Page 45 of Burning Crowns

Through the dissipating smoke, Rose glimpsed her sister and what appeared to be Captain Iversen, standing side by side, glaring down at a figure on the grass. Was that … Prince Felix?

Rose frowned as she stalked towards them. ‘What’s going on?’ she called out. ‘Is everything all right?’

‘It is now,’ said Wren, stepping back from the quivering prince, who Captain Iversen had pinned to the ground with the sharp end of a shovel. ‘We’ve found our arsonist.’

‘Queen Rose!’ Felix croaked. ‘Mercy! Please! Tell your sister and this Gevran oaf to let me go this instant!’

‘No,’ said Wren, unmoved by the plea. Then she turned to Rose. ‘Felix just sent our stables up in flames and he claims Oonagh told him to do it.’

‘She promised me magic!’ cried Felix, desperately. ‘I was powerless to resist!’

Rose stared at the prince of Caro in muted horror. She was about to ask how on earth he had come into contact with their dreadful ancestor when it suddenly occurred to her. ‘The mirror,’ she muttered to herself, remembering his furtiveness in the library, that last telltale sapphire winking out.

She raked her hands through her hair. How could she have been so foolish not to put it all together? ‘This is my fault,’she told Wren. ‘I saw Felix in the library with my mirror, and that very same night, Oonagh rose out of it. He must have been talking to her before I stumbled upon him.’

‘She came here? In all her glory?’ said Felix, sounding like a fanatic. ‘Did she ask for me? She promised me I would have my own magic!’

‘Oh, shut up,’ said Wren, taking the shovel from Tor and thumping him on the head.

Rose knelt next to the prince. ‘Felix, you have been used. Oonagh would never grant you power. All you have done today is prove that you are a traitorous wretch. We will send you back to Caro, under armed guard, with a missive to your mother the queen explaining what has happened here. From now on, you are not welcome in Eana. Do you understand? If you step foot on these shores, you will be killed on sight.’

‘Come to Gevra if you like,’ said Tor, his voice low and menacing. ‘We’ll show you first-hand what we do to traitors.’

Felix grabbed the hem of Rose’s nightgown. ‘Please, Queen Rose, you must forgive me.’

Something else occurred to Rose. ‘Felix, you had something else in your possession that morning. What was that parchment you were clutching?’

‘That was simply part of my plan to see you that morning. To woo you.’ He swallowed thickly. ‘I went to the mews to find your post so I could take it up to you.’

Wren kicked him in the shin. ‘You weasel.’

‘You read my royal correspondence?’ said Rose, horrified.

‘That seems … very anti-climactic,’ said Wren. ‘Conspiring with our undead ancestor is significantly worse than him reading your letters, Rose.’

‘It is still rude!’ said Rose.

Felix let out another wail. ‘I just wanted to get to know you better! I had to have you, Rose! You were my only way to bring magic to Caro. And the last thing I needed was you leaving to go to a party. Without me! But then … then I saw the mirror … andsheappeared.’

‘And you fell at her feet like a blundering fool,’ said Wren.

Rose kicked him away. ‘Chain him,’ she cried to the soldiers now swarming at her back. ‘In chains of iron, and chains of magic. And send him back to Caro. His mother can deal with him there.’

‘Good riddance,’ said Wren, tossing the shovel aside.

Later, after she had recovered from the shock of Felix’s betrayal, scrubbed the smell of smoke from her skin and got dressed for the day ahead, Rose went to Wren’s bedchamber in the west tower, where her sister was packing for her own journey.

‘I’m frightened, Wren,’ she said, closing the door behind her. ‘Oonagh feels closer every moment. What are we going to do?’

‘We’re doing everything we can do,’ said Wren, setting her satchel aside. ‘I need to be at my strongest to face her, and you need to find a weapon that can kill her.’

‘I don’t like that we’ll be apart,’ said Rose. ‘It makes me feel uneasy.’ She let out a humourless laugh. ‘And we can’t even take our magic mirrors with us this time.’

Wren took her sister’s hand. ‘Have hope, Rose.’

They hugged each other, and Rose desperately hoped her sister was right.

Wren

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