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The world has fallen awayinto silence, any sound drowned out by the pounding of my heart, the rushing of blood in my ears. She’s standing there, not making a move toward me, still smiling as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened.
“You woke up!” I want to cry and laugh and throw myself into her arms, but her voice stops me.
“Well, obviously.” She doesn’t even look at me.
I laugh. “Cousin…”
“And who are these fine young men?”
“Just friends,” I say, still transfixed by the sight of her, the fact of her presence here, after all this time missing her, feeling the weight of her loss, the void she left behind in my life.
Though lately these boys filled that void, didn’t they?a traitorous voice whispers in the back of my mind.
I shove it down ruthlessly.
“Just friends,” she repeats, her tone sounding a little… mocking? “Really. You have no friends.”
Frowning, I try to make sense of all this. “What are you doing here? They said the chances of waking up from an enchanted sleep were slim, close to none.”
“And yet I’m awake.” She starts walking toward me and I sigh in relief because now everything will be cleared up, everything explained, and she can tell me exactly what the boys did to her, how they hurt her. Together we will take revenge.
But she walks past me and I turn, shocked, to find she has approached the boys. “Hello there,” she says. “Remember me?”
“Aurora,” Jason breathes. “What’s all this about?”
“Hello, Jason.” The sound of his name on her lips feels wrong somehow—too familiar, too intimate. “It’s been a while for you, hasn’t it? Not for me, though. I had to break out of a glass coffin to come back.”
“A glass coffin?” Jason glances at me questioningly.
“She was in an enchanted sleep,” I whisper, “the doctor said that her energy was drained, that she’d most probably never wake up again. I came to avenge her.”
She laughs, the sound crystalline and pure and yet somehow derisive. “Avengeme. Honestly, poppet. I admit I hadn’t foreseen this twist. You, of all people. The little sparrow living in the Church with only books for company. Oh, wait a minute. I see. Maybe that’s the problem, right there. Read too many foolishly romantic adventures, have you? You thought you knew how the world worked, what justice is? This is actually quite funny. And do I sense a fae tattoo on your back?Slut, is it? Oh dear… What have you been doing in my absence?”
This is all wrong. “I don’t understand. Ophelia…”
“That wasn’t an enchanted sleep I was in, you silly girl.” Her smile is a little too sharp. “I used too much power and drained myself. But elemental magic has this perk: it comes from the earth and the air, the water and fire, and if you wait long enough, you can replenish your reserves. If you are a witch, of course. And that you are not.”
My brows pinch together. “But—”
“Who are you?” Emrys asks.
“I’m Ophelia Apollinari,” my cousin says. “The rightful heir of the Apollinari line. And your Vasilissa, the Queen Witch.”
“Wait, what?” I gasp, the air punching out of my lungs. I actually take a step back, feeling her words like physical blows. “What are you talking about?”
This is my sweet cousin, the carefree, devil-may-care girl who teaches me about the world and laughs at my jokes. She’s not a witch.
Much less this legendary Queen the boys have been going on about.
“No, you’re not,” Sindri says and a breath of relief washes through me.
This will be clarified quickly. It has to be a misunderstanding. Sindri and Ashton know a lot about the topic. I may not be this Queen they seek, but neither is my cousin. I mean, she can’t be. She’s an ordinary girl, like me, a human like m—
“I said I have the mark. The real mark of the Queen. The crown.” She pulls her sleeve down to bare one shoulder and there it is. It’s a dark mark, clearly shaped like a crown.
“How have I never seen this before?” I take a step toward her but she holds up a hand to stop me—and it actually feels like a barrier, a wall, erected in front of me. “Ophelia!”
“Now…” She turns her back to me. “Where were we? Oh yes. This time let’s do this right.”
