“With the guys in the skirts?” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“We’re skipping that part,” Rhys said darkly as he gazed across the lake.
“But that didn’t work for the Spartans. Did it? They all—” I stopped.
“What?” John looked at me. “What happened to these Spartan warriors?”
“They all died,” I said quietly.
“Yeah, well, that’s why we’re playing the other guys.”
…
I sat on the banks of Dramera Lake watching the sun sink over the horizon that evening. I’d spent the entire day holed up with my generals trying to plan for a battle that could very likely be the slaughter of my entire army if we failed. Now all I wanted to do was be by myself so that I could quietly fall apart for the next few minutes. I was alone except for the young woodsman who was standing guard—well, more sitting, actually—a few feet behind me, staring at the water as it lapped along the shore. I glanced over at my guard, and he immediately looked up from the stick he was sharpening with his knife. I smiled at him, my mind cluttered with dozens of thoughts and ideas and plans, and he smiled back before turning again to his stick, like this was any other afternoon.
I turned my back a little so he couldn’t see my face and looked down at the new pair of hunting pants that one of the black dragons had found me this morning—too long, and more than a little baggy, but definitely cleaner than the ones I’d been wearing for the past two days. I reached into my pocket and carefully pulled out the mirror shard that Timbago had given me in my dream. “Show me the former queen,” I whispered as I brushed my hand over the glass.
Smoke filled the mirror, and when it cleared I was looking down at my mother, lying motionless in her hospital bed. Her eyes were closed, and she was sweating. Her hair was damp, and her face flushed. She jerked, her shoulders twitching, and as the mirror moved down the length of her body I could see her legs shifting, almost like she was trying to run in her sleep.
“What are you running from?” I asked. “What is it that you see? Who is it?”
Tears welled up in my eyes, and I scrubbed the palm of my free hand against my cheeks. I didn’t have time for this. My mother was too far gone; nothing I did could bring her back. She was trapped—alone—on the other side of the mirror, and I wasn’t sure I could protect her. I was a queen, leading an army, and I couldn’t even keep my own mother safe.
The dull sound of boots moving through the grass caught my attention, but I didn’t bother to turn around. Instead I stared at my mother and wished there were some way to make her wake up. I wanted her to be my mom again and tell me what to do.
“Allie?” Win touched my shoulder as he came over and sat beside me. “Are you okay? I mean, well, you know what I mean. Is there anything you need? Anything I can do?”
“No.” I shook my head and rubbed at my cheeks again before leaning my head against his shoulder. “No, I don’t need anything.”
“Are you sure?” He took my hand in his and squeezed. “I know you’re freaked out right now about what happened at the palace. We haven’t really talked about it, but I can’t imagine what it was like finding those bodies.”
I laced our fingers together and tried to ignore the way my hands were trembling. “Don’t imagine it. I don’t want you to ever know what that’s like.”
“If there were some way to make it better, you know I would.”
“I know.” I took a deep breath in and blew it out. “But you can’t—none of us can. They’re dead, and even in Nerissette they don’t have any kind of magic that can bring them back. All we can do now is finish this.”
I shoved the fragment of the mirror back into my pocket and turned to smile at him, even though I knew that the edges of my lips were quivering as I tried to keep my emotions in check.
“It’s okay if you’re scared.” Winston let go of my hand and wrapped me in his arms, pulling me into a reassuring hug. “I am, too.”
“I know you are, and I can never tell you how sorry I am about that. How sorry I am about a lot of things. I never wanted this to happen. If I had a choice…”
“I know.” He lowered his face so that his forehead tilted against mine.
A roar came from the east, and we turned toward the town square. Ardere and a phalanx of gold dragons launched themselves into the air and circled Dramera, standing—well, flying—guard.
I turned my back on them and stared out at the lake, trying to pretend that my spine was made out of steel instead of Jell-O. I was the Golden Rose of Nerissette. I was the leader, and I was the Fate Maker’s target. I was the one he wanted. He’d murdered so many people for a chance to get to me. He’d destroyed so many lives, and all I’d done was run and hide as he’d chased after me, bringing destruction along with him.
Well, I was done running from him. I was done running. Period. I’d run my entire life from people like Heidi and Dawn Thompson in second grade who’d called me Stinky Allie the Alley Cat. Now people were dead—Heidi and Jesse and Timbago and all the people who worked in the castle—and I was never going to run again. They deserved better from me than that.
I looked out over the lake and closed my eyes, willing Talia and the other twenty-three merpeople to appear. I wasn’t ready to admit that everyone was gone. I wasn’t ready to give up hope of seeing Talia again. Not yet. After everything else, I wasn’t ready to let them go that easily.
I wasn’t ready to lose anyone else. No matter what the reason was.
“Allie?” Winston’s voice was soft against my hair.
“I’m sorry.” I pulled out the fragment of the mirror and held it up for him to see. “I lied to you, and I’m sorry.”
“Is that what I think it is?” His voice was low and breathy, like someone had just sucker-punched him.
“I’m so sorry. So, so sorry.”
“You’ve had this the entire time? You had it and didn’t tell anyone? Why?”
I stared at the small sliver of glass. “I kept thinking, hoping, there had to be some way to use it to get home. If I could just find a way to get us, you, home, then it wouldn’t matter that I’d kept it. You wouldn’t care that I kept it secret if I could make it work in the end.”
“And did you? Find a way to use it?” he asked, his voice hopeful.
“No.” I shook my head. “I can see through it, but I can’t use it as a portal. I just…”
“You just…?” Winston asked.
“I wanted to be able to see my mom. I wanted to make sure she was safe.”
“I understand.”
My jaw dropped open at the completely calm way he’d said it, like it was no big deal that I’d kept something like this a secret from him. “What?”
“I would have kept it, too,” Winston said. “Even though it put everyone else at risk, I would have kept it. I wouldn’t have been able to give up the chance to at least make sure my parents were okay.”
“Wait, what? But I lied to you. I kept this a secret. And now, the Fate Maker could use it against us if we aren’t careful. Aren’t you even going to yell at me?”
“Allie.” He grabbed my shoulders and turned me out toward the lake before he pointed in the direction of my now-ruined palace. “I can fight you or I can fight the horde of scary monsters that the Fate Maker has in his army. Which would you like to spend your time on? Us or scary monsters?”
“Scary monsters.”
“Right.” Winston spun me back around so that we were eye to eye. “So what are we going to do about the shard?”
“What I should have done in the first place.” I dropped the fragment of glass and lifted my boot to step on it.
“Wait!” Winston grabbed my arm.