Page 70 of Reborn

I was met with a round of applause by the horde of people that had been waiting for me downstairs in the grand hall. Never in my life had I felt more out of place. I didn’t know what to do with my hands, where to look, how to stand. But then I saw my grandmothers—they were coming down the opposite staircase to join me on the landing.

I raised my hand to the people on the lower level and smiled, awkwardly at them. “Take a… loose five?” I asked, as I made my way toward my grandmothers. “Heh…sorry.”

I left a sea of confused faces in my wake, but I had to speak to them before I did anything else. Grandmother Helen noticed my alarm and quickly extended her hands for me to come into her embrace. I hugged her, and my other two grandmothers joined until I was surrounded by witches.

“What in all the worlds just happened?” I asked.

“It’s over,” said Grandmother Helen, “It’s finally over.”

“Over?” I asked, looking at her, “How can it be over?”

“Malys is gone, Fate is rewritten, and all is right in the world.”

I stared at her, for a moment silent, unable to get the words out. “Not all…” I ventured.

Helen nodded. “Your mother and father…” she said, then she smiled at me. “They are out there,” she said. “We reached them.”

“You did?!”

“But bringing them back is proving more difficult than we anticipated.”

“I… I can’t do this without them. I’m not meant to be Queen.”

“It’s okay. I promise. We are going to keep trying to get them back. One day, I know we’ll succeed, and we’ll be a family again. But until then, we will be right here, at your side.”

“You’re not going back to Earth?”

“Absolutely not,” said Pepper. “Who else can make a Royal meal like me?”

“And maybe there’s some cute Fae out there for me,” said Evie.

“Sister!” Helen hissed, “This is not the place to go dating.”

“Why not? Dahlia found love in the depths of winter. I could too.”

I smiled at them all. “Where are Gullie and Melina? What about Tallin?”

“Safe,” said Helen. “Waiting for you to finish… well,this.”

“Right… the Selection. I can’t believe this is where Fate decided to put us, but it beats being dead.”

Helen’s eyes unfocused from me. She glanced across my shoulder and smiled. “I think there’s someone who wants to speak to you,” she said.

Turning around and removing myself from the witch’s huddle I had been brought into, I saw Valerian standing at the base of the stairs. Two soldiers stood before him, one of them with his hand on the pommel of his sword. Valerian was trying to explain to them that he had to speak to the Princess, but the guards maintained that Windhelm didn’t have a Princess—only a Queen.

It was Radulf who intervened. “Let him through,” he barked at the two guards. They seemed confused at first. Radulf was Winter’s Son, but he wasn’t a Royal. After a moment, though, they let Valerian through. My brother waved from the bottom of the stairs as Valerian made his way up.

I smiled at Radulf, and mouthed something along the lines ofthis is insane, isn’t it?

My brother only rolled his eyes and rejoined the crowd. My grandmothers, meanwhile, gave me some space to allow me to speak to Valerian.

“No funny business,” said Helen as Valerian approached.

He put his hands up. “None,” he said.

My grandmother’s eyes narrowed. “Good. Otherwise… toad.”

“Understood,” he said, then he looked at me from where he stood. He wanted to get close to me, and so did I. I could feel his energy, his eagerness, but we were in full view of the court, and if I was reading the situation correctly, he was—once more—a contestant in the Royal Selection, which was about to begin.