Page 37 of To Steal the Sun

“But still! How could she—”

Gwen took his hands, silencing him. “Thank you,” she said simply. “Thank you for coming here. Thank you for understanding how important the truth would be to me. You don’t know how much it means to me that you came despite the risks. That woman has never been a nurturer to me, and so I’ve been trying to cut the remaining ties in my mind, trying not to think of her as my mother, but…” She sighed. “It’s been hard. I’m fighting so many years of ingrained habits. But now I know it’s not only her treatment of me that disqualifies her. She’s not my birth mother either, and nor is she even my stepmother. She’s literally just a usurper who has spent twenty years stealing the people, relationships, and position that should have been mine.”

“Gwen…” Easton looked down into her face, his eyes growing warm. “I—”

Gwen’s hand flew to his mouth, silencing him as her eyes grew wide.

“Did you hear that?” she whispered, glancing around frantically for somewhere to hide. “There was a step!”

The door handle rattled, and her heart stopped. Pushing Easton violently to the floor, she scooped up a long, torn curtain and flung it over him. She had just pulled the corner over his left boot when the door was pushed open.

She straightened and spun toward the new arrival, hoping it was Alma or Miriam.

It wasn’t.

GWEN

Queen Celandine—the usurper—strode into the room and faltered. Her eyes widened as she surveyed the chaos. Gratitude flooded Gwen that she had so effectively destroyed her room. She could never have hidden Easton in time otherwise.

And the physical evidence of her defiance no longer mattered. Given what she had just learned, there was no way she could have faked her old self and called Celandine mother. She could barely even look at her.

“What happened here?” Celandine stared from the mess to Gwen.

Gwen shrugged. “I did some redecorating.”

“Redecorating?” Celandine’s eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to tell me something, Gwendolyn?” she hissed.

Gwen met her eyes steadily. “I suppose I am. I’m telling you I don’t want any of this from you. All I want is my throne.”

Celandine’s nostrils flared, but for once she didn’t have a ready quip.

“I’ll go ahead with this wedding you have planned,” Gwen continued, “and then I’ll take the throne that is owed me.” She paused and smiled sweetly. “Unless you think the wedding isn’t such a good idea after all?”

Celandine let out a heavy breath. “Is that what this is about? You think if you throw a tantrum, I’ll cancel the wedding? Do you really have so little ambition? Arcadia could soon be yours, and the rest of the Four Kingdoms after it.”

“Don’t you mean yours?” Gwen asked. “The Four Kingdoms will be yours. Why would I want that?”

Celandine threw her eyes toward the ceiling. “You’ll be the one sitting on the throne with every luxury you can ask for! Don’t talk as if I’m planning to lock you in a dungeon.”

She looked ready to do just that, so Gwen moderated her tone, aware that she was not only walking a fine line, but that Easton was one wrong step away from discovery. She needed to get Celandine out of her room.

“And why should I believe that?” Gwen asked. “I’m twenty-three, and so far you’ve done nothing but talk about me sitting on the throne one day.”

Celandine relaxed the slightest bit, and Gwen felt a surge of satisfaction from knowing she had said the right thing.

“This time is different, my dear,” the queen said. “I held off in the past only because I was waiting for the perfect moment. And that perfect moment has now arrived. You will free our people and then lead them to their glorious future. No one will dare challenge us then.”

Her eyes lit with fervor, and Gwen felt an unfamiliar pang of sympathy for her. Celandine was broken in ways Gwen hadn’t been able to recognize as a child. And although they had lived side by side for twenty years, Gwen would probably never know what pain from her past had broken her.

But that new awareness changed nothing. Celandine had destroyed countless lives, and there was no place for her in the mountain kingdom. A deep weariness gripped Gwen. She wished it could have been different—that Celandine could have broken the cycle of pain instead of inflicting it on Gwen. But all Gwen could do was resolve that she would be the one to forge a different future. If she was blessed with children one day, she would make sure they knew every day that they were loved and valued.

“Fine,” she said, injecting the word with the youthful petulance she had never dared show in her younger years. “But if you’re not true to your word this time, you won’t like the results.”

Celandine looked like she was barely refraining from rolling her eyes as she assured Gwen of the glorious future before her.

“I’m tired,” Gwen muttered, staring pointedly at the door.

Celandine’s eyes narrowed, but she seemed to think better of whatever rebuke hovered on her tongue. Instead, she swept silently out of the room.

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