Page 91 of Black Hearted
“Is Lorelei with you? The curse no longer holds this land,” Isolde told Queen Gloriana.
Queen Gloriana slowly shook her head, looking downtrodden. “She hasn’t returned yet. But we’ve received word that the curse has lifted here, too.” She leaned forward, peering at Isolde with a look of wonder on her face. “Isolde, is it really you?”
“It is,” Isolde said. “Is my family all right? Did they make it to the Spring Court like I told them to?”
Queen Gloriana nodded. “Yes, they’re safe. They’re all staying here with us at the Spring Palace. So are the Fall queen and king,” she added, and Aribella made a noise next to me.
I glanced over to see tears in her eyes as Stryker pulled her into his arms, cooing softly in her ear that her parents were okay.
Aribella hadn’t spoken much about her parents back in Faerie. I got the impression it was too painful for her, but it was clearnow, from the look of relief on her face, how much that news meant to her.
When I turned my focus back to the mirror, Queen Gloriana reached forward again. This time, Isolde gently grasped her hand when it appeared in our world, and the queen yelped. Yanking her hand back, the Spring queen took a shaky step away from the mirror.
“Go get Sera,” Isolde told the housemaid who had discovered the mirror portal. Then she glanced over at Adrien. “I’ll be right back, my love.” Without waiting for him to respond, she stepped through the mirror and into the throne room on the other side.
“Isolde,” Adrien scolded, moving to follow her, but Zander stopped him.
“We don’t know if they will accept us, brother. Let her handle this.”
Adrien ran a nervous hand through his hair, staring at the mirror portal with apprehension. I could understand his hesitancy. What if Isolde got stuck in Faerie?
Aribella turned to me, her eyes bright with excitement. “Do you think that it will stay open? That we can visit our families?”
Families?
I no longer had family in Faerie. It had always just been my mother and me. No siblings, no father.
Someone took my hand, and I looked over to find Zander at my side, smiling down at me. My heart filled. My family was here now, in Ethereum. But I knew what she meant, and who was to say if the portals would remain open? I hoped they would.
I started to tell her I wasn’t sure when a familiar voice called out from the other side of the mirror.
“Dawn!”
I snapped my head up to see Master Duncan standing in the Spring Palace’s throne room. A small crowd was lining up behind him. I recognized Aribella’s mother, Queen Beatrice, among them.
“Where’s my daughter?” Queen Beatrice shouted as she pushed her way forward.
“Can we come over?” Master Duncan asked, inspecting the mirror. He peered at the edging, seemingly deeming it safe.
I glanced at Zander to confirm it was okay, and he nodded before I told Master Duncan it was safe to cross.
This was a historic moment—leaders of Faerie entering the mirror world.
Master Duncan and Queen Beatrice came through first. As I went to greet Master Duncan, Aribella ran into her mother’s arms, the pair sobbing as they embraced.
Then Adrien passed through the mirror to Faerie to check on Isolde.
Just as Serafina, Isolde’s sister, arrived, looking flushed as though she had run the length of Zane’s castle to get here, her sisters—all five of them, minus Isolde—came through the mirror portal. Before we knew it, we were all moving back and forth at will without issue.
From what we could gather, Queen Gloriana had just returned the mirror to the Spring Palace’s throne room. She explained that my mother had stolen it, but she’d sent her soldiers to retrieve it. It turned out that the portal opened the moment the mirror was returned to its place in the throne room, connecting it directly to Zane’s throne room here in the Western Kingdom.
I had to wonder if the same was happening with the other mirror portals, connecting the different Faerie courts with the Ethereum kingdoms. But since we’d all been forced to abandon the other palaces and castles because of the curse, we wouldn’t yet know until we returned.
We told Master Duncan and the others that my mother had been killed. We didn’t share the details of how, and they didn’t ask.
Master Duncan mentioned that I would need to be sworn in as queen and sent a messenger to the Summer Court to check on its status. Since we didn’t have train stations or any fast mode of travel, it would take days, even with a raven delivering the reply.
I was overwhelmed yet filled with joy. Isolde and Seraphina had been reunited with their entire family, as well as Aribella with her parents.
