by Violet Grace
Then I feel the slightest change in energy. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I pivot to see Damius, propped up on his staff, his eyes rolled back in his head and the whites of his eyes showing. I can hear the mutterings of a spell I do not recognise.
Words like blades
Slice flesh and bone
Treasure in her soul
Be not her own …
Damius stretches his hand out in our direction. I brace myself, ready to ward against his spell, but then I see who his target is.
The colour drains from Jules’s face. Her eyes roll back in her head to reveal the whites of her eyes, mimicking Damius. She sits peacefully, as if in a trance. Her mouth moves, echoing Damius’s spell.
Incandescent light rises from Jules like vapour, condensing, forming a shimmering cloud.
Her life force. He’s taking her life force.
I summon the Art welled up within me and unleash it on Damius. But my blast ricochets off him. Damius chants the spell louder, more urgently.
I try again but I’m panicking and my blast isn’t strong enough to penetrate his defences.
Jules’s life force draws closer to him, caught up in a forcefield it cannot escape. Her body crumples to the ground. I’m losing her. Tom is yelling, telling me to dig deep, Abby is begging, sobbing, promising.
I steady my mind, commanding myself to be calm. Gladys’s words come back to me.
All that you seek is already within you.
I still myself, hone my attention. I recall everything Damius took from me, from my family, from Callie and her family. I recall all the people he has hurt. I channel my anger into power, crafting it into a sharp crystalline point.
Then I unleash it with a silent, focused fury.
Damius’s chanting falters, as though he’s lost his words. His face turns ashen and his eyes return, a confused, terrified look overcoming him. His shoulders slump, his chest sinks slowly and a deathly howl spews out of his mouth and echoes around the grounds. Finally, his whole body convulses, then shatters into dust.
Released from her father’s control, Jules’s life force wafts hesitantly on the breeze. With gentle words of reassurance, Tom guides it back into her body. I bend down to my cousin. She takes a sharp breath in, and her eyes blink open.
I embrace her. And after a few moments, I feel her hug me back.
Abby looks at us, relief etched on her face. For a moment I think she’s going to say thank you, but she just reaches past me and hugs Tom, enclosing Jules and me in a tangle of arms and emotion.
I hurry through the grounds of Windsor, which have now been restored to their former grandeur. The battle with Damius is becoming a distant memory. For some.
The female unicorns patrolling the grounds alongside the Protectorate guards are unlikely to forget it anytime soon. That battle marked their first day of freedom.
One of my mother’s first royal decrees after her coronation was to rescind the scaevus laws in Albion and grant asylum to any scaevus girl or woman who didn’t want to return to Serenissima or other Fae territory.
Some people still view the scaevus with fear and dread. Others with discomfort. But the objectors were shocked into silence after my mother officially pronounced Jules second in line to the throne, after me. Bartholomew Corbett, who was reassigned from the role of Chancellor to that of Master of Ceremonies, put his flair for pageantry and public relations to good use and convinced Jules to attend the naming ceremony in her unicorn form. If anyone is stupid enough to challenge my mother’s scaevus ruling, they now know they’ll have to deal with two mongrel princesses with unlimited power.
With the threat of Damius gone and the old guard in the Order sidelined, my mother and I have prioritised the rebuilding of Trinovantum. After so many years of neglect, there is much to do and the restoration is taking time despite our access to magic. But day by day the lives of our people are improving.
I am told the Grigio court is a shadow of its former self since Victor’s death and the restoration of the mermaid’s song. Queen Eleonora passed away soon after we left Serenissima, which left Salvatore to run House Grigio. And he seems to have little interest in challenging the authority of Queen Rena and her mermaid sisters. I haven’t spoken to the mermaids since I left Sernissima, but I sense the bond we forged is strong, should we ever need each other again.
Madeline hasn’t been seen or heard of since the battle. She may have perished, or she may have escaped. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s still out there, licking her wounds.
Agent Eight is another one of the disappeared. The last we saw her was at the boatshed in Venice when she learned the truth about her daughter. Jules has asked me to find her, but every enquiry so far has led to a dead end. It’s as if Felicity Tunbridge never existed. Her name has been struck from every file in the Agency database. Jules has wondered if she’s dead.
Me? I’m not so sure.
After spending my whole life dreaming about being reunited with my parents, I’m now looking forward to moving out of Windsor to be with Tom. Don’t get me wrong – I love them and everything, it’s just, well… I’m eighteen now, and let’s just say that Tom and I like our alone time. And our official residence is going to be Kensington – as in, the palace. I couldn’t pass that up.
When I’m with Tom I don’t have to be Princess Francesca. I’m just Chess. Being heir to the throne is an honour and a duty I take seriously, but I’m not needed on a daily basis at the moment and that’s just the way I like it.
Callie and Brina have also decided to relocate to our new digs, but Jules and Abby will stay in Windsor to help with official duties, Abby as an apothecary and Jules as an adviser to the Queen. Not that Mum needs much help. Samuel is her partner in every sense of the word, and together they make a formidable team.
Pushing open the heavy wooden door to the Temple, I let my eyes adjust to the blood-red gloom. Today marks the two-year anniversary of Gladys’s death.
I walk over to the Chandelier of Light and look up at the brightest diamond. I remember the woman who gave her life for mine, and promise to honour her sacrifice. I will always find the courage to live my true purpose.
acknowledgements