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‘So I do have magic!’ I gasped. ‘I wasn’t born non-magical. It was just suppressed by this island to protect me!’
‘Half witch, half fae,’ Trinity said ruefully. ‘Blows your mind, doesn’t it?’
‘Oh, Romy, please…’ Mum shook her head. ‘Please try to understand. Forget all this about the magical world. Go back to Cumbria. Go back to work. Live your life out of harm’s way, please.’
If she’d known how much not having magic had tormented me all my life she would never have said that. Growing up with two younger sisters who took great pleasure in using their powers, even when—especially when—they weren’t supposed to, had made me feel inadequate, as much as I tried to hide it. How I’d envied them their abilities! And all the time my own magic was lying dormant inside me. All that time!
‘Did Emrick know?’ I asked, then shook my head. ‘Of course he knew! He lied to me too.’
‘Emrick did that for me,’ she said dully. ‘Don’t blame him. He wanted to tell you from the moment Lowen took Excalibur from the sea, but I wouldn’t let him. I begged him. He warned me Sister Agnes wouldn’t cover up the truth, but I never thought you’d work it out. I thought—I don’t know what I thought. I suppose I just clung to the hope that you’d never find out, and that Lowen and Trinity would give up searching.’
‘As if we’d ever have done that!’ Trinity said incredulously. ‘You think we’d have just given up on our sister? Never.’
‘I understand why you did it, Ewella,’ Lowen said kindly. ‘I really do. But the truth is out there now, and Romy knows who she is. You can’t keep her wrapped up in cotton wool any longer. You have to set her free to fulfil her destiny, whatever that may be.’
‘It’s easy for you to say,’ Mum said tearfully. ‘What about the prophecy? One of you girls will make a great sacrifice for the sake of peace. That’s what it said. That’s why I didn’t want either of you to know. I wanted you to stay hidden away forever. It’s bad enough for Lowen, but what great sacrifice are you going to have to make, eh?’
‘I remember Emrick telling us that,’ Lowen said thoughtfully. ‘He said my sister would make a great sacrifice to ensure the war between fae and witches is stopped.’ He looked from me to Trinity and back again. ‘And there’s no way of knowing which one of them that will be?’
‘I don’t even know where the prophecy came from,’ she said miserably. ‘It was just something Emrick told me about.’
‘I don’t blame you for wanting to protect Romy from that,’ Sirius said fervently. ‘I’d do anything to protect Trinity from it, so I understand.’
She gave him a grateful smile. ‘Thank you.’
I got to my feet.
‘Where are you going?’ she asked, alarmed.
‘I never gave John his lunch,’ I said. ‘I’m going to fetch his tray now and eat in his room with him, whether he wants me there or not. I need—I need to be with someone familiar right now. I need things to be normal, just for a little while longer. Being with Johnnie is where I feel safest. I’m sorry.’
As I left the room, I heard Sirius say, ‘Being with Blaise St Clair is where she feels safest? Well, there’s irony for you.’
Chapter 18
Romy
‘So,’ John said, prodding listlessly at his ham salad, ‘another secret comes to light. You’re not Romy St Clair at all.’
I almost dropped my fork as I stared at him in horror. ‘How did you know?’
‘You were having a particularly loud and heated discussion just along the landing from me,’ he said. ‘How could I not overhear that? Were you ever going to tell me or was that another thing you intended to keep from me?’
Was that why he’d agreed to have lunch with me? I’d been sure he’d tell me to go away, but he’d been surprisingly agreeable when I asked if I could join him in his room to eat with him. Maybe he’d just wanted to get information from me.
‘Anyway,’ he added, making a half-hearted attempt at a smile, ‘at least that means I’m not your twelve times great uncle. I was feeling a bit icky about all that to be honest.’
Despite his efforts I could hear the sadness in his voice and knew he was heartbroken at the way things were going. He wasn’t the only one.
‘It’s all such a mess,’ I said, stabbing a tomato as if all my troubles were its fault. ‘I had no idea about any of this. You must believe me.’
‘The way you believe me, you mean?’ He shook his head. ‘Shouldn’t trust work both ways?’
‘I do trust you, Johnnie,’ I said sadly. ‘If you overheard our conversation you should have heard me saying just that. You’re the only person I feel safe with right now.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Is that the truth?’
‘Of course it is! I was scared at first, naturally. But the thing is, you believe yourself to be John Ford, and have no memory of Blaise St Clair. Well, I believed myself to be Romy St Clair for the whole of my life and had no memory of Wren Pendragon. Yet here I am. Oh, I know I was a small child when my magic was suppressed and my memories tampered with, but even so. I know how it feels.’
