Page 214 of The Witch Queen

Aunt Margaret looks back to him. Smiles. “Long live thetruequeen!”

And then she heaves the mirror out the window. Light flashes off its surface as it flips over itself, hurtling to the ground. Papa races towardit.

“Catch it, you imbeciles!” he yells to the guards. “Don’t let it—”

The mirror hits the flagstones and bursts apart, glittering shards of glass soaring all directions. Papa freezes as if shot. He stumbles, then drops to his knees. A few garbled words escape his lips, and then he slumps over.

He does not move again.

“He’s dead!” someone cries. “The king is dead!”

The news ripples outward, but I can hardly register the court’s reaction over the storm of emotions raging in my own mind as I stare at Papa’s lifeless form. Despite the lies, the years of neglect and even cruelty, he was still my father. I still craved his love. But he was never going to give me that. Ayleth may have carved out his heart, but Papa buried it himself long ago. I’m not sure he ever felt its presence.

“Look!” someone calls, pulling me out of my reverie. “Theduchess!”

Aunt Margaret. In all the commotion, I didn’t see what happened to her. She must have toppled out of the window with the mirror. Her body is splayed on the flagstones, limbs bent at sickening angles and her mirror-like eyes staring blankly into the distance. The fleshy lump that was a heart lies amid the pieces of glass, blood congealing beneathit.

“No,” I whisper, tears stinging in my eyes as I kneel beside my aunt.

Aunt Margaret had her own shortcomings, but Ayleth was right. Shedidcare for me. She wouldn’t have destroyed the mirror if she didn’t. And now…

“Blodwyn,” Ayleth says softly behind me. “I’m so sorry.”

“What can I do?” I ask, helpless. “There must be something.”

She just shakes her head sadly. “There’s nothing. She’s gone.”

No. I won’t accept it. Aunt Margaret sacrificed herself for me. I have todosomething. That same impulse from earlier awakens inside me. I lean into it, obeying the instinct to place my hands on Aunt Margaret’s body. When I next exhale, that strange force leaves my palms and winnows into Aunt Margaret. I sense it spreading outward, snaking through her veins. I concentrate as hard as I can, wishing with all my might that Aunt Margaret will be whole again. And then—

Beneath my hands, Aunt Margaret’s bones start to snap back into place. Her muscles and organs knit themselves together again. But there’s one piece that I sense is missing. A hollowness that must be filled. That force inside me settles in Aunt Margaret’s chest. I urge it on and it cobbles itself together, pulsing in time with my own heartbeat until…

Aunt Margaret coughs, her eyes flying open. They’re not silver anymore, but gray.Hers.

I sit back on my heels, looking from my aunt to my hands, equal parts shocked and amazed and…frightened.

“It worked,” I breathe.

Aunt Margaret is as stunned as I am. She holds her arms out to inspect them. Pats her chest and her torso, as if to make sure that all her parts are whole.

“You saved me,” she says at last. “Why?”

“Because…you’re my family.”

A crease forms between Aunt Margaret’s brows.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever been claimed as such,” she says quietly. Her gaze drifts over to Papa’s body. “Certainly not bythisfamily.”

In that moment, I can see her as she was years ago. Not just a princess, but a young girl shoved aside and forgotten. One desperate for an ounce of real love or attention.

“Things are going to be different now,” I tell her. “For us. And for Riven.”

She looks at me. Tears well in her eyes. I’m not sure I’ve ever seenAunt Margaret cry before, but I don’t sense that she’s sad. Not entirely. She cups my face in her palm.

“Yes,” she says. “And I can think of no one better to lead it.”

—

Less than an hour later, the court gathers in the throne room.