He sniffled and shielded his eyes with his hand. I had no idea what to do. I stayed frozen in place, watching Garrett as he struggled not to cry.

“I’m sorry.” He wiped his eyes and shook his head. “You don’t need to deal with me being like this.”

“No, it’s okay,” I said. I took a step closer to him, but I didn’t know what to do, so I didn’t move forward any further. I twisted my wedding ring and tried to think of something comforting to say. “I know how much you cared for my mother.”

“I did.” He nodded and sniffled again, but he seemed to have stopped crying. “I realy did care about her. Elora was a very complicated woman, but she was a good woman. She knew she had to be Queen first, and everything else came after.”

“She told me she regretted that,” I said quietly. “She said she wished she’d made different choices and put the people she cared about first.”

“She meant you.” Garrett smiled at me, and it was both sorrowful and loving. “She loved you so much, Wendy. Not a day went by that she didn’t think about you or talk about you. Before you came back, when you were stil a child, she’d sit in her parlor and paint you. She’d focus al her energy on you, just so she could see you.”

“She used to paint me?” I asked, surprised.

“You didn’t know?” Garrett asked.

“No,” I shook my head. “She never mentioned it.”

“Come on. I’l show you.”

Garrett headed down the hal, and I went with him. I’d seen the room where Elora kept her precognitive paintings locked away in the North Wing, and I thought about teling Garrett that. But I hadn’t seen any paintings of me as a child. She’d only had a few of me as a teenager.

He led me al the way down the hal. At the very end, across the hal from my old bedroom, Garrett pushed on a wal. I didn’t understand what he was doing, and then the wal popped out. It was a door built to blend in seamlessly with the wals.

“I didn’t know that was there,” I said in dismay.

“Once you’re Queen, I’l show you al the secrets of the palace.” Garrett held the door open for me. “And believe me, there are quite a few.”

I stepped through the door to find a smal room that’s only purpose was to house a narrow spiral staircase. I glanced back at Garrett, but he gestured for me to go ahead. He stayed a step behind me as I went up the creaking iron stairs.

Before we even reached the top, I could see the paintings.