An uneasy peace had settled over the castle in the days that had passed since Lynet’s miraculous return. Numerous stories spread from the start about what had happened to Lynet. Mina heard a few of them—some said the princess had never been dead in the first place, and that the queen had lied in an attempt to chase her rival away; others said that Lynet had died, but that she had returned through some kind of magic, the same force that kept Sybil’s curse in place. Mina didn’t care what they said; only she and Lynet needed to know what had happened.
At first it had seemed like nothing had really changed. When Mina placed her hand over her heart, she still felt nothing. She was still a queen on the brink of losing her crown. And yet—
And yet nothing was the same. For the first time, Mina felt like she could take a full breath. She sometimes wondered if she should feel horrified or guilty that she had killed her own father, but mostly she just felt a profound sense of relief. The ever-present sense of dread that twisted her stomach was suddenly gone, and Mina hadn’t even been aware of it, not until the moment she knew her father was dead.
But who was she now? Without the bitterness that seeped out of her heart, the certainty that no one could ever love her, who would she become? She didn’t understand who she was now that she wasn’t unlovable.
She wasn’t a queen anymore; she knew that much. And rather than cling to a crown she wasn’t even sure she still wanted, she had decided to pass it on to Lynet as soon as she could. Mina had kept the crown from her long enough.
When Lynet appeared in the doorway of the throne room, her hair pinned up, wearing a light blue dress trimmed in white fur—the colors of Whitespring—Mina knew she had made the right decision. Lynet was already a queen. She would save Whitespring just as she had saved her stepmother, never questioning the worthiness of those she helped.
To the people of Whitespring, Lynet must have seemed as self-assured as any queen. She walked down the length of the throne room, the crowd forming an aisle between them, without a single faltering step. She kept her head high, her gaze only on Mina as she moved toward her. But Mina knew her stepdaughter, and she could see from the way she was taking shallow, uneven breaths that Lynet was nervous. Both of them had dreaded this day for so long, both fearing what they would become—what they would lose—when the crown passed from one to the other. Mina gave Lynet the slightest nod, and she saw Lynet slowly exhale the breath she’d been holding.
And at that moment, Mina made a decision. She couldn’t ever allow herself to hurt Lynet again, and Lynet should have more important things to worry about than the emotional state of her traitorous stepmother. It would be easier for them both if Mina followed her mother’s example and simply disappeared.
I can go south, she thought as Lynet came to kneel in front of her. Mina still had her mother’s letter, the paper already smudged with her dirty fingerprints and worn even thinner from Mina’s constant folding and unfolding. At first she had been so stunned by those last lines, that profession of love, but lately Mina’s eyes had kept falling to a different line: I won’t look for you, in case you don’t want me, but I’ll always be waiting, in case you ever find your way to me again.
Dorothea had kept her promise, if she was still alive. She would have known that her daughter had become queen, surely, and yet she had never tried to find her, to take advantage of Mina’s position. She didn’t even know that Mina had never seen the letter until now. Perhaps she still thought that Mina hated her. And part of Mina did still resent Dorothea for abandoning her, but that resentment offered Mina less comfort than the idea of knowing the mother who had loved her, even if her love had been imperfect. I could try to retrace her steps. I could find her.
Mina said the words that would make Lynet queen, thinking it amusing that she was upholding the spirit of Sybil when she was the one who had taken down Sybil’s statue. She remembered the words from her own coronation—I charge you with the care and keeping of this kingdom, to rule in the memory of those who came before you—and she wondered for one terrible moment how different her life might have been if she had never become queen or never left the South. Who might she have become if her mother had never left, or if her father had been a loving man? The thought made her newly healed heart want to break, but then she remembered that she would never have known Lynet. And she had done some good for the South, at least, during her reign. It hadn’t all been for nothing.
She placed the crown on Lynet’s head, and when Lynet stood, Mina was no longer a queen.
*
While the nobles went forth one by one to promise their service to their new queen, Mina slipped out the back door behind the thrones and found Felix waiting outside in the empty hall. He opened his arms to her at once, and Mina threw herself into them, grateful she didn’t have to explain her feelings to him now—her pride at seeing Lynet become queen or the gaping sense of loss she couldn’t ignore. “I’m going to return south,” she said into his shoulder. “I’m going to try to find my mother.”
He stroked her hair and said, “We’ll go whenever you say the word.”
He would come with her, of course—neither one of them had assumed any differently. That was one small change, at least—she used to believe that she would be completely alone if she lost her crown. Now she knew she never would be.
When she returned to the throne room, the procession was nearly over, and finally the crowd started to filter out of the room. Lynet was to remain on her throne, as was customary, until the last person was gone.
But Mina was the last person in the room, and so Lynet let out a long sigh as soon as they were alone. She was happy, though—Mina could tell from the way her eyes shone.
“Queen Lynet,” Mina said softly as she approached the throne. “Your father would be proud.”
“I hope he is,” Lynet said, taking the crown from her head and turning it over in her hands. “Even though I’m not quite what he asked for.”
Nicholas was a fool, and you’re more than anyone could ask for, Mina thought, but instead she said, “I have something to tell you.”
Lynet looked up in concern. “What is it?”
“I’ve decided to leave Whitespring. It’ll be better this way.”
Lynet stood from the throne, her forehead furrowed. “Where will you go?”
“Home,” Mina said, “to the village where I grew up. I thought … I thought I might be able to find out where my mother went when she ran away.” She didn’t say, I don’t have anywhere else to go.
“I’ve decided something too,” Lynet said. She placed the crown carefully on the seat of her throne and stepped down from the dais so she was level with Mina. “I was going to wait to announce it at the banquet tonight, but perhaps I should tell you now.”