Page 63

RECONCILIATION

U nder other circumstances, Gisele would have laughed at the scene that met them in the sitting room.

Nissa was stretched out along the length of the chaise, thankfully resting and with her ankle propped up on a cushion.

She looked better, too, although with the natural green cast to her pallid skin, ‘better’ was relative.

Nissa held a bowl full of water, stirring it with one hand and occasionally flicking drops at her audience with what they probably thought was accidental carelessness.

Nissa had at some point during their absence decided to take advantage of Skymallow’s clothes-horse tendencies and had unearthed a black, lacy gown that oozed ‘dark seductive sorceress’.

The lace was worked into spiderweb patterns around a plunging neckline. She’d painted her nails black to match.

At least she wasn’t naked.

Nissa’s eyes were flashing dangerously, and it didn’t take Gisele long to figure out why.

Neither of her brothers—to their credit—were giving her the reaction she craved.

Boern had clearly decided the best tactic was to ignore her.

He stood rigidly next to the window, giving a polite, single-phrase response that suggested he’d been using this tactic the whole time under increasing provocation.

Seyfert had taken a seat in the armchair and was watching with an air of amusement.

Nissa brightened at Gisele’s entrance. “You never mentioned you had brothers. Is that because you’re ashamed of them? They appear to be here to rescue you—quite belatedly, one might observe.”

Both of her brothers turned sharply, and all Gisele could think was how odd it was, not simply that they were here but that they were both giving her their full attention.

She knew when Mal entered the room behind her because both men’s gazes snapped to him. Boern’s eyes narrowed.

“Mal, these are my brothers, Prince Boern and Prince Seyfert of Isshia,” Gisele said.

“And what exactly is his role here?” Boern demanded.

“I am her Malediction,” Mal said, entirely unhelpfully, in her opinion.

Boern stiffened. Seyfert’s eyebrows rose. Nissa’s face lit up with delight at the impending conflict.

Gisele sighed. “Thank you for entertaining my brothers, Nissa. I’d like to speak to them alone. No, don’t get up—we’ll move.”

She led them outside to the back garden, to the benches beneath the shade of the linden tree. The warmth and idyllic scenery would hopefully drain everybody of excess aggression. Boern and Seyfert both attempted not to gawk at the giant, glittering butterflies or the garden’s odder plants.

Mal lifted her hand to his lips, kissing her fingertips, continuing in his unhelpfulness. “I’ll make tea. If you want me, let Skymallow know.”

Both of her brothers glared daggers at him as he left, which, judging by the jaunty angle of his tail, had been exactly what he wanted.

Boern spoke before Mal was out of earshot. “Is that him ? The sorcerer who cursed Mother?”

“He didn’t curse Mother; he cursed me,” Gisele said placidly, taking a seat and waving for them to do the same.

“And also himself, in a way. It all got rather complicated, but we’ve sorted it out now.

You must have noticed you can be near me without wanting to flee for the hills? My curse is cured.”

“If he’s demanded a price from you—” Boern’s cheeks coloured, and she knew where his mind had gone.

“No, it’s nothing like that, and what it is is none of your business. Why are the two of you here?”

“To rescue you,” Seyfert said wryly.

“Why now?” she asked before she could help it. What about all the years before this?

Seyfert seemed confused by her question, but Boern’s expression cleared.

“I didn’t realise you planned to deliver yourself to Faerie, that day in the forest. I thought you were escaping us .

” His colour was still high, but now it was due to guilt.

“That day in the throne room… I hadn’t realised until then how unhappy you were. I’m sorry for that.”

“Where in Panthea did you think I was going?” Gisele asked, too astonished to be diplomatic.

Boern swallowed. “I thought you were going to seek training in witch— wild —magic. You can’t learn that in Isshia. But then when I realised you’d never crossed the borders, I knew I’d been wrong—and that I’d failed you. If I’d known you planned to sacrifice yourself, I would have stopped you.”

A lump of emotion formed in her throat. Eventually she managed to speak past it enough to say, “Well, as it happens, I’m glad you didn’t stop me. But I’m nonetheless grateful for the sentiment.”

“It could have been me instead of you, but for a few minutes’ difference. I’ve always known that, even when I tried not to. It was easier to believe you didn’t mind it.” Boern spoke the unspoken, shared knowledge, his blue eyes solemn.

There was a long, awkward, highly emotional moment between them. She saw her own confused yearning in his eyes, the knowledge that they ought to know each other better than they did.

Seyfert eventually gave a small cough. “So, ah, about that rescuing…?”

The cursed princess had yearned for her family to want to save her, to make space in their world for her.

But now she’d shed the skin of her old life so thoroughly that she couldn’t see herself ever fitting back inside it.

She wasn’t an unwanted spinster, waiting for her life to start.

She was the woman who’d come to Faerie alone, who’d faced down terrifying monsters with nothing but her bare hands.

She was a witch . She could see, suddenly, the woman Mal had described her as.

And that woman wanted far more than a slightly kinder version of her old life back.

She laughed, feeling light. “I appreciate the gesture, but I’m no longer in need of rescue. How did you even get here?”

Boern shrugged. “We came through where I saw you leaving. It was straightforward enough.”

“He’s leaving out that that’s because of all the folklore he’s been obsessing over for the last month since he realised where you went,” Seyfert added.

Gisele remembered the missing books from her tower. “Does Mother know you’re here?”

Her brothers exchanged glances. “No,” Boern admitted eventually. “But she would want you to be rescued.”

“So long as it didn’t put the heir and the spare at risk, or turn the treasury back to straw, yes, she would,” Seyfert said rather more truthfully.

Boern sighed. “She will be glad to know you’re well, in any case. She might have… other priorities, but she does care, in her way.”

“When did the gold in the treasury change back?” she asked.

“You knew about that? No one was supposed to know about that. Including you,” Boern added to his younger brother with a certain amount of asperity. “No one outside the privy council was supposed to know. It would have caused riots if the news had spread.”

“It’s why she left, Boern. Isn’t it?” Seyfert’s gaze pinned her. “You thought it was your fault.”

“When did it change back?” Gisele repeated.

“It doesn’t matter,” Boern said stoutly, which warmed her heart even though they all knew he was lying. The gold did matter.

“After you left,” Seyfert admitted. “I don’t know exactly how long after. Will it change back if you return?”

“No,” she said. “It’s done, now.”

Boern, who had been increasingly bristling, subsided. “Oh.” His eyes anxiously searched her face. “Are you well, then, Gisele?”

She smiled. “You know, I rather think that I am.”

She led her brothers through the meadow, disturbing clouds of butterflies as they walked.

“I thought Fairyland would be more terrifying,” Seyfert said, echoing her own thoughts from when she’d first arrived here. It felt like a lifetime ago.

“It can be, but this part is under Skymallow’s influence. Don’t take it as indicative of the whole.”

They reached the edge of the forest. Nothing stopped her. For a moment, she stood in the cool shade of the great oaks and let that knowledge settle into her bones. She was free.

“Gisele?” Boern asked.

She gave herself a shake and led them back to the walnut tree. “You should be able to get back through here. I’d put a guard on it; the more a waypoint is used, the easier it is to accidentally wander through, and these woods aren’t safe.”

Boern canted his head. “You’re not coming back with us, are you?”

She shook her head. “I’ll visit and be the strange fairy aunt to all your children, if you want me to.

” She didn’t mention the likely effect Faerie would have on her ageing, or lack thereof.

They’d work it out eventually, and besides, that was rather counting chickens before they’d hatched.

“But I don’t belong there. I never did, and I think I belong there even less now. ”

“Visit,” Boern said firmly. There was a sadness in his eyes as they looked at each other, possibly for the first time, without the darkness of the curse between them. Neither of them knew what to say. “I wish you happy,” he added eventually.

“If he’s not good to you, we’ll strip his hide,” Seyfert offered.

Boern gave a strong nod of agreement.

She gave a watery laugh, watching them go with a painful jumble of both lightness and sorrow, with hope for the future and grief for the things that could not be undone.

Turning back, she made her slow way back to Skymallow, stopping to pick wildflowers as she went.

Mal was waiting by the front gate. There was a stillness to him as he watched her approach, as if he’d wound himself almost too tightly to breathe.

“I love you,” he said, all in a rush. “I love you, and I can’t bear not to tell you any longer, even if—even though you don’t have to— If you want to go back to your family, you should, I mean.

I don’t— You don’t owe me anything. I just…

wanted you to know.” He made a frustrated sound.

“That came out far more eloquently in my own head.”

A giddy warmth bubbled up in her chest. “I don’t mind if you want to try saying it again,” she told him gravely, perching on the boulder by the gate and raising an expectant eyebrow.

“Feel free to add any persuasively nice reasons why you love me, if you’d like.

You should also ask me to stay properly, this time. ”

A smile spread over his face, amused and soft all at once. “Very well. I think I half fell in love with you the moment you proposed to bandage me immediately after poisoning me.”

She grimaced. “I said nice things.”

“I love that you can’t help being kind, even when you’re angry,” he explained.

“I’ve been afraid to let anyone in again for so long, but I trust you in ways I don’t think I have ever trusted anyone before.

You are brave and brilliant, and you have breathed life back into both me and this house.

And—I am yours. You are my home more than all the stones and gold and wood in Skymallow.

I will be your Malediction and curse you with all the happiness I can muster. If you want me.”

“Oh,” she said, inadequately, feeling breathless. “That was a lot more eloquent.”

“I thought so,” he said, preening, but she could read the vulnerability in his eyes.

She slid off the boulder. “I love you too,” she said shyly.

He raised an eyebrow, his eyes sparkling. “Do I get a nice speech too?”

She kissed him and said powerful, wordless things in a language older than time. Eventually they had to pause for breath.

“ Fantastic speech,” he said, rather hoarsely.