Page 146 of Cursed Crowns

“Goodness,” she murmured. “What do we do now?”

Wren tipped her head back. The trouble was, there was nothing to do but wait. Strands of music floated up from the great hall. “I suppose we might as well dance.”

58

Rose

When Rose woke up the morning after the battle, cocooned in silk sheets beside her snoring sister, she felt at peace. It wasn’t because she’d slept well, although she had, or that she was wearing her favorite blue nightgown, which she was. Or even that she had spent last night dancing with Shen Lo, listening to his easy laugh and falling into his night-dark eyes. It was because she knew, with an unerring, bone-deep certainty, that for the first time since she had become queen, she had done somethingright.

She had put aside her fear and anger and been the ruler she’d always wanted to be, the one she knew she could be. The Arrows had laid down their weapons and listened to her and Wren. And although Rose knew this peace was fragile, and much too early to stake the future on, she felt like the pieces of their destiny were finally falling into place.

And yet there had been great loss, too. Hundreds had died during the battle for Anadawn, and then there was Banba. The grandmother she’d never truly known, the grandmother who’d left her in Anadawn all those years, who’d plotted against her, even used her as a pawn, was gone. The fiercest witch Rose had ever known, the one she had been still learning to know, tolove, was dead.

Rose was still struggling to believe it. Though it explained why Wren had looked so hollow yesterday, why her dark hair was now streaked with silver. She had loved Banba with a ferocity that had sometimes frightened Rose and had the kind of reckless loyalty that had sent her running into the icy maw of Gevra. Wren had risked her life to save their grandmother, and she had failed. Rose knew it would be a long time before her sister forgave herself for it.

A tap at the window startled her from her thoughts. She slipped out of bed, careful not to wake her sister. There was a starcrest sitting on her windowsill. She reached out and untied the scroll from around its foot. It was tattered and ancient-looking and wrapped in a handwritten note.

Queen Rose,

Felicitations! The skies have whispered to us of your victory in battle.

Ever since your letter arrived, we have spent all our time tirelessly searching for the scroll you requested. Pog found it hiding underneath a stack of old maps. Perhaps that boy is not such a lost cause after all!

Yours mystically,

Fathom

Sometime later, down in the warm kitchen at Anadawn Palace, with mugs of hot tea to drink and a plate of fresh cookies to nibble on, Rose sat with Thea and Shen, discussing Banba.

“As far as I’m concerned, Alarik Felsing is still to blame,” said Shen, scowling into his mug as though he could see the Gevran king floating inside it. “If he hadn’t taken Banba, none of this would have happened.”

“There is no point in dwelling onwhat ifs, Shen Lo,” said Thea. “The winds of destiny blow in a thousand different directions. We do not always get to choose the ones that carry us.”

Rose picked absently at a crumb. She was thinking of Wren, who, despite the advancing hour, was still in bed. Even though she had told them about Oonagh, Rose had a feeling that she didn’t yet know the full story, only the blurry edges of what Wren had told her, and what she had gleaned for herself on her brief visits there. She wondered if she would ever learn the rest.

“I’m sure Alarik thinks if his brother had never come to Eana that he would still be alive,” she offered into the silence. “We’ve all lost people we love. Revenge won’t bring any of them back.”

“Maybe not,” said Shen. “But it provides a nice distraction from grief.”

Thea chuckled. “I’d say Banba wouldn’t want you to speak like that, but we both know nobody harbored a grudge like her.”

Shen’s mouth quirked. “Do you remember when she took up against old Gideon back in Ortha because she was convinced he was giving her the smallest carrots from the vegetable patch?”

“Do I remember? Who do you think she complained to all winter long? Every time I made soup she swore she could taste the size of the carrot!” Thea released a wheezing laugh. “She was so angry she went outside and blew every one of his prized pumpkins off the cliff.”

“And right before Samhain!” Shen recalled, his eyes crinkling with laughter.

Thea shook her head, smiling at the memory. “I had to swim into the sea to get them back.”

“No one did petty like Banba,” said Shen fondly. “It was one ofWren’s favorite things about her.”

“I’m not sure she even cared for carrots in the first place,” Thea confided. “But she loved the drama of it.”

“What about when Grady broke her favorite jug?” said Shen.

“Oh, the uproar!” crowed Thea, both of them grinning as they launched into another story, and then another, and another, until the kitchen echoed with the sound of their laughter.

Rose leaned in to listen, feeling as warmed by the stories as the tea in her hands.

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