her daughter sat on the other. After a grim look in our direction, Fiona put a hand on the girl’s knee. “Ches, these are the friends I was telling ye about, Duncan and Mackenna. Do you think you could tell them what you told me?”
The girl nodded and raised her head to address us. Despite the confusion in her dark eyes, she radiated intelligence. She cleared her throat softly before speaking. “My name is Cheska Ann Santos. I’m fifteen.”
Her accent sounded similar to Mackenna’s, with slightly crisper enunciation and an undercurrent of something exotic. Cheska closed her eyes as she drew in a deep breath; after a slow exhale, she opened them to regard us fiercely. “I can’t account for what happened, exactly, or how . . . but I believe I was sent here from my home, the City of Tayabas, in the Philippines.”
Fiona nodded, prompting, “Tell them how ye came to be in Scotland, Ches.”
She fixed her grave eyes on mine as if daring me to doubt her veracity. Without so much as a blink of hesitancy, she replied, “I crossed a bridge.”
CHAPTER 3
Veronica
The snow fell in relentless sheets that blocked out the sun. The kind of snow that made you forget there was ever a world without it. I trudged down the forest path and embraced the biting wind that nipped at my exposed face and slithered beneath my cloak. The pain of the cold felt good, better than the hideous monster that lurked inside, waiting to consume my sanity.
“Majesty, ’tis just around the next bend!” Ewan Murray shouted over his shoulder. The boy’s green eyes sparkled as if we were on some great adventure instead of tromping through a blizzard to find a blackberry patch. Ewan was incorrigible, just like the time he’d asked me to dance at my first weekly feast when most of the kingdom still believed me a witch—including Jamie.
The monster reared its ugly head and I tripped over a lump beneath the snow, pitching forward. But before I could fall, strong hands grasped me from behind.
“Och, lass!” Fergus set me on my feet, and then let go of my arms. “Only the good Lord knows why ye had to come on a blasted mission for berries. But at least refrain from injurin’ yerself in the process, eh?”
My giant friend wasn’t quite himself. Not that any of us were, but Fergus in particular bore the burden of failing to save his future king. No matter how many times I reassured him that there was nothing he could’ve done, he continued to blame himself. And it didn’t help that his wife, Fiona, and who knew how many others, were trapped outside of Doon because I had sent them there.
Before the Brig o’ Doon disintegrated, Fiona had been seen making it to safety in a group that included Eòran, Kenna, and my successor, Prince Duncan. At least if something happened to me, the heir to the throne would be safe, and perhaps, someday, find a way back.
Fergus and I continued down the path side by side, walking fast to keep up with Ewan’s quickly diminishing form. “I can see you didn’t forget your grumpy pills this morning,” I jabbed, trying to coax out the old Fergus, so full of joy that no circumstances could dim his light—the friend I so desperately needed. But so far, my banter had been rewarded with grumbling and sour glares, much like the way he looked at me now.
“Veronica,” he whispered, to ensure no one heard his use of my given name. “Why do ye keep insistin’ on endangering yerself by gatherin’ firewood, goin’ on supply runs, and any other menial task ye can latch onta? Yer the only hope we have left—”
I whipped my head around. “What hope am I, Fergus? I have no plan, no idea how to defeat the witch.” My voice rose above the wind, drawing the attention of the guards behind us. I didn’t care. “The least I can do is be useful. I have nothing! No ring, no crown, I—”
My throat closed as Jamie’s words from another world echoed in my head. “Yer crown is no’ what makes you a queen. And you are betrothed to me, even without a ring.”
That may be true, Jamie, but without you my crown means nothing.
I didn’t know how I was supposed to survive without him. The years following my father’s abandonment had shown me how to stand on my own. I’d learned independence the hard way. But