“What price did we pay?” Helen said, stepping in front of him to block his way.
Mr. Revin stopped. Blinked. Looked back at the rest of us for a second, said, “Why, you paid with your?—”
“Mr. Revin.”
The voice sent goose bumps popping up on every inch of my skin. I knew it, yet I had no idea whom it belonged to until I turned to find none other than the Red Queen standing just three feet away from our table, drink in hand, two armed soldiers at her back.
If my legs didn’t let go of me in those moments, they never would.
“Your-your Excellency!” Mr. Revin nearly fell on his face while bowing to the queen.
The others did the same, too. All the Hands were bowing their heads and curtsying in front of the queen, and I had no choice but to do the same, though it went against my every instinct.
She washere.It was that face, those dull eyes and thin eyebrows, those lips painted red, the middle of them stained darker with wine. Her hair, her red dress, the shape of her silhouette—it washer,and she’d been in my nightmares most nights since I woke up here. It was her voice, too, though I’d only ever heard her whispering, but it was her voice.
“Do try not to keep the Hands all to yourself, Mr. Revin. Go on now—go mingle.”
Yes, yes—her voice.
Holy Hour, I was shaking, and I wasn’t the only one.
Mr. Revin mumbled hisof course, of course, Your Excellency,and he hurried away, suddenly half sober, disappearing into the crowd within the second, and the crowd were all watching us, too. Through the corners of their eyes, not openly—but they all watched.
And the Red Queen took another step closer.
Every fiber in my body screamed at me to run, and maybe I would have if we weren’t trapped in the sky right now. I realized March was right—this was why they’d done this. This was how they controlled everything—who came, who went, where, when. This was howshecontrolledus.
“Using magic against a guest is forbidden,” she said, and her eyes, more brown than red, fell on Levana and Helen. The girls drew in deep breaths, opened their mouths, but neither said anything.
I wanted to.
So many words were at the tip of my tongue, and I wanted to demand she tell us what she’d done to us, and why they were lying to us—because Mr. Revin knew. And the others, too—theseguestsof theirs knew exactly what had happened in the forward trials. Why in the Everstill would they lie to us?!
“I would think someone told you this or that you’d be smart enough to know it all by yourselves, yet here you are.” The Red Queen walked slowly, sipping her drink, those eyes falling on all our faces, and it was difficult—no,impossibleto meet them. It was impossible to force myself to speak just now because something stopped me. Whatever it was, it was rooted deep in my bones, and it wouldn’t let me utter a single word.
Could have been magic.
The scent of roses, red and intense, filled my nostrils as she slowly stepped toward the other end of the table, toward Levana and Helen who were holding hands as they waited. We all waited for the queen to dosomethingwhen she was close enough, but she didn’t. She simplylookedat the girls, and then went to the end of the table, the soldiers never leaving her side.
We moved with her, of course, turned when she did, like she was the sun to our sunflowers. We watched her without sound as she grabbed a cherry from the table and popped it in her mouth.
In my mind, the image of her whispering crashed with reality. She was standing there with the blue sky at her back, the sunlight giving more life to her red hair—and I expected the pain to follow like it always did. I was twelve-hours certain it would come any second now…
“Well? Have you nothing to say to your queen, then?”
The pain didn’t come.
My mouth opened but no sound came out of me.Whatdid you do to us? I was screaming on the inside, but on the outside—nothing.
And nobody else made a single sound, either, until…
“Sister, dearest, stop teasing our Hands—they’re only children!”
The White Queen popped up to the side of the Red one, and she was smiling that big, huge smile, like always.
A long breath left me, like I’d thought I was all alone with the Red Queen until this second, but I wasn’t. The crowd was still there, the other Hands still standing around the table with me—and the White Queen as well.
“Children full of mischief, they are,” I thought the Red Queen said, but my ears were buzzing so I couldn’t be too sure.
