsin stated, firmly.

"You don't know what I was going to suggest," Tristan retorted. Guards stood everywhere, listening to everything. The rioters outside grew louder, making it feel like everything was pressing in too thin. He swore the walls would come down any minute.

"I know you want the tresor. I know it's all we've ever wanted ... however you can't cut out the girl's heart to get what you want," Uncle Remy reasoned.

"She'll die, anyways."

"Why are you acting so cavalier? Don't you care about her?" Uncle Remy pressed. Suddenly his Uncle wanted to assume the role of guiding father. Tristan supposed there was a first time for everything, but it felt a little late for that.

"First of all, she's not my lover. So I'm not indebted to her or something archaic like that."

Tamsin, Emel, and Uncle Remy stood with arms crossed, unswervingly against Tristan.

"I'm joking, merde." Tristan pushed his hands through his hair, growing stressed. "Look, I know she's a person, but doesn't it seem like a waste? She might want to die knowing she died for something grand."

"No. That isn't the way to go," Emel said. "I don't like her, but that is wrong."

"So she'll wake tomorrow and die? The tresor and Sophie just gone?"

"I wish there was something I could do ... I've wracked my brain, still I don't have any ideas." Tamsin threw her hands in the air, clearly a mess over this whole thing. Who wasn't though? Tristan thought glumly.

"Her stone reading ended in death, you know? I had hoped it was figurative. This is so ... literal," Emel said.

"Let me talk to her," Tristan said. "Don't worry, I won't hurt her. I couldn't. I miss her already, like, desperately miss her. It hurts how much I miss that girl and it's been like, what thirty minutes? Did you know, we were in this huge row at one point, and she left me? I spent the entire night searching for her in the woods because it was too horrible to be a part from her."

"It's not her, you know that right?" Emel said in annoyance.

"What do you mean? Of course it is. That girl is my everything. I've told her that. That's why this is so messed up."

"Emel is trying to point out that you are drawn to the stone, not Sophie," Tamsin said gently, putting her hand on his arm. "I'm sorry for involving you in my mess. I'm such a fool."

"Enough with playing the martyr, Tamsin; you had no choice!" Uncle Remy raised his voice angrily. Tristan stepped back, never having seen his uncle mad before.

Things between him and Tamsin must have gotten intense. He always knew a spark passed between them, but it wasn't until now, when he saw his uncle pull her into a tender embrace that he realized a relationship had ignited.

This was too weird.

The door to the queen's chamber room swung open revealing a somber Henri. Tristan had taken one look at him when he arrived to know he was all wrong for Bijou. He tried hard to be an angsty lover, when really he was a stray puppy dog.

"Tamsin, I need your help," Henri said.

"What is it, is Sophie in pain again?" Tamsin asked worriedly.

"Not pain, thankfully. But I found a way to solve our problems."

Tamsin shook her head understanding what Tristan didn't. "No, Henri, you can't."

"I need to," Henri answered.

Emel started to cry, covering her mouth with her hands, horrified.

Tristan still didn't understand.

"Tamsin, please, it's the only way. She can't die without ever having a real chance at life. Let me give her that chance."

Tristan stared at him incredulously, the truth dawning on him. Henri would sacrifice himself for Sophie.

Tristan would get his Tresor de L'espoir after all.

Tristan left them in hall, letting them figure out their spells or what not, and slipped into the queen's chamber. It agonized him to be separated from the thing he loved.

Sophie stood at the queen's dressing table, holding miniature portraits of the king and queen in her hand, looking like she'd seen a ghost. She watched Tristan enter through the mirror, and asked, "Did you talk him out of his ridiculous plan, Tristan?"

"Not exactly...." Tristan had a momentary flush of shame as he remembered what his exact thoughts were. Not much to do with Henri's life, or Sophie's for that matter. He had one focus. He always had.

"Why not? You think he deserves to die?" she asked, her head tilted to the side, her choice of words as direct as ever.

"I think a future with you and the Tresor de L'espoir, like we planned, is quite appealing."

He walked closer, resting his hands on her shoulders as he stood behind her. Breathing lighter now that he was once again in close proximity to the garnet.

"It's rather strange, isn't it? Being here, all of us connected, all wanting different things."

"You're so existential, Bijou, I never knew."

"I'm a lot of things we never knew, aren't I?" She smiled, as if this was fun and games to her.

"You are taking this quite well."

"How else would I act? After all, aren't I a stony girl? I am nothing more than the sum of my parts and my parts are cold, lifeless. You can't expect me to be something I am not."

"Just think of what you could be ... will be!" Tristan exclaimed, growing excited at the idea of him and Sophie, the riches of Gemmes. Theirs, forever.

"You think it will be that simple?"

"I do. You and me, we can conquer the world!" He grinned, so genuinely happy.

"You are the handsomest man I've ever met; you know that, Tristan?"

"Such high praise from the Ice Queen!"

"I'm actually the Princess of Gemmes," she responded arrogantly, with the trace of a smirk slightly revealing itself.

"Yes, you are," he leaned over and kissed her neck, sweeping back her long hair, inhaling her everything. "I could pull you onto that bed, draw those curtains and take what I'm dying to get my hands on."

"I know what you're dying to get your hands on, Tristan." Sophie surprised him by standing, turning to face him, pressing her hands on his chest, pushing him backwards to the canopied bed.

"You are the girl of my dreams, you know that, Bijou?"

"Oh, I know exactly what you've dreamt of taking." She pushed him on the bed, fulfilling his fantasy. He moaned as she straddled him, pushing her skirt to her knees as she looked at him with her perfect red lips.

She continued, "I know your first thought when you heard I was the missing piece to your tresor was to cut open my chest, and take the precious garnet for yourself." Her eyes glistened, and Tristan realized in terror that she had played him. "I heard you tell Tamsin that I might as well die for something grand."

She pulled a dagger from under the pillow, inches from Tristan's head. He'd seen the enchanted dagger many times before, and instantly recognized it as Tamsin's. Tamsin's bag was splayed open on the floor of the chamber, taunting them with potions and spells, none of which was strong enough for what they needed. They needed dark magic. Magic that must be conjured by something more impressive than a simple concoction of herbs dug from the forest floor.

"Take it, traitor." She shoved the dagger in his hand. "Take my heart of stone, it's what you want, isn't it?"

Tristan realized though she might be cold and callous, she was still a girl.

"Hearing me say you were dying hurt your feelings, didn't it?" he asked her dubiously.

"Don't fool yourself. You can't hurt me, but you can cut me. Cut me open. You're right about one thing, that I am a girl. I know that much. I am one girl thrown into something much too big for me, but I will not, under any circumstances, let Henri die for me."

"Carve out my heart, Tristan. If you care even a sliver, even a trace ... let me die. Let Henri live." Her face was fierce, filled with strength he'd never before seen in anyone or anything. She was no longer a human cloaked in the ferocity of the moment; Tristan thought maybe she never was.

She was a girl with a heart of stone, after all.

He could make her final wish come true. He rolled her off of him, and they traded places. Her hair splayed like a waterfall across the pillow and her eyes filled with fortified resolve.

He took the enchanted dagger and lifted it high over her. "Thank you," he whispered, relieved to get what he wanted most.

"No, Tristan, thank you." Even though she was the coldest girl in Gemmes, he swore that in her thanks, there was more to her final words than gratitude.

He could have sworn there was love.

Tamsin Palace Royale, eclat, Gemmes He looked so fervent, standing there, asking Tamsin for her help, her expertise. For the dark magic her hands were committed to.

Emel cried, "Henri, don't do this. It is too risky. You can't die!"

The young girl was broken up as the boy she travelled with explained what must transpire. That he wanted to be the sacrifice she needed. That his love was pure enough and strong enough and real enough for Sophie.

Tamsin looked at Remy; his jaw clenched disapproving. Forgiving her for the dark magic was one thing, carving open the child's chest, taking life and placing it in another, when she was no longer ordered to do so by the king ... that may be a deed she couldn't overcome.

She'd already spent her life trying to forgive herself for her transgression. Only she continued to multiply her offenses, never forgive them. Doing this now, saving Sophie was what she had always dreamed of doing herself.

This boy had offered himself, simplifying a complicated endeavor.

She shook her head, the gravity weighing on everyone.

"It won't work, Henri. I had hoped, before, that a heart for a stone would be enough. Which is why I had always believed I would give my own heart for Sophie's. But it has to be true love. That's the only way the heart will survive in a new body. If there's a hint of conditional love, it won't work. I told you as much back at my cottage."

"My love is real, true. As true as anything. That is why I will lay down for her!" Henri raised his voice, wanting to prove himself in the words he spoke. Tamsin knew the futility.

"The magic won't work if there is a hint that the love is not real."

Henri tried to interrupt, to say something of substance, but Tamsin kept speaking, "And you say you love her, but you don't know the real Sophie. You don't know if you would love her when she was a girl with a beating, pulsing heart."

"Yes, however I'd also be dead. So what does it matter? Besides, it is true love. I've proposed to her for Hedge's sake."

"I'm sorry. I won't. The magic is too risky. I can't believe your love for her. I don't know for certain if it is true. I can't have your blood on my hands if the heart doesn't take."

"You are a crazy old sorciere, you know that!" Henri lunged for Tamsin, who screamed, not expecting this quiet boy to fight so strong.

"Henri," Remy pulled him back. "We can't kill you. It would be wrong."

"Just go, ask Sophie about my love. Even if she doesn't accept it, you will see it is true." Henri pushed open the door, not wanting to take Tamsin's no.

The walked in the chamber room and everyone let out terrified screams.

Tristan leaned over Sophie on the bed, Tamsin's enchanted dagger in hand, ready to splice Sophie open.

"No!" Tamsin screamed, diving for Tristan. "Let go of it!" She pulled back on his arms, trying to get the knife, but she was no match for his strength.

"Just let him, okay?" Sophie spouted off coolly, throwing her hands in the air. "Just let him do it. I won't let someone die for me. That's senseless and silly and not what I want anyways."

Remy forced Tristan to let go of the dagger by prying it from his fingers. Everyone had become messy, disheveled wrecks.

"Don't say that, Jou-Jou." Henri looked so broken.

Tamsin put the dagger back in her satchel and everyone looked at one another in a face off. They wanted something, although not everyone could have what they desired. The weight of life and death clouded her judgment. Should she kill Henri and take his heart? Should she have let Tristan kill Sophie, taking the garnet, since she was on her way to death's door anyway?

The decision wracked her brain, and the one thing that didn't seem to ease her agony was the fact that Sophie's clock kept ticking.

She had already killed the king. What else was she to do to put the country of Gemmes in peril? The outside rioters were gaining momentum. It was clear by the blasts of canons and the gunshots beyond the Palace walls. This was no longer a protest. This was a battle.

Her heart sank, realizing there was no easy way. Except for Sophie to die.

Remy forgave her, saw past her mistakes, and accepted her as the woman she was. But the truth remained; she wasn't able to see past any of it. Even after Sophie died, she knew regret would fill the rest of her life. Regret for the woman she hadn't been strong enough to be. Regret that she let this happen at all.