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“Because I do not know who I am any more!” Scarlett cried. “How can I lead an entire kingdom if I do not even know who I am?How can people be loyal to a queen who doesn’t know her own self?”

Juliette gave her a small smile, like she had been waiting for this exact moment. As if she’d known these were the words that needed to be said. She reached over and cupped Scarlett’s cheek with her hand. “I suppose, my dear sister,whoyou are depends on who youwantto be.”

Juliette moved away from her then and strode to the center of the cavern. “My mortal death started a chain reaction you have yet to discover, but there were plans in motion long before we entered this world. What would you give to have that night play out differently?”

“Anything,” Scarlett whispered, watching Juliette carefully.

“Would you sentence others to my same fate when you have the ability to change it?” Juliette hissed the last words with so much venom Scarlett winced and sank back to her knees.

The cave plunged into darkness, and she heard Juliette whisper, her voice sounding as if it were all around her, “Who do you desire to be?”

Scarlett felt her magic sputter to life. She felt the fire and the ice flood through her bones, her being. She raised her palms and flames of white encompassed the room. Shards of ice hovered above the fire, refracting glittering light along the walls. Then she sent her beloved shadows into them all.

Juliette appeared before her once more and clasped Scarlett’s hands in her own, whispering again, “Who are you?”

Scarlett fixed her eyes on Juliette’s, on those beautiful amber eyes. She felt the ice and flames swirling as one in her own eyes. “I am someone who has faced the darkness and found the beauty it had to offer. I am someone who can create stars in the void when the light has gone out. I am someone who cares for those the realms have forgotten. I am someone who can bring beauty from brutal ashes. I am a fucking Queen.”

“Yes. Yes, you are, your Majesty,” Juliette replied. She stood slowly and bowed low.

Scarlett swallowed hard as she took in her sister, whom she still blamed herself for losing.She pushed the ache in her heart down, down, down.

“Do not do that,” Juliette said softly. “You cannot run from grief, just as you cannot run from what is your very being.”

“I do not know what to do,” Scarlett answered quietly.

“You do not need to know all the answers right now. You only need to get up and take the first step.” Juliette’s voice brushed down her soul, and she held out a hand to Scarlett. “You were never meant to do life alone. No one is.”

One step. She could do that. She could take one step up out of this last pit. She could climb one step out of this hell that seemed unending and unyielding.

Juliette’s smile was wide as Scarlett took her hand and stood.

CHAPTER 39

SCARLETT

The cave illuminated, and Scarlett blinked back at the sudden brightness. Gone were the rocky walls and dirt floor. A beautiful, ornately decorated apartment of sorts lay before her. Plush rugs were under her feet, and a large four-poster bed was along the far wall. To the right was a long glass table and atop it was a bowl of silver liquid.

There were windows all along the walls now, looking out into clouds. High above the ground, then. Not in some dirty, musty cave. Various doors led from the room to the gods knew where.

She turned unimpressed eyes onto Juliette.

“What?” her sister asked innocently. “If you honestly thought I was going to live in a dirt cave, you never really knew me at all.”

“You live in a magic cave?” Scarlett asked doubtfully.

“The cave is just an entrance,” Juliette said with a wink.

“So where are we actually, then?” Scarlett asked as she made to move to the windows.

“That is not to be revealed to you right now,” Juliette answered, striding for the glass table.

“So because you are an Oracle, you now speak in ridiculous riddles?” Scarlett scoffed, following her.

Juliette laughed, and Scarlett marveled as the familiar sound washed over her. “Wait until you meet Princess Ashtine,” Juliette replied with a smirk. She had reached the table, and she looked down into the silver pool before her.

“You are the daughter of two powerful beings who sacrificed much to save our world,” Juliette said, as if reciting a lesson. “Now a king returns to take the throne, and all the worlds hold their breath as the stage is set.”

“Wait,twopowerful beings? You know who my father was?” Scarlett asked, coming to a halt beside Juliette.