And what did it even mean to be the Raven Queen?
Was it a simple moniker that described her love of feathers? Or something infinitely more nefarious and wicked?
Instinct whispered the latter. But I still had more questions than I had answers. And if the title of Raven Queen did decry evil... in what way? And how did it affect us? How had it affected my mother?
My family?
My knees wobbled, and I nearly fell to the floor. Katrinka was there to catch me and hold me up. What would I have done without her here? If for no reason other than to assure me that all that had happened had been real.
“I had no idea.” I gasped for breath. My vision swam. “I had no idea there was power within me. Or our mother was... was...”
“Me neither.” Katrinka hiccupped. “There were times. Moments, I mean... Things have not always made sense. Both when she was alive and since then. But I never thought... I never believed it could be...”
“Magic,” I whispered, finding the courage to spit the word out. “You never believed it could be magic.” She shook her head frantically. “Me neither, sister.”
“But what does any of itmean?” she begged. “The Crown of Light? Power as great as the sun? Ravanna being our aunt?”
I felt sick to my stomach. Nausea rolled through me, and dark spots danced in my eyes. She was right to ask that question. Now that we knew about magic. And that we had magic. What did it mean? What were we supposed to do with any of it?
And what, especially, did it mean that Ravanna was our aunt?
I had set out to discover if she had simply known my mother. But I had never thought to expect this. Her words in the carriage came back to me.
“Sometimes I think she was the only person I have ever really known. The only person who’s ever known me... We weren’t friends. What a foolish word for what we shared.”
They hadn’t been friends, of course. Because they had been sisters. And now, my own sister and I were to carry on what they had begun. But what exactly was that?
“We must find out,” I told Katrinka, finding solid ground beneath my feet again. “We must get to the bottom of it somehow. Lest we... Lest we...”
“Scorch the whole earth,” Katrinka finished dryly.
“Yes, that.”
“The grimoire,” she suggested. “The Bog Witch spoke of a grimoire. Maybe it will have a solution? A plan? A guide to... what is next? Do you truly have it?”
“I will show you.” If it was the spell book that would give us answers, I could at least show her that. “Come with me.”
But the door to the gardens burst open, and Ravanna pushed through, looking more harried than usual. “Your uncle has arrived,” she panted. “Come along. He’s not doing well.”
ChapterSixteen
Ravanna didn’t give us time to respond. She simply turned around and left us to follow. Shiksa slipped into the castle and disappeared down one of the dark hallways instead of investigating what was wrong with Uncle Tyrn.
I was too worried to call her back. I had not expected to see him for another month. What had made him come all the way here? Follow us so quickly?
And more than that, if he was truly ill, why had he risked travel at all?
He must not be so very sick. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have survived the journey.
So even more pressing than my uncle was that Ravanna might be my aunt. And not just my aunt, but the other portion of my mother’s power. Even if only a fragment.
My mother had been a pagan witch. How could I have not known? Had father? Had my brothers? Tyrn must have known then as well.
The old way is the true way.
Had Ravanna and my mother set out to rule the kingdom? One queen on the Seat of Power, the other with the Crown of Light? What could they have been capable of then? What was Tyrn’s role in all of this?
“Tessana, are you ill?” Ravanna demanded from down the hallway.
