It Isn't Easy Being Queen

30. The Almost Zombie

The trees had shown me so much, I had to use this new information wisely.

Apparently, I had a ... sister? Cauldron mate? Twin? I gulped. This was hard to wrap my head around being an only child for almost sixteen years. So many times, I'd longed for a sibling. Someone as strange looking as I was. A built-in friend. Someone to blame when I did something wrong.

Just kidding!

Maybe?

And if I'm being honest, at some level I've always felt like a part of me was missing from my life. Maybe it was the suppressed magic. Or maybe it was my cauldron-mate, as she shall henceforth be known. (This is what fairy tale life does to you! You end up speaking like a medieval minstrel.)

Minstrel-voice begone!

Argh!

Who could she be? Did she still live at Brittlebane? Did I know her? The baby I saw had blonde hair, but hair does change colors when people get older. And there were countless denizens of the castle with blonde hair.

Most notably ...

... Tyra!

Please, no! My heart pounded. She would be the worst sister ever. A twin who didn't even have the decency to be strange looking. But Tyra had magic, so it couldn't be her, right? Plus, she was a full fairy with the wings and the porcelain skin and the bad attitude, not a witch.

Cal was there that night. Maybe he could tell me.

Cal!

An annoying, book-thieving cat who I now knew was also a minion!

A minion who kidnapped me as a newborn infant and flew me to Coffin Ridge.

A cat who I told everything!

All my innermost secrets.

For years!

I hoped, nay prayed, (stop it minstrel voice!!!) that he couldn't understand me when he was in cat form, because otherwise I was pretty sure I'd die from mortification. He knew the other kids ostracized me. About the crush I had on Miles. How often I complained about my dads. My deepest hacking secrets. Even when I got my period! My face heated.

Calm down, Rowen. You can't unsay what you said. Unshare what you shared. Maybe he didn't understand because he was a cat at the time.

If he understood, I had to end him. No one got to know my innermost secrets and survive!

Wow, I sounded super evil queenlike. Luckily, Vermeil couldn't hear my thoughts. But in my defense, I was in shock, recovering from Post-Holographic Movie Syndrome, and barely avoided turning into a putrid-smelling, flesh-decomposing, brain-starved zombie.

And come on! Cal stole my book from the attic! When I found him, he would have to tell me what he did with it and why he took it from me. I would use all methods of (torture) persuasion. Sadly, since during the magical "movie," I was inside Cal in his human form, I did not know what he looked like other than he had beautiful hands.

Okay, I know you think I ought to be thankful to Calvin for saving me from a life with Petronella, giving me a loving family, watching over me like my personal cat-shaped guardian angel. But look where I ended up. With my powers suppressed for my whole life. Being blackmailed by an evil queen. Having dads who lied to me and got themselves turned into toads. Being chased by giant spiders, nearly swallowed by a sea serpent, taking stupid Evil Queen lessons for a job I don't even want. And now, lying in a muddy grove of gossiping trees in the middle of the Forbidden Forest (complaining about) contemplating my life choices.