I left South’s barn and went back to my room. I released Hecate.
I needed to try out my magic again now. Hecate curled up on the bed, watching.
I closed my eyes. “Bring the light; show my might,” I chanted.
When I opened my eyes again, the tip of my wand was unlit. I sighed, knowing I had been changed forever. Again.
Galatea knocked on the door and entered.
“Still trying, Farrow?” she said, looking down at my wand and sounding impressed by my persistence.
I turned to her and wondered if she was looking into my recent Past.
“More than trying, I see. If only there were really a correlation between how tightly you squeezed your eyes shut and what your wand did,” she added lightly.
It was something I thought she might have said to us as kids in the Reverie. But Galatea would know that for sure, because she knew every moment of her own Past and could see every moment of everyone else’s when she focused, unless someone or something was blocking her—like Hecate’s spell.
“Can you see my Past now?”
She shook her head. “Only glimmers.”
What had happened in the kitchen . . . What had happened with South . . . I could not seem to replicate it no matter how hard I tried.
Despite what Cinderella had said and thought, I still needed to understand my magic. I needed to know about myself.
“Galatea, I think . . . I know how the unbinding worked—or half worked . . . I just don’t know how to replicate it on my own,” I said. “It only works for others.” My words were a jumble. “Is there such a thing as a half spell? I can hear what people want—their deepest desires and their fleeting ones. And sometimes I can grant them . . .”
Galatea cocked her head as if I were a spell that she hadn’t figured out. “Come, let’s see what’s going on inside you.” She motioned to the next room.
She pulled out her wand and put it to my temple when we got to the sitting room.
“I don’t know. I think it’s something else. I still can’t read you.”
And I couldn’t read her thoughts either, not like I had Cinderella’s. I pulled out my own wand and tapped it against her temple. When I looked into her, all I saw was her mind room—the quiet place she had built to keep from feeling too much. Nothing could get in or out unless she let it.
Iolanta had tried and failed to do the same inside her. She had never managed it. And then came Magrit and the years of torture. It wasn’t fair, but some part of me wondered if I would end up like her or South.
It wasn’t the same as South and the onset of his powers. Was it? Iolanta couldn’t have possibly given her power to both of us.
“I think the reason your power is only halfway back is because Hecate is halfway between worlds.” Galatea looked at me a long beat after removing her wand.
“Am I like South?”
“No, this isn’t at all like South,” she said, sounding certain.
“How do you know?”
“Think about it—South’s reach is across Queendoms. Yours seems more immediate. How far can you hear?” she asked.
I thought about it, realizing I had heard only the thoughts of Cinderella and South and a few of the people in the neighboring homes.
“And you are not hearing their every thought or their every Present? You’re just hearing their deepest desires? Their wishes, per se.”
“Yes. Then if I’m not a Fate, what am I?” I asked.
“Something new. Something Hecate made.” Galatea tapped my temple one last time. “When I look inside you, I can see only flashes.”
“I can’t read you either.”
“You shouldn’t be able to read me . . . ,” she began. “It’s what I’ve been teaching South. You have to make a place for yourself where you are happy—where you are safe. Where no one can touch you. For South, it’s a memory of you two together. For me, it’s a Future where all my sisters are together.”
She tapped her temple and then mine again. Her mind room got bigger, and suddenly, Freya, Tere, Amantha, me, all the other sisters, and South filled the space. We all looked older, and the blank space transformed itself into the drawing room of the Reverie.
“You created this Fate?” I asked, surprised. She was a Fate of the Past. How could she have this vision of the Future?
“It’s an illusion. Like the Reverie. It’s only in my head. A place in my mind I can go to when I don’t want anyone inside it,” she explained.
I nodded, wondering if I could perform the same trick. My mind went to the prince automatically. The two of us standing in the palace, his hand in mine. I blinked hard, willing the image away.
“But that doesn’t explain why I can’t see what you’re thinking . . . what you’re feeling. Why, even before the unbinding, I only got flashes of your Past. It’s as if Hecate did more than bind your magic. She shielded your mind from our magic.”
“But why would she do that?” I asked, my mind reflexively remembering what Cinderella had said in the kitchen.
“We will figure it out.” Galatea smiled. She called for Bari and Amantha, who appeared almost instantly.
“We’re going to shield Farrow’s new magic. We need everyone,” she ordered.
Bari flashed a grin and Amantha winked at me before they disappeared again.
When we arrived in the barn, South was awake and drawing on one of the walls.
“South? I thought you were feeling better,” I asked. I thought he was, but the sight of him scribbling made me think he’d had a setback.
He gave me a pointed looked of reassurance.
“I am. Don’t worry, Farrow,” he said just as the others arrived, filling the barn.
I was with my sisters again. They each had a story, and I had gotten bits and pieces from Bari, Amantha, and Galatea. But there was so much missing. And there was never enough time.
Galatea put a hand on my shoulder. “I know you’re in a hurry. But we have time. And when this is over there will be nothing but time for you to get to know your sisters. For you to get your magic back.”
I nodded.
“We are here to shield you, but there is something you should see . . . ,” Galatea continued.
“Sisters, show yourselves . . .”
Perpetua, who now lived in the Malle, the Second Queendom, cleared her throat and began to grow. Within seconds, her head was grazing the ceiling. From the Third Queendom, Tork’s Blenheim, Effie made her face contort with bearlike fur and her incisors peek out from behind her lips. Em, from the Sixth Queendom, Mettlebrau, was a shape-shifter too. But her tufts of fur were more wolflike. Tere balanced a tiny cloud in the palm of her hand. Xtina, a ball of fire. Freya from Lasse was forever seventeen . . .
“Was this from the Burning?” I asked Perpetua, my sister who was now a giantess.
“No, I did it to myself.”
“Why? How?”
“Galatea says we have the right to test our powers.”
“No matter the result?” I wondered. We had always been taught moderation. And to know what we were doing before we turned the wand on ourselves. What was this? Every encounter with my sisters showed me how much my sisters had further abandoned all the old teachings. And every encounter made me wonder if this was a good thing or a bad one.
Not everyone’s powers could be seen. Odette now lived in the Fifth Queendom, Doyenne, and her specialty was still magical food. Sistine, from the swamplands of the Seventh Queendom, Vignon, could hum and make you feel things.
Galatea gently got to the point. “Your sisters learned how to work their magic. There are no mistakes. There are only opportunities.”
Then she began the spell.
Keep us hidden
From those who aren’t true.
Keep our magic in the dark
To make its mark—
As my sisters chanted, I felt their power course through me.
I pushed aside my worry about the rules. There was no turning back; what was done was done. And I grasped hold of the idea, the hope that Galatea was giving me. I would make the most of my gift just as my sisters had. I didn’t feel any different after the spell—but I hoped that it had protected me as Galatea had promised. I had begun the day flying and in a way I was flying still.