Chapter Thirty-nine
he smooth shiny surface ripples like a stone dropped into a pond andT then melts away, revealing another place and another time.
A memory stowed away, but never, ever forgotten.
A cottage in the woods and the sound of thundering hoofbeats in the distance. My mother standing at the counter kneading bread with a streak of flour on her face.
My father enters the room with a sword in his hand. They exchange a look loaded with fear and then they’re ushering me and my sister out the back of the house.
A trap door and a necklace with a single red stone on the end. My mother’s tears and my father’s grim resignation. In the dark, I huddle with
Willow, hearing the frantic sound of our parents’ screams as they died to protect us. But it wasn’t enough. A flash of light and a man’s leering face and
then the screams become mine.
Weeks, days of traveling, trussed up like a pig in the back of a cart with my brother and sister. They found Tristan hiding in the woods where he killed
three of the Aurora King's soldiers before they subdued him. We huddle together, mourning the loss of our mother and father. Mourning the loss of everything we’ve ever known. Of the legacy that was now really gone forever.
The dark stone walls of Nostraza loom where we stand in the courtyard, snow falling in soft flakes around us.
The Aurora King stands before me, his hands behind his back as he studies
us. He’s almost twice my height. My father wasn’t small, but this Imperial Fae is the biggest man I’ve ever seen. Sharp lines define a flawless face bred for cruelty and malice. Ribbons of color swirl in his endless black eyes.
His words echo in my ears. Words I’ll remember for the rest of my days.
I’m to be placed behind those walls and forget who I am. Forget who I might have become. To never tell another living soul. To understand he’s chosen to allow us to live—me, my brother, and my sister, the only people I have left in this world—because we’re children and he believes us to be harmless. And there’s still an off-chance I may someday prove useful. Either way, if I succumb to the harsh realities of Nostraza, he’s not to be bothered either way.
Children or not, our innocence was stripped away that day forever.
Twelve long years pass.
My lungs compress as I relive these events in flashes. I’ve relived them so many times they’re written under my skin in blood and ash. They’re as much a part of me as the soul barely clinging to my body.
Then a voice floats through my head like a lilting waltz, spinning out in harmonious notes. It’s the Mirror, and it’s speaking to me.
Ah, what do we have here?
The rumors were true then.
We’ve all been waiting a very, very long time, Your Majesty.
What are you doing in front of me?
How did you end up so far from home?
Perhaps you don’t even know.
What you are? Who you are?
It’s been so very long, maybe that knowledge has been lost to memory.
But there are those who still remember.
I suppose he wanted you for your power?
These Fae are such fools.
They never learn from their mistakes.
I’m sorry, Your Majesty, but this isn’t where you belong.
This is forbidden.
This can never happen again.
Ouranos would not survive it, nor would you.
I don’t know where the Crown ended up after
she tried to break the world.
It, too, has been lost to time.
Succumbed to destruction, perhaps.
I’m not sure if it still exists.
That knowledge extends beyond my power, but I do know it is the only way for you.
If you find it, please return and bow before me again.
When that day comes, I’ll have a gift for you, Your Majesty.
Seek out the Crown and find me again.
The Mirror turns black and then blazes with pure white light as I lurch back, gasping as though I’ve just emerged from underwater. The room is
completely silent until I hear the slow click of footsteps.
Atlas approaches me, his eyes searching me all over. “What happened?”
I shake my head, willing my voice to sound meek and broken. “It rejected me.”
“What?” Atlas says, coming closer, his hand grabbing the front of my tunic as he pulls me into him. “What did it say to you?”
“Nothing. Just that I was not the true queen of Aphelion. That it was her.” I point an unsteady finger at Apricia, the lie tripping off my tongue and falling
with a thud between us. Atlas snarls, gripping my tunic tighter.
“That can’t be,” he says, bringing his face to mine. “Are you telling me the
truth?”
“Of-of course,” I stammer out.
He glares at me and then lets go, pushing me away.
“I’m ready for the Mirror, Your Majesty,” Apricia says, flipping her messy nest of hair over her shoulder. The effect isn’t quite the same, but I have to admire her spirit even now.
“No,” Atlas snaps. “This contest is over.”
He spins around and glares at everyone, his shoulders hunched and his fists balled at his sides.
A Fae in a long robe steps forward. “Your Majesty, you must finish the Trials. The fourth challenge was completed this time and each Tribute must stand before the Mirror. If you do not do so, the consequences will be dire.”
Atlas grinds his teeth and another Fae steps forward. “He’s right, Your Majesty. You must complete this now or risk losing your crown and all of
your magic. You know the rules.”
A muscle in Atlas’s jaw ticks, his eyes blazing. He looks like he wants to destroy every single person in this room. “Fine,” he growls at Apricia. “Do
it.”
She leaps to do his bidding, stepping in front of the Mirror while Atlas
looks on with white-hot fire. Gabriel is at my side again, but he doesn’t restrain me.
Apricia squares her shoulders and steps before the Mirror. The room hangs in silence as she faces it. I wonder if it’s speaking to her, too. If she too is being forced to revisit some of her most painful memories.
The silence stretches on for what feels like hours, the air so tense you
could cut it with scissors and hang it up over the windows. Atlas paces behind Apricia, his hand cupping his chin, periodically watching her and then throwing a look to me that makes my knees weak with fear. What was his plan for me? What is he going to do now?
Suddenly, the Mirror explodes in a flash of golden light that fills the room with brilliance. Apricia lights up, her skin glowing as if the sun has just been captured inside her chest, her dark hair rising around her in ribbons of ebony like she’s floating underwater.
Brighter and brighter, she glows until we’re forced to shield our eyes, arms and hands covering our faces. There’s a vibration, a low hum, that sings through the room, the tenor rattling into the backs of my teeth.
A few seconds later, the light dims, leaving only a faint outline of gold shimmering on her skin. Slowly, Apricia turns to face us, and it’s clear she’s no longer the same. She’s still beautiful, but now possesses that same unearthly quality as Atlas. Something not of this world. Her smile is so wide she could light a thousand candles with a single breath.
It’s then everyone in the room drops to a knee and bows their heads.
“The Sun Queen,” ripples through the whispers in the crowd.
Gabriel, Atlas, and I remain standing as we survey the room of bent
bodies, paying homage. Apricia smiles, clasping her hands together and looking at the king with such an expression of adoration I almost feel bad for
her. Atlas, on the other hand, looks angry enough to tear down the sky, ball it up, and launch it into the heavens.
Unable to stop myself, I blurt out, “Can I go home now?” I want to get as far away from this place as possible. I look at Gabriel. “You said if I lost, you’d send me back. I want to go home.”
“No,” Atlas roars, sending a mutual flinch around the room. “This isn’t
over! You aren’t going anywhere.”
He addresses Gabriel. “Lock her up.”
“What! You can’t do that! I haven’t done anything wrong.”
He storms over to me, lowering his voice to a deadly whisper. “You aren’t leaving, Lor. I told you that you’re mine, and I meant it.”
“Why? What do you want from me?”
He narrows his gaze, sizing me up, maybe finally seeing me for the very first time. “Do you know, Lor? Have you been playing the innocent, doe- eyed liar all this time?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, and anger sloughs from him in visceral waves that threaten to peel off my skin.
“Take her away,” he hisses. “Make sure she’s secure and put a twenty- four-hour guard on her.”
With that, I’m hauled away and dragged through the palace, down, down, down into its depths until the gold walls and shiny floors vanish, giving way to bleak stone and a lonely, cavernous echo.
After I’m shoved into a cell, the door slams behind me with a resonant clang that feels both foreign and familiar. I spin around and grip the bars,
shaking them. Gabriel stands on the other side, studying me curiously, his head canted.
“What is Atlas not telling anyone? What did he just mean up there? Who are you, Lor?” He asked the same thing a few weeks ago, and I lied to him then, just like I’ll keep lying to him now.
“I’m no one! I’m a prisoner from Nostraza! A lowly mortal with nothing! I want to go home!”
Gabriel shakes his head, regret painting the liminal space between us. “I
can’t do that, Lor.”
“Who are you, Gabriel?” I shout. “One minute you’re trying to kill me, and the next you’re acting like you might actually care about someone other than yourself.”
He steps towards my cell, his face so close to mine I feel the kiss of his breath. “I’m a loyal servant to my king, Lor. I was worried he was doing something reckless. That you were a danger to him.” He stops and his nostrils flare. “But maybe a tiny—an infinitesimally tiny—part of me kind of liked you and admired your spirit. But it doesn’t matter. Atlas is my duty now and forever. You are now a loose end.”
“Atlas is a piece of shit,” I snap, and Gabriel’s eyes darken. “He doesn’t
deserve you.”
Gabriel’s shoulders drop, and I regret the way my words land, delivering a stronger blow than I meant. “Maybe not, but I have no choice, Lor. This is the life I am bound to.”
He turns to leave, but I call out to him. "Wait!" He stops and looks over his
shoulder. "That night you took me from Nostraza, I heard a riot. Did you lie to me when you said I imagined it?"
He shakes his head. "I needed to create a distraction so I could get you out.
I had people working on the inside for months."
"Did you see if anyone died?"
His expression softens. "I don't know what happened to your friends. I'm sorry."
"Okay," I reply in a whisper. I knew there was a slim chance he'd know anything, but still, I hoped. They have to be alive. I'm sure I'd have felt it if they were gone.
Reluctantly, he turns, leaving those ominous words between us, and orders
two guards to monitor me. With that, he disappears and I listen to his receding footsteps until they fade away.
When he’s gone, I look at the two guards. They stare straight ahead, not acknowledging me. I walk further into my dark cell, sheltering myself in the shadows. Sliding down the wall, I drop to the floor and fish out the pendant I wear around my neck, cracking open the locket.
I pull out the stone, holding it in the palm of my hand, where it pulses with life like a drop of blood. The day the Aurora King’s army came for my family, my mother placed the jewel in my hand, telling me I had to keep it safe. And without fully understanding the implications, I have done so every day since he took her from me.
One side is sheer, like it’s been sliced with a blade or, maybe, a lash of errant magic. The others faceted so they catch the faint light, sparkling with the multitudes of history and destiny contained in this tiny shard of stone.
The Mirror’s words replay themselves again and again in my head.
Your Majesty…this isn’t where you belong.
The crown…has been lost to time…it is the only way for you…I’ll have a gift for you…Your Majesty…Your Majesty…Your Majesty… Atlas miscalculated everything.
He thought the Mirror would bind me to him, but now I know my path leads in another direction. One I’m sure he isn’t meant to follow.
What if the Mirror had chosen differently? What had it meant when it said this was forbidden? What was forbidden? What would Ouranos not survive?
Regardless, the Mirror saved me from whatever the Sun King’s plans are, for now.
And I will carry my secret, as I promised Tristan and Willow, as I have for the past twelve years. They’ve kept my memories as whole as they could,
filling me in on the stories my parents never got the chance to share.
Tristan was seventeen when the Aurora King found us, nearly a man grown. He’s always been the keeper of our past, waiting until I was old enough to understand.
No matter what Atlas threatens, he will never have these secrets from me. I will hold them with every dying breath until I honor the legacy my parents gave their lives for.
Until I’m ready. Until I understand what I must do.
Still clutching the crimson jewel in my palm, I look up from my position in the corner, seeing the path to a future that was clouded and murky, but has now been wiped clean.
Once again, I am a prisoner, but I am no longer caged.
As I peer into the gloom of my cell, the corner of my mouth tips up and I smile.
