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My heart starts to pound. “I thought a Queen Witch would be much more powerful than this.”
“With time and training, you can build up your power. You’re like an athlete with Olympic potential, only just discovered by a coach. You have the strength, the talent. The ability. Ophelia had the chance to train much more. But again, two Queens? Not possible.”
But that’s not true, is it? “Actually… Sindri overheard the fae elders say that there can be more than one Queen Witch. Every thousand years, a Light and a Dark Queen are born.”
She snorts, then frowns when I don’t laugh along. “Are you serious?”
“One of them is stronger and will win, he said, and I quote, “for a full connection to happen you must connect with all four conduits. At the same time.”
“The ritual of the Golden Moon,” Vanessa murmurs. “She’ll suck them dead.”
A shiver runs through me. “If he’s right, then she’s the Dark Queen?”
“I didn’t take you for so simplistic. Light and dark. Isn’t that quite the racist thing?”
She’s right. “I guess for people in the past it was an easy symbolism, light and dark.”
“People in the past were racist. And not much has changed today.”
“True. So you don’t think white and black equates to good and evil?” I consider my words and wince. “Wow, racism is insidious, isn’t it?”
“Yep. As for Ophelia… if she wants to take over the world, that’s rather evil. Taking people against their will is evil. But I doubt that magic cares about such distinctions, about ethics and the divide between moral and immoral actions.”
“Are you thinking that it’s more literal? The black and white thing?” I think about it. “More like… a person and her shadow? The solid and the gaseous? The true and the false?”
“Something like that. The real and the fake one. Question is… which one of you is the real Queen and which is the shadow?”
“Where are you going?” Vanessa demands, hurrying after me.
“The Scale-ball match. Need to get a seat before all are taken.”
“Wait for me.”
“Walk faster then,” I snap.
“Wait… are you mad at me?” Vanessa mutters.
“Me? Nah.”
“You so are.”
I slow down. “Maybe just a little. No big deal.”
“Why?”
“You made it sound as if I’m faking it. Pretending to be a Queen. When I never said I was.”
“That wasn’t a jab against you. You should know that.”
“How should I know that? You’ve been on my side for, what, five minutes? You don’t trust me. Well, newsflash: I don’t trust you, either. Not yet,” I amend.
“Fair enough. What I meant is that there are many reasons why your magic should feel like nascent Queen Witch power when it isn’t.”
“Such as?”
“You’re the cousin of the Queen herself. There’s rogue magic all around campus, surges and ebbs. She has an enchantment over quite a few people. Maybe she’s trying to snare you, too.”
“She tried,” I mutter.
