Page 28 of Kingdom of Briars and Roses

Amanti shook her head. “We’re not sure why you were given these gifts.”

Lesha stepped forward, breaking her silence. “But they don’t change who you are, Aurelia. Only you get to do that.”

The others nodded.

I let the flame wink out and glanced again at my reflection, trying to understand what it all meant. How the strange tattoo had gotten there. Why my magic was suddenly so much more accessible? What had made me immune to this curse?

“I remember so much pain when her magic struck me,” I said, running my hand over my chest absently.

Amanti spoke up. “After you fell, the wards keeping us out finally broke. I suspect Heliconia had exhausted her magic, casting that wretched spell to kill you.” I flinched at that. “Heliconia vanished before we could get to her. By then, the mark had already appeared on your skin.”

I had no idea why I’d been spared, but the fate of the kingdom was far more pressing than a strange tattoo and the power of furyfire. Or that’s what I told myself. Maybe it was just a distraction so I didn’t have to face what I’d woken inside me.

I turned from the mirror, unwilling to look at myself any longer.

“What happened to Callan?” I asked, bracing myself for the worst. “He went down before me. He tried to get away, and she— He wasn’t moving.”

“The Autumn prince and his people are fine,” Sonoma said in a clipped voice.

I tried to gauge whether her sharpness was directed at me, but Lesha’s soft rebuke came before I could ask.

“It’s not their fault Heliconia’s spell excluded them,” Lesha told her friend.

“Lesha’s right,” Amanti said wryly. “You can’t be angry at the guy for not being cursed.”

“I’m not angry about his being unharmed,” Sonoma said. “I’m angry that he fled like a coward.” At her words, I stiffened, remembering how Callan had tried to run.

He’d deserted me when I’d needed him most.

“Where is Callan now?” I asked, looking back and forth between them.

Amanti sighed. “We … removed him and his people.”

“Define removed,” I said warily.

Amanti huffed. “They are unharmed and remember nothing. Lesha wiped their memories of the attack. They’ll go home, thinking the marriage contract was rescinded. The only harm done will be to his precious ego.”

Sonoma snorted, but unease coiled inside me. Something told me a cut to Callan’s ego was not a wound to be made lightly.

“Callan can help us,” I protested. “We should’ve asked him to bring his best healers here to?—”

“Absolutely not,” Sonoma snapped.

I glared at her.

But Amanti cut in. “Sonoma is right. We have no sitting queen or king. No one ruling this land. Our people are asleep in their beds—exposed to any threat that walks through their door. Heliconia will figure it out soon enough, but if Autumn knew it, they’d likely seize their opportunity to claim this kingdom for themselves.”

“You don’t know that,” I argued.

“And you do?” Sonoma challenged. “You spent one evening with the male. Will you vouch for him? Would you swear it on Lilah’s life?”

I didn’t answer.

“Lesha’s magic will hold well enough,” Amanti told her. “They won’t remember anything beyond what she planted in their minds.”

“We’ll see that it does,” Sonoma agreed, a glint in her eye.

“We have to break the curse,” I said, urgency lacing my veins as powerful as any magic.

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