The reflection of the Queen: Exile

Chapter 35

 I'll never know how long we stared at each other, comparing our features to confirm again and again that they were the same. It was like gazing at my dark reflection, only this time she was in front of me, raising her face, defiant, with Scilla's heart still in her hand.

Lokih, upon seeing me, made an attempt to approach me, but Furya stopped him by raising a hand.

"Persephone."

He approached me, hesitantly, as if he wanted to analyze my reaction. I didn't even see myself capable of backing away, I stayed in place, alternating my gaze between the two of them. The Queen appeared less aged than she was, there were barely a couple of wrinkles on her pale features, so soft and delicate that made me think of an angel, something ironic considering the things that woman had done. I was surprised to discover something of those features in my own and Hecathe's, though she looked more like me... and the Dream Man.

This could not be happening.

That's what I told myself when one of Furya' s hands stroked my cheek with utterly desperate tenderness.

"I have searched for you for many years, my child. I can hardly believe I finally have you in front of me."

I remained silent when he turned to the rest of us and announced:

"Seventeen years we have spent hunting down the Insurrection, and at last we have regained what was taken from me so long ago."

She looked at me again, and in her metallic eyes I could see elation, triumph and something faintly resembling love, but that was... impossible.

"My daughter, the third witch, and rightful heir to the throne of Ethryant, Princess Persephone Rosaline Lovescar has returned!"

The applause that filled the throne room was much louder than it had been after the execution of the woman whose body still lay before me. I heard them as if they came from a place far away, I could not think of it when the Queen, Queen Furya, the conquering witch and tyrannical Ethryn, threw her arms around me and pulled me close to her.

As soon as it did, it was as if something twisted inside me, something that had nothing to do with magic, and, when it was over, I found that something had clicked into place, a piece in a puzzle so huge and overwhelming that I staggered to get away from it.

Behind her, Hecathe stood motionless. She had already thrown the heart to the ground, and was watching me with such an inscrutable expression that I felt like shrinking back in terror.

"No, it's not possible"

If it was, everything was going to change. Because it would mean that I was... that they were... it was just impossible.

"It is, my daughter. I am your mother."

"No, it is not true."

"I've been looking for you since Aursong kidnapped you seventeen years ago."

-It's a lie.

"Look at Hecathe, look at your twin."

Twin? Twin?!

"You are my daughter, you are her sister, and you are the Princess, Persephone."

"No..."

"I have fought all this time to bring you home to where you belong, and every second has been worth it. Now you are here, with your family, and no insurgent is ever going to threaten you again."

Furya' s voice, though completely firm, had a warm, motherly note. It was how Gracelie had spoken to Clariess all her life, how I had dreamed for as long as I could remember that someone would speak to me, it was the voice I had always given to the imaginary mother I had fantasized about for years of loneliness.