“Do you know what just happened?” I take a step closer.
The furrow in his brow deepens. He looks me over top to bottom. “Did something happen with your robes?”
“I…” Words catch in my throat, choking me.He doesn’t know.He doesn’t remember.
I cross to him and grab his long robe. He tenses, not moving. I press my forehead to his chest and draw a shuddering breath.
“What is it?” His hands fall to my shoulders in a weak attempt at comfort.Hold me,I barely resist begging,let me know you’re still there. “Don’t tell me you’re nervous now?”
“No, no.” I shake my head. “I just…” I look up at him and search his face to find some trace of the man I once knew, but there’s none there. Cupping his cheek gently, I bring his mouth to mine. He obliges. Not reaches for me. Not kisses me as though I am the very air he needs to live.Obliges.
Do you not love me as you did in the world I surrendered?I can’t bear to ask. Tears sting my eyes.What have I done?
Breathe, Clara,I command myself. Kaelis would love me in every world. He swore it, and I will believe nothing different.
I’ve been here for only seconds, and I am disoriented. Everything will be all right once it all settles into place. Maybe he does remember, but his mind is still spinning, too. Maybe…
“Now, are you ready?” he asks.
“Yes.” Though I feel like I barely know what I’m agreeing to.
“Good. I will see you out there,” he says as he pulls away and leaves through the door.
A cold shiver trickles down my spine. It was like kissing a stranger. I cross to a small table perched before the mirror Kaelis was using to get ready. A familiar face looks back at me. Sophie Veillgar is gone, and Clara Chevalyer is before me. My hair is a bit longer than it was my first year in the academy but shorter than it was with Sophie’s face. It’s right at my shoulders—where I used to wear it. I close my crimson eyes, heaving a sigh and hanging my head.
Give it a few days. A few hours. You’ll start to feel better,I tell myself. The best thing I can do is settle into this world. This is how things should’ve been so it will all be all right.
Steeling myself, I head down the hallway. I wait at another door that leads to the main hall, listening. Most of Kaelis’s words are muffled, but I don’t miss the moment he says, “…and my queen.”
I enter, and all heads turn my way.
The chairs are set up in a circle in the room. It’s split in half by a walkway that stretches from the main entry of the castle to the door I just emerged from. Lords and ladies occupy every seat—the rulers of the noble clans and many nobles just beneath them in rank. The way they look at me with reverence and loathing almost has me wanting to run.
I’ve been so wrapped up by this idea that Kaelis and I were destined to rule that I never really gave much consideration to if I evenwantedit. Or how others might feel about it.
If it was my destiny, then of course I would, right? Of course everyone would adore me as their queen.
How pathetic and childish I was to even think it.
It’s too late to run now. Kaelis stares at me expectantly. Want this or not, it is what I have—what I bent the world for. And I have him. I have the power to change things the way I want. I’ll be a queen, after all. I can build my dream world with decrees and laws. How could I want anything more?
Crossing, I scan for Arina or Thal, but find neither. I come to a halt in the very center of the room, at Kaelis’s side. He collects a beautiful crown, custom-made just for me with a sapphire that I last saw set into the ring he proposed to me with, and settles it upon my brow.
“With this,” he says, “the world is at long last set to rights. The traitor Naethor has been ended.” Kaelis turns to the gathered nobles. My mouth parts, and for a second, I think he’s remembered. “Long ago, there was a great war among the noble clans. At such time, they’d fashioned themselves as kings and queens. Our land was torn apart by petty feuds, much like the tiny kingdoms beyond our borders. It was an endless struggle in which no real power was gained. Fragmented resources. Arcanists treated like tools. A time of chaos. But one rose from the madness—one thrived in it. One who was destined to rule. My mother, Elari Revisan.”
Kaelis utters his late mother’s name with such longing—such admiration. There’s a desperation there, too. Something that has my heart knotting for him…but also worry igniting.
“But the traitor King Naethor killed her in cold blood. He bedded her to take her powers, using his own ingenuity to woo her and many who are here among us—buying those who were not with his machines.”
The mechanical mill. It was—isreal, in this world.The history is solidifying for me—the history of the world I now live in. The world I made is similar to what I knew, yet altered ever so slightly. Revised histories are coming into clarity with near-sickening speed.
“We have ended his stolen reign and now set things to rights. She was your true queen, and I am her sole heir.” He stands a little taller.
The nobles move from their chairs at the indirect command and slowly, almost begrudgingly, drop to a knee. A few are faster than others. I scan the faces, looking for the Ventalls. They’re not here, along with a handful of others I would’ve expected to see.Why?
These were the traitors,a voice that is my own but not reminds me. “With the kingdom in my hands,” Kaelis says, “I will ensure that never again will there be another clan war. Never again will I, or my family,suffer treason.” His voice drops, and a shadow crosses over his expression. The lanterns hung throughout the room seem to dim. “Never again.”
Without warning, every lantern flickers, extinguishes for a blink, and reignites with violent lilac flames, casting the room in a sickening glow. I look to Kaelis for some kind of clarity.
