Page 112 of A Lord of Snow and Greed

Emilia led me up the dark stairwell, through the hidden part of the palace, to Queen Revna’s suite.

“I used to spend so much time here.” Emilia sighed as we entered the living quarters. “If she were still alive, your mother would look the same as when I’d last seen her, and I’d be old. There is no way I could drink fae wine with her like I used to. How unfair.”

Anna and I would be the same one day.

“My best friend is human,” I said, a pang of sympathy for Emilia slicing through me. “Well, one of them.”

It used to be that Anna was my only best friend, but I was accumulating others whom I didn’t think I could live without.

Clemencia, Saga, and Sayyida were among those who had stolen my heart. The males in Vale’s cabal were moredistant, but I could envision myself growing close to them too. That was, if I was foolish enough to stay, which despite my daydreaming about being with Vale, I was not.

Was I?

“So you came here as a servant?” I didn’t want to venture down the path of Vale and me at the moment.

“A personal servant to the queen.”

“I don’t understand why they kept you as a slave after.”

My meaning was clear. If you’d been so close to the queen, why didn’t they kill you?

“King Magnus and Queen Inga don’t see humans like your mother did.” Emilia shrugged. “Of course, Queen Inga, as my friend’s lady-in-waiting, knew that Queen Revna liked me. But she didn’t understand how deep our friendship went. It’s likely that after Queen Inga was crowned, she forgot all about me. And in time, I no longer looked as I once did.” She gave a dry laugh. “We humans don’t have magic, but invisibility is a sort of power. Here, we use it to the fullest.”

That I understood. I would have given a lot to be invisible to vampires in the Blood Court.

“In here.” Emilia shuffled into Queen Revna’s bedchambers.

Though I’d been in those same chambers, this time, I hesitated. She seemed so sure that I was a princess by blood. What was she going to show me?

“Come in here, Princess Isolde.”

I sighed and followed her. Again, the paintings on the wall stole my attention, particularly the one of the twingirls, their backs to the painter as they ran away hand in hand.

Their faces remained hidden, and their hair was too short for me to really discern the color. If I had to guess, I’d say white—a typical Falk hair color—and dark brown, but with such sparse hair, it was hard to judge.

“You were both born with hair, but it fell out. Your mother had that painting done at one turn old,” Emilia explained, smiling at the painting and correctly inferring my thoughts. “She loved the image.”

“Why not show our faces?”

“She had other paintings. One I’m about to show you.”

I joined her at a nightstand, one drawer already open. She pulled out a watercolor painting and handed it to me. “Your mother painted this one herself. She didn’t like them to be on display because she didn’t think she was very good. I disagree.”

I took the painting and gasped. The queen was an excellent artist. She captured two girls, the twins, her daughters, as they played with stuffed unicorns. In this one, their hair was slightly longer.

One’s hair gleamed white, the other black. One’s eyes were violet, the other’s a stunning glacial blue. One’s smile was my own though with far fewer teeth. That same girl had my nose. It was the first head-on image I’d seen of the royal twins, and there was a resemblance. A strong one.

My hand trembled.

“You look so much alike.” Emilia pressed.

Yes. Even with twenty turns between me and the girlin the painting, the resemblances were plain. I dropped the painting as my breath became thin.

“Isolde! Are you well? Can I do anything for you?”

I spun, taking in the room, the place where the castle had led me days ago. Here, voices spoke to me. They answered me when I asked for help.

I’d ask again.

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