Queen Mor settles against the back wall of the cell and extends her legs in front of her. “Before you or your parents or your grandparents remember, the portal between our worlds was open. The folk could pass through as they pleased. And oh, did they please. But they didn’t call it England in the court of the Otherworld. They called itthe Hunting Grounds.My kind are easily bored and have long used humans as our playthings. The games were bloody and the humans were always the losers. It got so bad, the folk whipped up a civil war and sat in the trees to watch the battles for fun. I couldn’t dance at revels, where the dance floor was so bloody, I slipped. I couldn’t bear to smile from my throne as another courtier brought an enchanted human for my entertainment. It wasn’tfun anymore. It was disgusting. My people were half out of their minds at all times, intoxicated on human emotion. It was completely undignified. I announced to my court the portal between our world and the Hunting Grounds was closing.
“But there were many who didn’t take kindly to that. My son among them. He was young then, and, together with a group of like-minded courtiers, he staged a coup. It placed my then-husband on the throne, but that was always part of his plan. Bram played a long game. I didn’t see it coming. I didn’t see tonight coming either. I suppose that is my great flaw. I will always believe the best of him.
“As the band of traitors took the palace that night, I had enough time to run, and I will always believe that was intentional. I ran for the woods. My final act there as queen was warding the portal between our world and yours. I enchanted it so that only members of my family could come through. I always harbored a hope that Bram would come to me and we could be a family again. He’s got a good heart under all that ambition.
“When I crossed through the portal for the final time, it was onto King Edward’s battlefield. You may fault me for this, but I had grown used to being a queen. I had no desire to be a witch in the woods. I wanted a castle. So I made my first bargain with the humans. I do not regret it.
“When Bram passed through the portal four years ago, he came to me on bended knee. He told me he was sorry for the coup, that he was manipulated by his father, that he regretted it and he missed me. He told me he, too, had been deposed in a coup by a rival family, such things are fairly common in the Otherworld, and he begged me for shelter. It was everything I had dreamed of for four hundred lonely years. I welcomed him with open arms.”
“Why lie and say he was so young?” I ask.
“Humans aren’t fond of being reminded of their own mortality.” Mor goes on: “We thought it best that you see Bram as closer to one of you. It would allow him to integrate himself into London society and life at court without humans fearing him.”
My stomach is in knots. “How old is he?”
The queen waves her hand vaguely. “We stop counting after one thousand.”
Next to me, Olive winces.
“He said he’s still king in the Otherworld. He’s been going back and forth,” I say.
“I know that now,” Queen Mor says. “I loved him too much to be suspicious of him.”
“How could he rule there and spend so much time here?”
“Time works differently there,” Queen Mor explains. “What is only a few hours here could be days there.”
“Now that Bram is king, we could do away with the bargain system,” Olive says hopefully. “He could still be a just and fair ruler. We could usher in a new age of democracy and equality, just like you wanted, Ivy.”
I wonder if the other girls still believe there’s good in him. He was skilled at being exactly the right thing to each of us.
The queen laughs once more. “Your soft heart is going to be the death of you, Olive Lisonbee. Bram isn’t here to usher in a new age of anything. He’s doing the bidding of his courtiers back home. He’s here to reopen the portal. He is singularly focused.”
Something that isn’t sadness but close to it flickers in her eyes. “Steel yourself for what’s to come.” She turns to me. “And you,Ivy Benton. You’re stronger than you believe. You were always my favorite.”
“We could kill her now, get our revenge,” Faith suggests.
“You’re going to need me,” the queen replies icily.
The five of us stand, now towering over her as she sits in her stone cell. “An apology, then,” Marion says. “Say you’re sorry for what you did to us.”
The queen’s steely gaze rakes over us, one by one. “I’m not sorry at all.”
“Why not?” Emmy asks.
Queen Mor almost smiles. “Look at how strong I made you.”
“But what about Greer?” Olive croaks. “What about what you did to our friend?”
The queen waves her off with her hand. “It’s been a long night, and I am tired.”
There are heavy footfalls on the stone steps. Emmy races to the door and throws her body weight against it, but the guards are pushing in.
“I have just one more question before we take our leave,” I say. “Where was Lydia?”
“You already know the answer to that.”
I think of myself, lost and cold and alone, searching for a door to the Otherworld the night I first met Emmett. I was right all along. “Why send her there?”
