Foxglove

by Aaron McQueen

  Maddie leaned down into his face. “I was.”

  “I was hoping I might have earned a pardon,” he said, tugging at his bindings.

  Cold hatred rose up in Maddie’s throat. She spat and lowered herself to her knees. With one hand, she took hold of his hair and gripped it in her fist. He winced and squinted an eye shut as the darkness of the room closed in around them.

  “How could you possibly deserve anyone’s mercy?” Maddie said. “All of this is because of you.”

  He hung from her hand, twitching. “I know… I’m sorry. You told me… you told me I couldn’t fix it. I tried anyway.” His jaw spasmed, and he pulled in a breath. “How’d I do?”

  Maddie yanked his hair. “Rose is dead, Theresa is missing, and Maeve might never be the same. What do you think?” She dropped him and stood up.

  He shivered as he gave a rapid, unsteady nod. “It was the best I could do,” he said.

  Maddie grunted out a laugh. “Well, it wasn’t good enough.”

  The chill in her chest spread to her arms, coating her like a layer of ice. She wanted to pin the man to the floor and strangle him with her bare hands as a rising tide of malice froze in her throat.

  “Are you alright?” Rain asked, touching her shoulder.

  Maddie gasped and stepped back as Morrow pulled himself up to sit. His eyes studied her face, drifting to the black tendrils of her scar where they rose above her collar.

  He spoke haltingly as he pointed with a shuddering hand. “You can feel it…” he said. “Can’t you?”

  Maddie pulled her collar tight.

  He smiled, shaking as he relaxed back onto the floor. “It never goes away. Her will… It makes you do things. You don’t even realize until it’s too late.” He forced a weak smile. “Or almost too late.”

  Maddie took a deep breath. “You expect me to forgive you?” she asked. “You attacked me in the woods. You held me down while Gwynedd cut out my heart. You pretended to be my friend so that you could betray me and the city. Thousands of people are dead. One good turn can’t repay that.”

  He shrugged, curling into a ball against an unseen cold. “I had hoped. I didn’t mean…”

  “To violate me?” Maddie stared down at him. “You are a murderer and a coward. You deserve worse than death.”

  Morrow coughed as he gripped his shoulders and struggled to breathe. “You might have to settle for it,” he said, wincing.

  Maddie pulled her stone knife out of her robes. The blade caught the dim light from the hall.

  “Maddie…” Rain said, taking a step forward.

  “It’s alright. I won’t hurt him,” Maddie said, waving her off. “Wait outside.”

  Rain drew back tentatively and left. As the door shut, Maddie pulled the point of her knife across her hand. Blood welled up in her palm, a mixture of red and black.

  “You need Gwynedd’s humours to survive?” she asked, thrusting her arm forward. “Well, drink up. I’ll show you what it feels like to be held down.”

  Morrow’s tongue flashed across his lips, but he pulled back, recoiling with every ounce of his waning strength. Maddie stepped across the gap between them and grabbed his head. He shook it, powerless as Maddie held her clenched fist above his mouth, and the blood fell in a narrow stream. Morrow’s pupils dilated and his shaking stilled as it trickled down his throat.

  “Now,” Maddie said. “Tell me what you saw.”

  He recounted everything. When he was done, Maddie left the room and slammed the door.

  Rain looked at her in shock. “Maddie, what did you do?”

  Maddie stared down at her hand, wet with blood. She shuddered, sickened as she clutched her robes to stop the bleeding.

  “Nothing,” she said. “He’s fine now. Where’s Finn?”

  “With his mother,” Rain answered warily. “In what’s left of her private parlor. Finn hasn’t left the room in days, and we were hoping you…” She paused. “Well, because the two of you… you know. We thought you might be able to bring him out of it. His people need him. With Theresa gone, there’s no one else. Some of the ambassadors are still in the city, and Delilah is already playing politics.”

  Maddie gave her friend a skeptical look. “How come she isn’t locked up?”

  “It was a legal war,” Rain said. “Properly declared. She didn’t commit a crime.”

  Maddie checked her hand. The bleeding had stopped. “That is so stupid,” she said.

  Rain came around in front of her. “People are starting to talk. Rumors are spreading that Finn isn’t fit to lead. Cedric and I can hold things down for now, but pretty soon it’s not going to be enough. The shock will pass, and someone is going to have to start making decisions. If the prince doesn’t get involved… he’s going to lose his kingdom.”

  Heir

  The parlor was quiet when Maddie entered. The glowing fungus on the ceiling shed a warm light over the shadowed space. Rose lay in the middle of the room on a mound of soft, red pillows, her crown resting delicately on her head. Maddie couldn’t help but notice how peaceful her expression was. She might have mistaken the queen’s repose for sleep. It wasn’t until she drew closer that she noticed the telltale signs of death. Her chest was motionless, and her eyes were still beneath their lids. A black cloth covered the bruises around her neck.

  Finn sat beside her, head hung low, one hand holding his mother’s lifeless palm.

  “I don’t know what to say,” Maddie said as she sat down beside him.

  His shoulders tensed at the sound of her voice. A tear rolled down his cheek and fell on his soiled clothes. Maddie considered putting out a hand to touch him, but fear of his reaction kept her still. She couldn’t bring herself to tell him the awful truth about what happened. She pleaded with herself to try, but the words died on her tongue. No matter how desperately she wanted to bare her soul and beg for his forgiveness, the prince was on the point of breaking, and his people needed him intact. She needed him intact.

  “I tried to fight,” Maddie said. “I tried so hard.” She felt her own tears welling up and pulled the prince onto her shoulder.

  He put a hand to his face and rubbed his eyes. “I know,” he said with a sob.

  A long moment passed in silence.

  “Your power…” he said. “Can you use it? Can you bring her back?”

  Maddie tightened her arm around the prince and clenched her fist. “I… no,” she said. “I’m sorry. I don’t even know how I became the Foxglove or how to become it again. I don’t remember anything. But when I was… I think, if I could have helped her, I would have. Maybe it just… doesn’t work that way.”

  Finn’s shoulders sank as his last hope died. Maddie remembered what it was like when she lost her father. She felt the same the pain that he was going through, the loneliness and the certainty that nothing would ever be the same. It was true; it never would be. Even after everything that had happened and all the time that had gone by, she could still remember her father’s face, his smile, his voice… and his death. Thinking about it was like looking back on a bad dream. Finn had lost both his parents, and for all he knew, his only sibling as well.

  Rose had asked her to take care of him. It was the least she could do.

  She held him, cradling his head as she spoke softly into his ear. “You’re not alone.”

  He shuddered.

  “It’s going to be alright,” she said. “I’m here for you. I will always be here for you.”

  Finn collapsed with grief and wept into her robes. Maddie held on for as long as she could before she wept as well. It was a long moment before either of them spoke again.

  When she finally let him go, he sat up, taking in a slow, halting breath.

  “They’re waiting for me, aren’t they?” he asked.

  Maddie shook her head. “Not really waiting.”

  “Damn,” Finn said, wiping his eyes with a sigh. “Delilah?”

  “She’s already positioning herself.”

  She stood
up and took hold of Finn’s hand, lifting him to his feet. She could feel the tension in his palm and the pain he was holding back as he stared down at his mother.

  “I don’t know if I can face them,” he said. “I’m the younger brother. I worked and studied so hard, but I never counted on this. How can I replace my sister? My mother?”

  “You don’t have to,” Maddie said. “Just do your best. It’ll be enough.”

  The words had already left her mouth before she realized they were Rose’s, and Maddie clenched her teeth to stop herself crying again.

  Finn gave a forlorn laugh. “You really think so?” he said.

  Maddie poked him in the center of his forehead. “You’ve got the head for it. You might even be smarter than me.”

  “I can’t believe you said that,” he said.

  Maddie smirked. “Don’t worry, I was just trying to be nice.”

  Finn laughed, and Maddie felt her heart ease.

  “There,” she said. “That’s better.”

  Finn cast a final glance down at his mother. “I wonder what she would do if she were here.”

  Maddie pointed up at the ceiling. “That,” she said.

  Finn’s eyes rose to the carving that surrounded the light.

  “That’s her dream,” Maddie said. “She once told me that the last three children represent the city. They were her family, and they’re your responsibility now. You have to protect them. If you can’t think of anything else, aim for that.”

  “Including the kids?” he asked, smiling.

  Maddie shot him a stern look. “I should slap you. You’ve got a long way to go before you start thinking along those lines, your highness.”

  He straightened his clothes, glancing for a moment at her neck. “What happened to your scar?” he asked.

  Maddie looked down. “A parting gift from Gwynedd,” she answered. “We can talk about it later. Right now, you’ve got politics to attend to.”

  His eyes drifted to the door. “It will be easier if you go in with me,” he said. “I know how much you love state functions.”

  Maddie rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah. Can’t get enough.”

  “How do I look?”

  Maddie fixed his collar. “Like a king,” she said.

  He gave her a skeptical look. “You’re just being nice again, aren’t you?”

  “I am,” Maddie said, giving him a peck on the cheek as she opened the door. “But don’t worry. We’ll make it work.”

  Rosewood

  Maddie fingered the badge on her robes. Gold thread wove through the fabric in the shape of an amaranth flower. She was far from prepared to take over Maeve’s duties, but the imagery went a long way towards getting the ambassadors in line.

  Finn’s first act was to appoint her royal practitioner, hoping that her status as a supernatural being would keep Delilah’s ambitions in check. His crown depended on his ability to maintain a delicate diplomatic balance. There were a thousand problems to attend to, from bed space to food and water, not to mention the enormous task of getting settled in their new home.

  Maddie excused herself as the discussion moved on to practical matters, and she made her way from the royal apartment where the meeting was being held to the balcony in what was left of the throne room.

  The city had settled at the end of an enormous valley. The landscape swept away, scattered with patches of silver light where the moon and stars peeked through the brambles. A warm wind blew across the terrace, and Maddie shivered as it brushed against her skin.

  “Maddie,” a voice said, emerging in her thoughts.

  She looked around, but there was no one. “Maeve?” she answered.

  “It’s me,” her mistress said.

  “But how can I hear you?”

  “Some portion of the Allsight must still be with you. Search at your feet.”

  Maddie sifted through the rubble, and her eyes fell upon a glittering, rainbow-colored stone. It sparkled when she picked it up.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “All that remains of the gateway Gwynedd used you to open. Why you did not close it completely, I do not know.”

  Maddie held it up in front of her face. “What do I do with it?”

  “Keep it safe,” Maeve answered. “Tell no one of its existence. We do not yet know the power that it holds.”

  Maddie placed the stone in her pocket. “Will I always be able to talk to you like this?”

  “Perhaps,” her mistress said. “Perhaps not. You are the Foxglove, Madeline. Nothing can change that. Now that you have felt its power, your spirit longs to return to its true state. You must prepare yourself for when that time comes.”

  “Will you help me?”

  “I’ll do all that I can.”

  Maddie’s hand drifted to her collar. “I have Gwynedd’s heart. I can feel it doing… something, but I don’t know how to fight it.”

  Maddie felt Maeve’s concern, severe and grim. “Gwynedd’s essence is strong, and the spirit is malleable. In time, the feeling will pass, and you will no longer be unfamiliar with what you have become. Your second nature will become your only nature, the old replaced by the new.”

  “How do I remove it?”

  Her mistress’s thoughts were hard as stone. “It cannot be done,” she said. “I told you at the beginning: what we take in, we take in forever.”

  “Then what do I do?”

  “Be vigilant,” Maeve answered. “The change will come in ways you do not see, in the subtlest of impulses. You must deny your instincts and listen to the echoes of your true self. And trust your friends. Eventually, only they will be able to discern the difference.”

  A murmur of sensation drew Maddie’s eyes back out into the valley, and she felt movement in the dark.

  “You can feel them,” Maeve’s voice whispered beside her. “Creatures of the deep Veil. I think that there is more to this new land than can be seen with the naked eye.”

  Maddie stared, scanning the moonlight and the shadows. “Maeve…” she said. “As the Foxglove, why didn’t I kill Gwynedd?”

  “Only you would know that,” Maeve answered. “But the Foxglove is more than a being. It is life, and knowledge, and empathy beyond imagining. Even in the old world, it refused to slay the enemy it was created to destroy. Gwynedd was forced to remove its understanding in order to use it to kill. Perhaps, on its own, it is not capable of it.”

  “That’s comforting,” Maddie said.

  Someone called out from behind her. “There she is!”

  Leoh and the others jogged around the corner. Kidhe was on a crutch, and Rain was holding a sleepy Ebba by the hand.

  Maeve smiled inside Maddie’s head. “Go to your friends. The rest of your questions can wait until tomorrow. Tonight, it is enough to be alive.”

  Maeve was right. They had all suffered a terrible loss, but it was important to remember the things they still had: the people, the feelings, and the connections yet unbroken. Maddie felt warmed by her friends as they surrounded her, and deep in her chest, the brighter side of her heart beat assuredly and calm.

  She remembered a conversation she had with Rose. She said the Veil was a place of dreams. All she had to do was find her own. She thought about the stone in her pocket and wondered.

  In a place like the Veil, what impossible dreams might come?

  Author’s Note

  I hope you enjoyed reading Foxglove as much as I loved writing it. If you don’t mind me asking you for a favor, please consider leaving a review. I read them all, and each one goes a long way towards helping a book succeed.

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  Sincerely,

  Aaron McQueen

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