troops, all who died when they questioned me. Now I will finish what I started.”
“What is that?”
“Revenge on the kingdoms.”
“Get in line,” I snapped.
“Oh, that’s right. Your mother has her own agenda as well. Tell her I send greetings. She’ll remember me. They all do. We could pool our resources together and enact vengeance at once.”
“I don’t think so,” I snarled. How dare he pretend to know our story. He was a fool. Just another power-hungry mage who had meddled in too many lives and must be stopped.
“King Basil of Florin,” a masculine voice called out, and I turned to see Xander in full armor being escorted into the throne room by Eden. “I’ve come to you with my own demands. For years you’ve threatened us with war over the death of your wife. Well, now I have brought the war to you.”
My heart fluttered at the sight of him, drinking him in. He seemed taller in his armor, dangerous, his blue ceremonial robe flowing out along the floor behind him. But his eyes had shadows under them, and I wondered if he had been sleeping well.
Xander’s hand rested on his blade, his eyes locked on mine. I could see the question hiding there, and the hurt, but I looked away. He may easily be able to forget the betrayal but not me. I was the one imprisoned and brought here in a cage.
“How did you get past my troops?” King Basil roared.
Xander smirked. “I walked right through the front gates.”
“Impossible. The guards were—” His eyes fell on my sister, then back to me and sneered. “Oh, I see. Another one? Two of Eville’s daughters here?”
Eden clasped her hands demurely in front of her and smiled.
“Well, then it will hurt Lorelai all the more when she hears the news that I’ve killed two of her brats.”
“King Basil—” Xander started.
“That’s not the king,” I cut in. “It’s Allemar. He was the one who tried to poison your mother with wolfsbane and kill your sister with the adder. He’s nothing more than an imposter.”
Eden inhaled in awe. “To do that, he would need to have a personal belonging.”
I closed my eyes and thought back to Peder’s death vision, how Allemar was leaning over the real king, working away at something on his hand.
“He did. He took my father’s ring,” I answered.
“Then where’s the real king?” Xander asked.
“Dead. You’ll find his body hidden under the floor of the cupboard where Peder’s body is. All because Peder saw you shift into the king, didn’t he?” I directed the question to the sorcerer.
“He always was a nosy servant. He should have been one of the first I sacrificed instead of the last, but I needed their life energy to supplement my power as I traveled through that magic-barren land of Baist.”
“And why my father?” I hissed.
Allemar sighed. “Because the puppet wanted to be his own master. We can’t have that now, can we? I needed to cut his strings.”
“Hard to make a king go to war over the loss of his wife and child if we’re both alive still,” I said.
Xander looked to me, his amber eyes sparkling less. “You knew, didn’t you?”
“I knew the night I healed Queen Anya that she was hiding her real identity. I just didn’t know from whom or why until now.”
“If you knew, then why didn’t you say anything to me?” he cried out. “I have been holding on to this secret for years, the burden of keeping our countries from war.”
“Hello? Newcomer here. What secret?” Eden asked.
Queen Anya walked into the room on the arm of King Gerald, her face full and glowing, her skin radiant.
“That I am the long-lost queen of Florin,” she called out loudly. “Hello, Allemar.” She looked right into the sorcerer’s eyes as she called him out. “I’m surprised I didn’t recognize your stench from the moment you entered the kingdom. But again, you never show your true face to anyone, do you?”
“We meet again, Queen Hyacinth. What, do you not approve of the form of your old husband? How about this one.” Allemar grinned down at us from a different physical body, one I had never seen before. Gone was his beard, his hair was a golden blond, skin tan, and he almost sparkled like a god.
“And still alive, no matter how many times you have tried to kill me,” she growled, her back stiffening, her face a mask of hatred.
A moment of pride ran through me, and I understood more about myself.