Queen Magrit’s palace was heavily fortified by her army. We had come out in force to meet it: Galatea, me, South, Amantha, and Bari.
But surprisingly, the soldiers parted.
“The Queen demands an audience with you,” Hark called from the palace steps. He waved us forward, through the troops.
I snarled at Hark, the boy I had seen by the Queen’s side when Hecate had burned. The boy who was a traitor to his friend. Hark looked through me like we were strangers. If he felt guilt for his betrayal of the prince, I could not see it. Perhaps the Queen had raised him for this.
He led us right through the royal palace’s front door. We made our way to the throne room.
Is this a trick? I wondered. Why would she let us walk in?
Is it a trap? I thought as I caught our reflections in the Black Glass that covered every wall. Even the ceiling and floors. We were wearing our own faces, so it made no difference. It offered no danger. I felt one of the walls and it was cool to the touch. Without heat, we were in the clear. But what if there were soldiers holding lighted Black Glass arrows behind the door?
“It’s too easy,” I whispered to South.
I wanted to know what he felt. If he could sense a plan. I tried to read the Queen before we reached her.
When the door swung open, we could see her sitting in her Black Glass–covered throne. Her posture was regal. But when she registered our presence, she leaned forward and sneered at us. There were two guards at her side. Each stepped forward protectively.
She nodded at them as if to say she could handle us. And then she finally addressed us.
“Witches!” Queen Magrit said with contempt. “Where is my son?”
“The girl and your son are innocent. And they are gone,” Galatea said finally.
“If you give up, I won’t kill you or your progeny,” Queen Magrit offered.
“You’ll just cage us and use us against one another?”
“Once magic is contained, there will be peace. Just put your wands down,” Queen Magrit added.
“Never!” Galatea shrieked. “The Entente will live on!”
The air flickered around us. Amantha appeared behind a cluster of guards. Her wand was drawn.
Another flicker and Horatia was there on the other edge of the quadrant of soldiers. I wished she’d brought her spindle. We needed all the help we could get.
There was another flicker and another and another . . . until all the sisters had surrounded the soldiers and the Queen.
I caught the tableau in the Black Glass, and despite the terror of the moment, the glass reflected back our unity and readiness for whatever was to come. But it also captured the Queen and her men, and they were not backing down.
“Did you really think you could walk in here and expect to walk out again? We are not so dissimilar. We both have used our years to plan for this day.”
The Queen nodded, and one of the guards lifted a torch and touched it to one of the walls. They began to warm. The Black Glass blanketed every inch of the palace, and all the glass was connected. The walls glowed as they warmed. Outside the windows, we could see the soldiers lighting their Black Glass arrows. Just like in the glass factory, I felt an immediate sense of nausea.
A wand rose. A ball of fire formed in the air. The battle had begun, and it spilled out of the throne room to the grounds of the palace.
Before the day of the Burning, the Entente had never raised their wands against humans. Now there was no hesitation.
Xtina threw a fireball, which missed the Queen and hit the glass wall behind her—which was of course the exact wrong thing to do. The stench of the glass grew more toxic.
Each Entente used her own special skill to thwart a group of guards.
“Galatea, remember . . . Break the glass,” I screamed. This was what I’d whispered to her in the Reverie: I said simply, remembering how the prince had set the factory on fire, “Black Glass reveals our identities, and it can also kill us. It killed Iolanta. Destroy it, and Queen Magrit is powerless. We must use force to destroy it if necessary.”
They ran at us with their Black Glass–tipped swords, but we were everywhere and nowhere at the same time. The Black Glass–covered walls reflected our true faces as we attacked and deflected their advances.
Galatea raised her voice and the others followed suit. “Break the glass, and bring our power back . . .”
I joined in the chant as the glass walls of the palace began to crack and melt.
The Queen’s face contorted as she watched the walls she’d had built for her protection turn against her. Meanwhile, the battle raged on.
I watched in amazement as Bari transformed. Her bun became a beehive, and when she opened her mouth, bees poured out of it. Her dress began to disintegrate and re-form as a full skirt made of bees. She lifted her wand and the swarm dispatched.
There were screams as the bees split into two clouds, and each hovered over a guard.
But even with the glass broken, the guards had not lost their will to fight. If anything, they were now fighting doubly hard as they watched their palace be attacked.
Bari swiped again with her wand and the clouds attacked the guards’ faces, hands, and all visible skin. They made their way into the crevices of the guards’ armor. The soldiers collapsed into heaps on the ground.
Galatea stepped forward. “Give up your Queen and I will spare every one of you. If you don’t, you will perish,” she vowed.
To punctuate her point, she raised her wand again and a bolt of lightning met it.
“If you just give up, then I will let the rest live,” Galatea offered, echoing Queen Magrit’s words.
“Never!” the Queen screamed, and the soldiers began to fight again in earnest.
Galatea moved her wand and half a dozen men fell dead before they could reach her.
“I can beat you without spilling a single drop of blood, or I can spill every single one . . . till there is an ocean made of you.”
With that, she put a dozen of the guards to sleep with a wave of her wand.
She raised her wand a final time, and Queen Magrit rose into midair. The Queen gagged. Her hands flew up to her throat as if someone were choking her.
Is Galatea going to kill her? I wondered. This was what I had dreamed of for years. A whole life of planning came down to this, this one moment, this one action. But instead of feeling joy, I felt sadness and regret. This was not what I wanted after all.
I raised my wand, even though I was powerless to stop her without a wish.
“Remember this, Magrit,” Galatea said, releasing her. “You are not stronger than the Entente. You cannot defeat magic.”
The Queen fell to the ground. The Queen wished to live and to breathe and to kill all of us. And then she looked for her son. She wished for him. She wished for him to avenge her.
Galatea then turned to address Hark and the soldiers. “You have seen what we can do. There is no end to our power. If you submit, then we will let you live, but your Queen will die.”
The soldiers’ voices rumbled through their ranks. Some retreated, but others bowed down to us.
“There is not one moment in Magrit’s life that is worthy of this Queendom or that is worthy of your sacrifice,” Galatea said. “I know this because I am Galatea, Fate of the Past. And he knows it because he is South, the Fate of the Present.”
South looked around awkwardly.
In the crowd, a couple of soldiers balked at the idea.
“South can barely hold a sword, let alone all our Presents,” one of the soldiers taunted.
Galatea laughed. “You thought South was one of the Fallen. One of you. But he is one of us.”
I could hear all the guards’ wishes. There were so many. My head felt as if it were underwater as I listened to everything they wanted.
I wish we could trust her, but she’s a witch.
I wish we could trust the Queen.
I wish no more daughters would die in the name of the Queen’s witch hunt.
I wish the witch were dead.
Then I heard a new voice with a different wish.
I want you to live your lives under the thumb of the Entente. I want my revenge.
The voice was Galatea’s. This was the first time I could see clearly into her heart’s desire.
She wanted them all dead. But she would settle for ruling over them instead.
She had told me her plan. But seeing it in her heart was different. The closer she got to her revenge, the darker her heart got. And it was up to me and South to stop her.
The closer the plan had gotten to mine, the more conflicted I felt. Queen Magrit needed to be stopped. But I didn’t like what it was doing to me in the process.
“I am offering you one chance to save yourselves. Just walk away. And leave your Queen to me.”
“My people will never betray me,” Queen Magrit gasped, lifting herself half off the ground.
But I could hear the wishes and hearts of the guards. And they were wavering. One stuck out in particular.
I just want to live.
The Queen looked around, waiting for her minions to step forward and lay down their lives for her.
The next few seconds passed without any movement. Then there was a rustling as the soldiers put down their weapons.
Queen Magrit glared around her wildly. “You fools! She spared your lives just to show her power. Now that you have laid down your arms, she will kill all of you. Will none of you protect your Queen after all that I have done for you?”
Hark stepped in front of the Queen to protect her and pulled out his knife, facing Galatea.
“I don’t want to hurt him. But I will,” Galatea offered.
The Queen stepped in front of Hark, stilling his knife. It didn’t make any sense. Who was Hark to her—why would she want to save him? Of all lives, how could she put his in front of her own?
She whispered something to him, and he smiled a small, sad smile.
“Very well, then. You have won this round,” she said.
Queen Magrit had surrendered.
This was not how I thought Magrit would end. I would have thought that she would fight to the death. And for her to essentially lay down her crown for Hark. I couldn’t parse it. Was there another play she had planned that I could not see? I could not sense anything from her in her defeat.
I looked around at my sisters. I was relieved that we had escaped this battle without losing any of us and without killing any more of the guard. But I worried about what was still to come. My sisters were elated, and I could hear their wishes for futures full of wealth and power. But with every crown the Entente might wear and every Queendom they might rule, I feared the trade-off was their souls.
Feeling overwhelmed, not wanting to hear another mercenary wish, I glanced away toward the square, and my eyes caught on a smiling Galatea. It was more than seeing the incredible contrast between who I remembered her to be before the day of the Burning and today. I could finally hear her.
In her happiest moment, she had forgotten to maintain her mind palace. I could finally search her head and her heart. I heard her wishes.
I felt a chill overcome me. I could not find any light in her heart. She was lost.