Page 109

He snapped his long fingers.

Suddenly, the menagerie was gone, and we were on a grassy plain. A few steps from us, Lope stood, very pale, with a heavy band of bruises around her throat. Eglantine was to her left, and the king was in her grasp, a blade pressed against his neck.

Peace, gratitude, and utter joy washed over me in a flood, and it felt as if my heart could finally beat again. I darted toward Lope, slamming into her and burying my head against her heart.

“Oh, gods,” I sobbed. “I thought you were dead!”

“I promised I’d come for you.” She kissed my hair. My pulse raced. I couldn’t believe she finally touched me like that, looked at me like that—that I could hold tight to her and speak my love to her at last.

I drew back just so I could look into her eyes again, see the vitality in them. The prettiest gray, like the feathers of a dove. I cradled her face between my hands, my thumbs brushing her soft, warm cheeks. “I want to look at you for a thousand years,” I said, my voice pinched.

A grin spread across her normally solemn face. “Then I will live a thousand years for you.”

The Shadow King drifted close, grabbing King Léo by the throat. His eyes flew open, and he gasped, clutching at the hand coiled around his neck.

“No!” he choked. “We—had—a—deal!”

“I have a deal with her,” said the Shadow King, pointing to Lope. “Lope de la Rosa. And you have broken your deal many, many times.”

Lope bowed at the sound of her name. “Sire,” she said, looking to the Shadow King. I perked up. I recognized that tone of her voice, one I rarely heard—it said she hadsomething up her sleeve. “There’s something I found curious. All this time, King Léo said that it was the gods above that had blessed him. That they had gifted him with youth and prosperity... in fact, henevermentioned you.”

The Shadow King hissed, throwing Léo onto the grass. From the blackness around him, Shadows rose, wrapping around the king’s legs, his arms, his neck, holding him in place before us, lifting up the king as if he were a painting on the wall. His eyes were round with fear—and with vicious hate.

“Loathsome mortal,” growled the Shadow King. “I want you to see those you sacrificed so that you could sit upon your throne. See the ones you loved and know how they hate you. Let themshow you.”

Once more, the Shadow King snapped his fingers. Thin clouds of black smoke arose, and from them stepped the others: King Augustin, Prince Philippe, the queen mother, Françoise, Sagesse, and my mother. She ran to me, sweeping me into her arms.

Sagesse caught sight of her daughter. She covered her mouth.

Eglantine threw down her knife and ran, throwing her arms around her mother, who could now have been mistaken for her sister.

“I missed you every day,” Eglantine said, her voice thick.

Sagesse hushed her and rocked her in her embrace, back and forth, like she was still a young girl. “I never ever forgotyou, my Eglantine.” They spoke for a moment, weeping, embracing, laughing. And then, after a few more heartbeats, Sagesse whispered something in her daughter’s ear, and Eglantine released Sagesse from her hold, a smirk crossing the librarian’s face.

Sagesse turned to approach the king, her head held high. Her eyes narrowed at him.“You.”Sagesse growled the word.

She promptly rammed her fist into his stomach. He let out a loud cry. She spat in his face.

“I missed my daughter’s life,” she said. “Youwastedall my years because you thought I’d be a suitable payment. Bastard.” Sagesse spun on her heel, her eyes gleaming with tears and fury. “Are you going to kill him?” she asked the god.

“No,” said the Shadow King. “There is no death here. He’ll stay here, preserved.” He lifted a finger. “On the other hand, it was by my power that I kept him young above. And, Lope, you say he never credited me for this. Never thanked me for it.”

In a blink, the Shadow King was standing at Léo’s shoulder, his hand around the king’s jaw. “I think instead you shall age, Léo, age and decay, but never die. I’ll build you a hall just like the other one, a hall of mirrors, where you may forever look at yourself...”

Fear glimmered in Léo’s eyes, but he clenched his jaw. “The gods will not stand for such treatment of their chosen king!”

The Shadow King’s face split in a wide, crooked smile.“The gods have never cared about you.”

The monsters clinging to King Léo hissed delightedly, their claws digging deeper into his flesh. Blood stained his gold brocade and satin.

“I’ll send him away,” said the king of Shadows to us all, “if you’d like to bid him farewell.”

King Augustin turned his back. His son did the same, and the queen mother, trembling with tears, hid her face against her husband’s shoulder.

Françoise shook her head and stood at my side, holding tight to my hand. “I never want to see you again,” she whispered to him.

Sagesse waved her hand in a strange symbol. “May your every moment be agony,” she said—a promise. A curse. Eglantine held her mother’s arm, smiling triumphantly.