“Mortals.” The Faerie King snorted. The crowd laughed.
“Mortals do not hold a monopoly on foolishness, Father.”
Startled silence flooded the ballroom.
Viola stood in the doorway. She was even more beautiful in the light than she had been in the dim heady air of the conservatory. Thegleam clung to her, dancing in her hair and over her skin, lingering in her eyes. The embroidery in her skirt climbed up to her bodice like silver vines in a sea of glimmering blue.
The Faerie King went as still as stone. He did not even breathe. His eyes were wide, unbelieving, and the aura of danger around him wilted.
Viola took in the other Faeries; her lip curled. “Really? I thought this kind of feast was a thing of the past. Have you regressed in your time among the mortals?”
“You died. I was there when your son buried you,” he said. It sounded as if he had swallowed glass. “The humans betrayed you, just as I told you they would.”
“That is true,” she said. The Faerie King swayed. “But, Father, why does it matter now?”
“Of course it matters!”
She waved her hand. “It mattered then, yes. If there was no justice, then perhaps it would still matter, but when my son took his place as heir, he had his uncles exposed as murderers and liars.”
“That did not bring you back. I would still have you with me if it weren’t for that horrid Dewhurst boy.”
“Nothing in this world can bring me back.”
He staggered forward. “You are here now.”
Viola floated through the room toward the throne. The onlookers parted as she passed, bowing low. The power of her magic pulsed, and golden vines sprouted from her, like those that once laced through the Hall.
The Faerie King went to meet his daughter. Mouse, forgotten, tumbled to the platform. Instantly, she darted off the throne pedestal, pulling John’s sword from its sheath as quickly as she could.
Viola and the Faerie King reached each other in the middle of the room. Viola held out her hand. Her father seized it and pressed it to his lips. Her smile was rueful as she pulled away.
“I have served my purpose here, Father. As have you. It is time to move on.”
“I do not understand. We’ve just found each other again,” the Faerie King said. He had shifted into someone between the Faerie King and Mr.Hobb, his voice aging while the rest of his features remained Faerie.
“You wish to take revenge on the mortals,” she said, cradling his hand in hers. “To what end? Most of them do not believe in us anymore. Why not leave it that way, and let the old magic die? It has run its course. Our time is over. All I want to do is rest. Isn’t that what you want too?”
“But you are my blossom,” the Faerie King said, and his voice was thick with tears.
Viola smiled.
“And I always will be,” she said.
Then, she clicked her fingers. A crack splintered through her, slicing her from head to toe, like a tree struck by lightning. The house groaned. Mouse remembered Viola’s words from the conservatory.
I am still the bones of the house. We are entwined together until the end.
The Faerie King caught Viola as another crack branched through her. Thistlemarsh broke in sync with Viola. Fractures ran down the walls. The foundations rumbled.
The Faerie princess was releasing the enchantment she’d created over the years, and she was bringing Thistlemarsh down around their heads in the process.
Someone screamed. Faeries on the edges of the crowd darted into the mirrors, out the doors, or up the chimney. The guards abandoned their posts, following the smoke in the hearth into the open air and, Mouse presumed, back into the Faerie realm.
The Faeries in the center of the room collapsed into animal form.A menagerie of exotic birds, predators, and prey tumbled over one another to escape the ballroom. The courtiers forgot Mouse, Thornwood, and his mother in the uproar. They seemed even to forget Viola and the Faerie King.
Mouse searched for Thornwood in the chaos and found him still bound in place. His mother, trapped in moth form, had pulled herself closer toward him, and now she was just within his reach.
As soon as the moth pressed itself into Thornwood’s fingers, there was a flash of blinding light. A white-haired woman materialized in the insect’s place. She was stunningly beautiful, despite her torn dress and the dust coating her hair and eyelashes.