Page 124 of Cursed Crowns

The back of Wren’s neck began to prickle. She swore her heart was beating slower. The more she walked, the heavier her legs became, like she was wading through quicksand.

“Can you feel it now, little bird?” wheezed Banba.

Alarik paused with his hand on the door. He looked over his shoulder, fear darkening his pale blue eyes. Wren felt the same terror spreading inside her as they followed him into the little room.

“Rotting hell,” cursed Banba.

Wren blinked furiously, trying to make sense of what she was looking at. Before her stood the biggest block of ice she had ever seen. Inside it, floated a girl, frozen to death.

She was wearing Wren’s face.

Celeste’s vision had come to pass.

Wren stumbled backward, flattening herself against the wall. “Whoisthat?”

“My soldiers found her buried deep in the Fovarr Mountains,” whispered Alarik, as though he was afraid he might wake her. “The avalanche must have loosened the ice.” He looked between them, before settling on Wren. “You don’t know who she is?”

But shock had stolen Wren’s words. And her breath. She could onlyshake her head in horrified confusion.

It was Banba who answered him, with four world-altering words. “That is Oonagh Starcrest.”

Oonagh Starcrest. The lost witch queen.

The name twisted around Wren like a rope. It tugged her toward the ice, and she went, like a moth drawn to a flame. Alarik tried to pull her back, but she shook him off. She raised her finger to trace the outline of the face that had haunted her dreams. The face she knew she had somehow unburied.

“Wren, no!” shouted Banba, but it was too late.

Wren pressed her finger against the block, and three things happened in quick succession.

An almighty crack fissured across the ice.

Oonagh Starcrest opened her eyes.

And Wren fell to the ground unconscious.

46

Rose

Rose’s first dinner back at Anadawn was almost as stressful as her journey home. Captain Davers had refused to attend, citing the ongoing turmoil in the capital, but Rose suspected it was his dislike of Rowena—and the rest of the witches—that sent him out to the ramparts with his soldiers. Rowena, for her part, had sauntered in late for dinner, looking even smugger than usual.

“Who cares if Davers isn’t here?” she said when Rose informed her of the captain’s absence. “He’s about as useful as a sand crab.”

“If you keep telling him that, the less likely he is to protect you,” said Thea wearily.

“I don’t need protection,” Rowena shot back. “I’m a tempest, remember? I can do whatever I like.”

Chapman harrumphed. “It’s exactly that kind of attitude that brings the Arrows to our gates.”

“And puts out your fires,” said Rowena, sending a gust of wind to ruffle his hair.

“Even so,” said Thea. “You are not doing us any favors.”

Rowena narrowed her eyes. “Whose side are you even on?”

“Peace!” said Rose, throwing her hands up. “We are on the side of peace!”

At the other end of the table, Tilda wouldn’t stop asking about Shen, and though Rose had filled the Ortha witches in on the extraordinary events of the Sunkissed Kingdom earlier that afternoon, she couldn’t tell them when they might see Shen again. He had his own battles to fight, and Rose had hers.

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