the war had drenched the world in darkness and chaos. He wanted to protect me from the humans. He knew that The Coven would be stepping aside from their lives once the war ended, so he wanted to get me out before I got hurt. Margaret was one of my best friends. Her parents were witches but she was born without magic. So we all agreed for her to become official queen…I let him marry her. There was a whole plan that obviously never came to pass because you and I got lost in the Old Lands.”
My eyes watered. I felt my mother’s pain and it was too much. “What about Grandmother and Grandfather? Were they with us?”
Granny cleared her throat. “I am not actually your grandmother, my dear. In fact, I am your niece many times removed.”
I choked on a gasp. “But…Mom was named after you?”
She smiled brightly. “No, my love, I was named after your mother.”
“When we left, I was Queen of England, but when we came back out nearly six hundred years later, I discovered your father and The Coven had erased our entire existence from history books. Only The Coven and select members of the Lancaster family knew the truth.”
“Heads of the family knew, because we knew one day you two would return,” Granny said softly. Her eyes were sharp. “You see, we even had the portraits of you two from the palace, so when I was born my parents thought I looked like a young Millie Anne…so they named me after her. Decades later she arrived on my doorstep here, still wearing her crown.”
I shivered and my fingers started to tremble. “I am freaking out right now.”
Granny slid close enough to reach out and take my hand. “It was too much to unload on you. So I became your grandmother, and I have been ever since.”
I held her hand and my eyes watered. “You’ll always be.”
“Chloe, princess,” Mum squeezed my hand. When I looked to her, she pointed to the far wall with the paintings on it. “You know that third painting over there?”
I nodded. “The one you hate.”
I glanced over at it again, and it moved within the frame even from this distance. The people were thick in battle and I hadn’t wanted to see it. Dust and dirt kicked up in the air. Blood splashed in arches. Swords and silver body armor glistened in a hazy sunlight.
“What about it?”
“Do you see anything you recognize?” her voice was soft.
I groaned and returned my focus to the painting that I’d seen a million times over the last eighteen years. It was just a bunch of men in armor fighting in a war. In the upper left corner there was a blonde woman in a glorious gown and magnificent crown. Beside her was a little blonde girl in pigtail braids and big blue eyes. She wore a tiara and held a single red rose in her hand. I’d always liked that part of the —
“OH MY GOD.” My eyes watered. “That’s US. Isn’t it? Isn’t it?”
Mum nodded. “That’s why I don’t like the painting, dear. Every time I look at it it’s like I’ve lost my life all over again. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had a good life since we got here…but all I see in that painting is your father, front and center where we should have been.”
Tears spilled over my eyelashes and onto my cheeks.
“What else do you see?”
I shook my head and threw my hands up. “I don’t know. I see Dad. God, how’d I miss that all this time?”
“Because there was no reason for you to think it was him. It’s amazing what the mind will do. But that’s not what I’m asking. There’s another person you should recognize now…”
I scanned the painting again. It was a tad difficult since they kept moving and fighting. I searched each of the faces, but none of them meant a thing. But then the one right beside my father turned and I knew his face in an instant. His hair fell down to his elbows and his eyes were more yellow, but I knew him all the same.
Malachi.
I turned to my soulmate, who’d been very, very quiet, and found him staring at the carpet.
He peeked up at me, his eyes dark. “That was right before I died. That painting is like a snapshot in time. That moment really happened. The man beside me is my brother Riah. And the one beside him is Edward