“You did it as a child with our son, Renard. Don’t you remember? I had tucked you into bed myself and gone to check on Renard, but he had gone missing. We searched all through the night, but to no avail. The next morning I found you shivering in bed, drenched and covered in mud, crying out that Renard was sleeping under the dock.”
I shuddered but couldn’t remember any of this. But if she remembered, it had to be true. “I’m sorry.”
“No!” she admonished. “You told me where he was, even who he was with, and we were able to question the other children. We learned it was an accident, that he had fallen off the dock hit his head and drowned.
“Now tell me, Rosalie,” Magda cried out in almost hysterics, tears pooling down her face. “Who killed my Peder? I know you can. Just tell me, please.” She was becoming hysterical, unhinged, and I knew then that she was the one who had pushed me into the cupboard.
“You’ve known all along what I can do.”
“Like mother, like daughter.” Her eyes wild, she couldn’t stop staring at the still form of her husband lying in the cupboard. “I told your mother what you had done. She told me of her blood curse and how she has to take small doses of wolfsbane to keep from traveling and answering the call of the dying. But over time, the body will build up an immunity. It was a secret we had to hide from your father.” She brought her hands to her mouth and poured out her heart. “I’ve done nothing other than what His Majesty has asked all these years. Have served loyally. I don’t understand how this could happen to my husband. Now tell me who did this to him!” she screamed at me.
“I don’t know,” I said, pulling away from her. Her fingernails left deep red scratches on my arm.
“Yes, you do, but you won’t tell me,” she wailed and flung herself on the floor. “Please, I need answers.”
Calmly, I closed the cupboard. Once the latch clicked, the glamour was back in place. How had she known it was there when I had almost missed it? What other secrets was she hiding?
“I did see who murdered Peder, but what I see is not always the truth. You have to believe me on that. But I will make sure they pay.”
Once the door of the hidden cupboard had closed and she could no longer see Peder’s lifeless form, Magda had become still. Now she moved away, as if she had forgotten what secrets were held within and her own hysterics that had overcome her only moments before.
“Peder? Have you seen Peder? And Renard hasn’t come home for dinner, and I made his favorite pork pie.” Magda smiled calmly and turned, going down the hallway in search of her dead husband and son.
My heart was breaking in two, her husband’s death having destroyed her. The woman had taken care of me for years, and all she had to show for it was the loss of her loved ones—Renard, then me, and now Peder.
I stormed into the throne room and decided it was time for him to know I was done playing hide-and-seek. Wind picked up around me, moving the tapestries on the wall and making the torches flicker as I sent the command out.
Come. I am here.
I waited for the reply.
A few moments passed, and then my father came out from behind the golden throne and sat down on the red cushioned chair.
We stared at each other from across the hall. Even though he wore the face of my father, I knew it was a lie. It was a mask he was preparing to don permanently.
It was true. I did see who had killed Magda’s husband, and the reason behind his sudden and unreasonable death.
“The face does not suit you. In fact, it ages you quite a bit.”
The king disregarded my taunt. “It suits me just fine, and I don’t have any plan of giving it up. Not yet anyway.”
“It is not your throne,” I hissed.
“Who’s to say otherwise?” the king said calmly as he gestured to the empty room. “The personal servants, the royal guard, the staff?”
“All—”
“Dead,” he sneered. “Their sacrifice will not go in vain, and I will attain new ones.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Why not? I was bored. The king was easily manipulated, greedy in his quest for land, blind to his dwindling staff and