69. Titania
I gasp awake in my bed chambers, disoriented and wrapped by wayward vines. The Weaving Hunt rouses nearby, an anchor for relief. I am alive. The tiara is off. The nightmare is over. Or is it? Panic claws at my mind. Is this another of Oberon’s sick, twisted games?
“Welcome back, Your Radiance.” Peablossom’s sweet face is revealed, hovering over me as she lowers her druidic hood. She recites the ritual words announcing the end of the Gentle Interlude. “Tell me what you have learned, my queen—three truths hidden behind a lie.”
My fractured mind scrambles to piece together my time with Oberon—the lie of which she speaks. But to cement myself in reality, I must separate what is real from figment. I must find three truths within the lie.
“Puck has turned against me,” I rasp.
“Yes.” She rips vines from my body, freeing me. “And the second?”
“The exhibition has a winner.”
She pauses. “And the third?”
“Willow must DIE.”