“That time is coming.” The need for it slashed through me. “I don’t remember my father. Or my mother, for that matter.”
“Your father was murdered when you were three.”
“Ivenrail?”
She tapped her lips and shook her head. “There are names we shouldn’t speak unless we wish to call them to us.”
“I’m sure he knows I intended to come here.”
“But he doesn’t know you’ve arrived.”
I couldn’t see how that made a difference. When he was ready to attack again, he’d do so. Had he gorged himself on enough power yet to bash his way through the thorny mesh protecting Lydel’s last holdout?
“What should I call him then?” I asked. “The king?”
“A fiend. A murderer. A man who will soon pay for the horror he’s inflicted on others.”
“I like your term, monster,” I said with a laugh that came out a touch too shrill. Sweat trickled down my spine, and each of my breaths stabbed through my lungs. I was on edge yet thrilled by the intensity of this moment. Finally, I was here. What would happen next? Exhilaration spiked through my fear, leaving me trembling but feeling more alive than I’d been in a very long time.
She crossed over to a sideboard and poured two small glasses of wine from a crystal decanter. The liquid swirled and glowed as if it contained fire. Returning to me, she handed me one of the glasses, raising hers.
“To the rebirth of Lydel Court, and to our new high lady,”she said. “May your rule revive magic, vanquish evil, and free the souls ensnared by shadows of the past.”
“We’ll do it together,” I said.
We tapped our glasses, releasing a musical ping, then drained them. I tasted berries, magic, and starlight. An odd way to describe it, but it fit.
Heat from the wine swirled through me, and for an instant, I could swear the city hummed, but the sound fell off to nothing, leaving only the chirp of birds and the rustle of leaves in the garden.
“I knew you’d arrive soon.” Aunt Vera took our empty glasses back to the sideboard. “I have the gift of sight.” Her smile revealed a dimple in her right cheek I’d inherited. “I’m the first in my family to be born with the foretelling skill, though I hope there will one day be others.”
“You can see the future?”
“Some things.” Her brow knit with concern. “I wish I could see everything, but that would leach most of the joy from life, don’t you think?”
“Not if the knowledge can help others.”
“Sometimes it can, and sometimes, that knowledge tastes much too bitter. Sadly, my magic doesn’t allow me to choose.” She looked me up and down before enfolding me in her frail arms. “Welcome home, my little love. I’ve missed you terribly.”
I blinked past a veil of tears, though I spilled them for the child I’d been, not the woman I was now. “Why didn’t you tell me everything when I freed you from the portrait?”
“What you learned after I left had to unfold at the propertime.” Releasing me, she stepped backward. “I couldn’t tell you much, but I can share some things now.”
“I want you to tell me everything, but first, we need to bring my friends here.”
“Yes, you’ll see them soon.” Her cheeks sparkled with tears, and she swiped them away. “Your sister is well? I cannot wait to see her again. I imagine she’s as grown up as you.”
“I like her. We’re trying to find each other again, and there’s no forcing something like that.”
“I haven’t seen her since I left her in the queen’s garden.”
“Since you dumped her there, you mean.”
Her face pinched and her sad sigh rang out. She tapped her temple. “I knew she’d be safe. I knew she’d be loved.”
“You left her as bait for Ivenrail.”
“And it worked out as it should, now didn’t it?” she said sharply.
