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‘And what?’

Thea exchanged a smirk with Wren. ‘How was it?’

‘You’re not seriously asking me that.’

Thea shrugged. ‘Isn’t that what sisters do?’

‘I wouldn’t know,’ Anya replied.

Wren got to her feet and pulled both Thea and Anya in for an embrace, during which Anya looked about as uncomfortable as Thea felt. The three of them had never embraced…

But Wren squeezed them together. ‘We can make this sister thing whatever we want it to be,’ she said quietly. ‘I, for one, would like to be able to talk to you both, about anything and everything. We might have been robbed of our earlier years together…’ She gave Anya a sad smile. ‘But even Thea and I weren’t as close as we could have been. I’d like to change that.’

Thea struggled to swallow the lump forming in her throat, and when she glanced at Anya, she saw tears tracking down her face.

‘I’d like that,’ the Daughter of Darkness croaked.

Wren smiled. ‘Good.’

‘Me too,’ Thea said.

They stood there, their arms wrapped around one another before the fire, and despite the weight of her fate stone pressing against her sternum, Thea was glad. If this was sisterhood, she thought, it wasn’t half bad.

A knock at the door interrupted the moment. It opened to reveal an Aveum guard. ‘The queen will see you now,’ he said with a sweep of his hand.

The sisters broke apart. Baffled, Thea looked to the clock above the mantle, noting how late the hour was. It didn’t feel like a terribly good sign, to say the least. They followed the guard from the room all the same, exchanging suspicious glances.

To Thea’s surprise, they were not taken to the throne room or any sort of formal receiving space, but to the queen’s private residences. They were ushered inside, finding the rooms within dimly lit, the air stale. Thea had expected countless attendants and ladies in waiting, but as they moved through the suite, they found it empty.

At last, they were shown into a sitting room, smaller and less grand than the rest of the quarters. On a wooden chair by the fire sat Queen Reyna.

Thea tried to mask her shock. The last time she’d seen the winter queen, Reyna had been resplendent in a beautiful gown, glittering jewels atop her head. She’d commanded the attention of the entire throne room with a lift of her chin, the flick of a wrist, every bit the ruler of a kingdom. But now… now she was a husk of her former self.

Grief had aged her. She sat hunched over in a tattered robe, her hair dirty and unkempt, falling loose around her weary face. Her gaze was hollow when she looked upon the three sisters.

Together, they bowed, albeit awkwardly.

‘So…’ Queen Reyna said slowly, her voice hoarse from apparent disuse. ‘The heirs of Delmira have come forward at last.’ Her eyes fell to Thea, emotionless. ‘You…’

‘For what it’s worth,’ Thea told her, ‘I didn’t know until I became a Guardian, and even then, it has taken me until now to come to terms with it.’

‘How could you not have known?’

Wren stepped forward. ‘It was my doing, Your Majesty. I created something to suppress her power, so she wouldn’t know. So she wouldn’t be in danger.’

If this news surprised the queen, she didn’t show it. Instead, she turned her attention to Anya. ‘And you…’ This time, there was an unmistakeable note of rage in her tone. ‘My husband is dead because of you and your monsters.’

‘Your husband is dead because of Artos and his monsters,’ Anya said calmly.

‘Artos?’ Queen Reyna gave a dark laugh. ‘You are the enemy. You have brought pain and suffering on the midrealms. You are the Daughter of Darkness.’

Anya took a breath, seeming to steel herself against the harsh words. ‘I am the daughter of King Soren and Queen Brigh of Delmira,’ she said. ‘Rulers who were once your allies against all that poisons our lands now.’

‘They were no allies to Aveum. To anyone. Because of their dark obsession with power, the midrealms are cloaked in shadow.’

Thea went to the queen and knelt at her side. ‘Your Majesty,’ she implored. ‘You know me, have seen me fight for the good of the midrealms —’

‘You are in league with her.’ The queen pointed a shaking finger at Anya. ‘You broke the fallen Warsword out of the Scarlet Tower and destroyed it. You —’