A Passion for Potions (Petalfall #1)

75. Seventy-Five - Virtues

Seventy-Five - Virtues

Edric

It feels as though Ana has been in her private audience with the Queen for hours, but as I pace, I know it can’t have been that long. The moon hasn’t moved in the sky.

Kaelen leans on a column, watching Viggo and Kirra, amusement on her face. “If they would stop arguing, they might have been able to eavesdrop.”

“Would the Queen have let them?”

Kaelen shrugs. “We’ll never know now.”

The argument is cyclical. They keep coming back to Kirra’s belief that separating us now is the kinder cruelty.

Viggo mutters something and goes to the window, arms crossed as he glares out at the city.

It’s my turn to tell her what she should already know.

“What do you think you’re saving us from?”

“She’s going to die, Penny.”

“We know. We’re all going to die.”

“In fifty years? That’s the blink of an eye. She will be gone just when you’ve begun to know her.”

“We would rather have those fifty years, if that’s all the Goddess will give us. Fifty years of smiles and laughter, fifty years of learning who the three of us are, together. That is what you are trying to take from us.”

She wipes away the beginning of one dark tear.

“I have seen what losing a human you love does to an elf. Aprica has not been the same. I don’t want that for either of you.” Glancing at her brother’s turned back, she says. “That kind of heartbreak would kill him and I won’t lose him like that.

Kirra looks at me with a sadness that tells me she knows she’s going to lose her brother either way.

She straightens, composing herself. “They’re letting in the masses. It’s almost time.”

Viggo reaches my side a moment before the doors on three sides of the room open. A wave of sound precedes the Queen’s court as they filter in.

I recognize a handful of them. I would rather avoid half of those.

Standing with Kaelen and Kirra, none of them dare to approach us. They whisper and send curious glances our way instead.

But the doors to the Queen’s private rooms open and a hush settles over the room... until they see Ana with her.

All manner of creatures fill the throne room, but humans are a rarity.

Kaelen leaves us first, joining the Queen when she beckons.

Kirra goes shortly after, when the Queen’s other companions arrive.

But Viggo’s attention is solely on Ana, the Queen, and Kaelen. His eyes narrow when Aprica leans to her guard to whisper.

“She just asked Kaelen to get Ana’s mother,” Viggo says, softly.

“Why would she want Staci here?”

“I have no idea.”

A murmur flutters through the assembly as Aprica takes Ana’s hand, leading her forward and on to the Dais.

Viggo shifts uneasily, but Ana smiles down at us, giving me hope.

The Queen doesn’t sit. She doesn’t release Ana’s hand. She doesn’t stop smiling.

We’re close enough now, I can hear Aprica on my own when she says, “We won’t keep them worried for too long, I promise.”

Then, she turns to her court and says, “I would introduce Anastacia Eventide to you all.”

There is a murmur throughout the room.

Older members of the court hurriedly whisper to others.

I glance at Viggo. What do they know that we don’t?