“And she’ll be okay?” I asked. “If we bring her through from the World That Is, she won’t be trapped in a coma, will she?”
“She’ll be alive and well. Just as you remember her. But if you bring her through, it’s not just the Fate Maker that will have to sacrifice. You’ll have to give up the one thing you’ve been fighting for since the day you arrived.”
“Fine.” I nodded. “Let’s do it. You help me bring my mother through the Bleak safely, and we’ll split him. I’ll trap his body in the World That Is, in my mother’s place, and you can have his soul.”
“So be it,” Kuolema said before pulling his head back into the doorway. “Take the Mirror of Nerissette in your left hand and the Dragon’s Tear in your right.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the Mirror shard, clutching it in my hand like he’d told me to.
“Now.” Kuolema’s voice came from the darkness. “Think about your mother. Focus entirely on her.”
I closed my eyes again and imagined my mother. The room she was in. The white walls. The single bed sitting in the middle of a gleaming floor. My mother tucked under white blankets, her dark hair fanned out on her pillow.
I heard a gasp and opened my eyes. There, where the doorway had been was my mother, shimmering in the air in front of me. She was so close that it looked like I could reach out and touch her.
“Oh, Pree,” John rasped. I felt my chest start to ache as I reached my hand out and my fingers disappeared through the shimmering air.
“Now what?” I asked.
“Well, now someone needs to go over and pick her up, of course.” Kuolema’s voice echoed around the throne room. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t seal them on the other side while they’re over there.”
“John?” I looked over at him.
He nodded at me, and I watched as he and Rhys both stepped forward. Rhys clapped his hand on my father’s shoulder and led him through the shimmering air. I watched as the two of them carefully unhooked my mother’s machines, moving quickly to shut them off so that the alarms wouldn’t blare, and then wrapped her tightly in her sheet.
“I’ve got her,” John said, his voice broken, as he slid his arms under Mom’s legs and shoulders and cradled her against his chest like a child.
The two men stepped through the space again and back into the throne room. My father knelt slowly, laying Mom gently on the stone floor.
“Step back from her,” I warned him. “Just in case.”
He looked up at me and nodded once before sliding to the side, away from the portal, and standing up near her feet.
“Mercedes?” I looked at my best friend. “This is your chance. Any of you who want to go back to The World That Is, this is the time.”
“I’m the last of my sisterhood,” Mercedes said, shaking her head. “This world needs me. I can’t leave it. Or any of you.”
“Jesse?” I asked.
“I’m staying.”
“Okay.” I nodded and then looked at Kuolema. “So now what?”
“Now your sacrifice takes her place,” Kuolema said.
“What?” The Fate Maker looked between us and shook his head. “No. It won’t work. They’ll know I’m not her.”
“Of course they will,” I said. “But to them, she won’t exist. It’s like you told me before. The mortal mind explains what it sees and forgets what doesn’t make sense. Especially when faced with the magic of other worlds. In their minds they’ll have always been treating Peter Smith or John Doe or whatever they decide to call you, the poor unfortunate victim of a hit-and-run. Ana Munroe will have never existed in their time. Just like the rest of us. They’ll forget all about her, and so will you. Now switch places so we can end this.”
“No.” The Fate Maker tried to back away, but the two guards holding him pushed him forward again.
“I’m not asking as nicely as your queen,” Kuolema said. I watched, horrified, as his head burst through the center of the bed where my mother had been lying the moment before. “I’ve come to collect the soul you owe me.”
The dragon opened its mouth, and the air around the two of them began to glow purple as the Fate Maker gave a silent scream. Black tendrils poured from the wizard’s mouth, and the dragon flicked its tongue down, sucking the darkness into his own gaping maw, his throat working as he swallowed down the Fate Maker’s soul.
The last of the darkness came out of the wizard’s mouth, and Kuolema’s jaw slammed closed with a thundering snap. The body of the Fate Maker slumped, unconscious, between the two guards, hanging limp as a marionette with its strings cut.
Rhys stepped around me to grab the Fate Maker’s shoulders as my father took his feet, and they hauled his body over my mother’s and into the hospital room beyond, laying him in the bed. Rhys and my father stepped back through the portal, and I watched as it faded away, the link between that World That Is and our own disappearing.
“It’s done,” Kuolema said as he slid back through the doorway. “I wish you goodwill, Your Majesty. May your reign be long and peaceful.”
“And may we never meet again,” I said.
“For the sake of your soul,” he agreed. “May I never be forced to hunt you or any you love.”
The door to the Bleak faded away, and I stood, staring down at my mother as the nobles in the room cowered back, watching us both.
As the last of the portal between the two worlds disappeared, my mother sucked in a breath, and I watched as her eyes fluttered open.
“Allie?” she asked, her voice rough.
“Hi, Mom.” I felt tears welling up in my eyes as I knelt down beside her and wrapped my arms around her, helping her sit up.
“Oh, Allie.” She smiled and pulled me close, her arms trembling with the effort.
“It’s okay, Mom. I promise it’s all going to be okay.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
Two nights later I found myself standing on the roof of the Palace of Night, staring out at the world below. Someone cleared a throat behind me, and I turned to find Winston leaning against a chimney.
“So.” He started toward me, his hands in the pockets of his black pants. “What do we do now?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’ve managed to save the kingdom, defeat the evil queen, almost double the size of your realm, and save your mother. All while getting rid of the wizard who was plotting against you for over a year now. So? You want to go to a movie or something?”
“I thought our first date was supposed to be the Winter Formal?”
“It was.” He chuckled. “Then you got us kidnapped, and we ended up here.” He reached over and pulled me closer, lifting one of my hands in his and wrapping his other arm around my waist, moving back and forth. “But if you want to dance, I guess we can.”
“You don’t mind?”
“Not if I get to do this.” He leaned down and brushed his lips against mine, still swaying to an imaginary beat.
“You can always do that.” I laid my head against his chest.
“Unless your father is around, of course.”
I laughed. “We’ll have to work something out, since he’s taking your job and all. He’s my dad, after all.”
Winston raised an eyebrow and then smiled at me.
My dad. Yeah, I liked the sound of that.
“Hmm. I heard about that.” Winston let go of my hand and wrapped both arms around my waist while I wove my fingers together at his nape. “Your mother is taking back the throne and demoting you to Crown Princess and Heir Apparent?”
“That was the sacrifice I had to make. Giving up the throne. Not that it’s really mine anyway. After all, she’s the true Golden Rose. The throne belongs to her.”