29. Bella

Ilooked out across the growing crowd, and a lump of pain and regret stuck in my throat as I thought about the one person in the many who would never awaken. The one I had killed in my rage and attempt to make a point. The pieces of a king and queen who would never see their son in love or their kingdom restored.

Because they lay in broken pieces on dirty thrones long since unused.

Billy broke through the crowd and ran until his arms wrapped around me, and his toothy grin was slightly less gaping as I realized somewhere along the way his adult tooth had begun to grow in. Change had been happening under our noses this whole time. ”I knew you”d be the one to break it!” he exclaimed, squeezing me hard.

Alastair followed close behind as he affectionately ruffled the boy”s hair and kissed Alysha firmly. She leaned into him and sighed, her arms wrapping around his neck.

”Eww!” Billy groaned, pretending to gag.

Alysha only clutched tighter at the man who had stuck with her for centuries before she tore herself from his lips and winked at me. “Now, that’s a good pounce,” she said breathlessly.

“I thought you said bounce,” I teased as Lore began to pull me toward the gathering crowd.

“No, that comes later.” She giggled as Alastair smirked and pulled her tight to his side. Lore did the same to me as the crowd grew.

“My people, I know not what you remember in your time during the curse,” he called out to the crowd, his voice loud and commanding as it carried across the courtyard.

“We remember everything,” a voice called from the back.

Lore watched them, haunted, as if he”d been tormented by them—and he had, but in a different way. I squeezed his hand in comfort, and he squeezed back.

I”m here for you, I whispered in the recesses of my mind. A soft smile played at the corners of Lore”s lips, and I thought for a moment he had heard me.

Nods and grunts of agreement filtered through the crowded space. My heart plummeted for them. So much time locked in stillness, and aware of it the whole time. It was unthinkable. I searched the crowd, seeing them. Some were still half aware, as if trying to reconcile their new reality; others were sobbing in the back, either from the torture they had endured or from joy. This kingdom was in tatters; its people were as broken as the king and queen who had once ruled them.

Allora, who had been distant and quiet until this moment, walked up to stand beside me, taking my hand in hers. ”My children. I understand the pain you”ve endured because of my sister, Nyx. While I cannot change what has been done or the past, I give you peace as a present to you for my daughter. You will remember your time as if it was a distant dream and no more.” As if she, too, spoke in my mind, I heard her whisper, ”Or you shall all surely go mad.”

I met her sunshine gaze, and she nodded to confirm I”d caught her thoughts. She said in my head, Phoenixes have special abilities you will learn to harness one day, daughter. One of those abilities is projecting thoughts and reading them from those you connect with. It will serve you well as the queen.

A figure dressed in tattered clothes stormed through the courtyard in a fury. ”The king and queen are dead!” the man cried. The crowd was lost to fear and pain because I remembered Lore telling me his family was very much loved in this kingdom.

As suddenly as the crying began, they all turned to Lore and bowed, getting to their knees in the dirt before chanting, ”Long live the king, King Lore.”

Lore swallowed as I watched him. Even all these years away from court, it was as if he pulled on the persona of royalty with effortless ease while I stood there naked but with a cloak and newly risen from the dead. He kissed my hand and lifted it to the crowd. ”This woman saved us all. She is to be my wife. Long live your queen, Queen Isabella.”

The crowd dropped to their knees again and repeated the phrase, this time with gratitude and love shining from their eyes as the memory of their torture slipped from their minds. The castle was once again awake, alive, and ready for what time had in store for them.

I turned to Lore, lifting an eyebrow. ”Who said anything about marriage or being queen?” I demanded as Lore gave me a sheepish smile.

”You love me?” he asked slyly with a seductive smile stretching across his lips.

”Yes,” I said with deliberate slowness, wondering why he would ask me that question.

He dropped to his knees in front of me—in front of his kingdom, my mother, our friends, and our family—and looked up at me, his bright blue eyes flashing crimson for a moment. ”Isabella Val” Draco, daughter of Roderick and Allora, is my heart, my soul, and my reason for living. Will you marry me?”

Cheers erupted in the courtyard as I stared into the face I”d planned to kill, only to fall madly in love with, and nodded.

Finally, we both got our happily ever after—or, as Alysha would say, a pounce and a bounce.