I have neglected you, Farrow, for far too long,” Galatea said, waking me before the sunrise could. She was sitting beside my bed.
Had she found me out? All the things I had not told her. The questions that were growing in my heart about my sisters. Had she figured out how to read my Past fully?
“What do you mean, Galatea? You have been nothing but welcoming to me.”
“I have left you to your own devices. That is not a mistake I would have made were Hecate and Iolanta here with me.”
“I have managed,” I offered up. The mention of Iolanta and Hecate softened me toward her. If she was thinking of them, then perhaps she was thinking of what they would have wanted her to do. Perhaps there was still hope for her to right her course.
“I want more than for you to manage. I know it is hard for you, dealing with your half magic. Finding us so much changed . . .”
“You are different than I remember. But I suppose I am too.”
“I know you have more questions than I have answered. I can at least help you with this one. About how we have changed. I don’t carry the Pasts in the same way.”
“What do you mean?”
“Before, I felt all their anguish,” Galatea said. “I felt their darkness, their sadness, their meanness . . .”
“And you don’t anymore?”
“I still feel the emotion of it all. But I feel no pity for their misery. I relish in it.”
She looked at me a long beat, taking in my disapproval.
“That goes against everything you ever taught us. Everything we believed.” Galatea had been the Entente who objected to the use of even the smallest amount of pain to turn Fate. What would she be okay with now? “Don’t you want your empathy back?”
“I feel better without it. I feel stronger. I feel limitless. And I want you to feel that too.”
“I don’t think I will ever get there,” I said, not entirely sure I wanted to.
“I told you once that that there was a time that I wished I had as much power as my sisters. When Iolanta seemed to be the strongest of us. I never fathomed that I would be the only one of us left,” she began. “I mean, in this form,” she added, for Hecate’s benefit and for mine. “I know that it seems like you will never get it all back. But like I told you when you were small, it takes only a tiny touch of magic to turn Fate. And you have that at your disposal already. Let’s see if we can get you a little more of it.”
In an instant, she grabbed my hand and we went back to the Reverie.
I felt a flood of emotion as my sisters appeared one after another in the courtyard.
They raised their wands and chanted, trying to remove the rest of Hecate’s binding spell. But when the words were spent, I was unchanged. I raised my wand and tried to make rain. And there was not a single drop from the sky.
Galatea nodded at Tere to make a wish for rain. I raised my wand again, and the sky opened up.
My sisters hugged me goodbye before traveling away.
“Half magic is better than no magic at all,” Tere whispered, vanishing into the blur.
When we returned to Cinderella’s house, Galatea followed me back to my room. She paced away from me.
I assumed that she was disappointed in me.
“I am sorry that I have failed,” I said.
Galatea took my hands in hers.
“You have not failed. None of this is your fault. You have withstood so much—and all alone.”
“Not alone. I had Hecate.”
“Yes, you did. But you did not have us or magic. I am nothing but proud of you, Farrow.”
But I read her face and knew there was more.
“Then what is it?”
“I’m sorry, but you can’t come with us to the ball,” Galatea said gently.
“What do you mean I can’t come with you? That’s where you’re enacting your plan against Magrit,” I protested.
Was I to be punished on top of already losing my gift?
“I know how much this means to you. But it’s too dangerous.”
“Why?”
“Because we can’t be sure we can protect you. However the Queen is discerning magic, she could still find yours.”
I took this in.
“But what about the cloaking spell? You cloaked South. You could do the same for me.”
“We cannot be sure of magic we do not fully understand. Magic of the like we have not seen before. And we cannot take the risk. Your magic isn’t the same as ours; not yet.”
“You mean I’m not Entente anymore,” I said, feeling hurt.
“You are always, always Entente. Never forget that,” Galatea said firmly. “I’m sorry, Farrow. I know you want to see the Queen’s downfall. But this is only the first step of many.”
“What do you mean? What other steps could there possibly be?” I asked, confused. Wasn’t this what we’d been waiting for since Magrit took Hecate from us?
“I promise she will die when the time is right. And if you want, you can even light the match. But for now, I need a little more patience from you, Farrow.”