She then brought the horn down, embedding it where he had done the same in Melisse.

However, she did not miss his trachea.

His eyes grew ever wider as they filled with pain, and behind the gag he screamed with the last of the breath he had in what was left of his throat.

She took no joy from that.

Or comfort.

Ophelia simply stepped away and stood with her sisters as he whimpered behind his gag for several moment before his body started to disintegrate.

When it did, it did with coral particles starting from where the horn stuck from his chest.

Up they drifted.

Up.

More of them.

More.

Until all of him was naught but sparkling dust.

It spread high above and was absorbed by the magical shield that protected Nadirii land.

There was nothing left of him. No soul to raise or lower.

His essence would forever protect the Nadirii.

Until it was unneeded.

Then it would just…

Cease.

Ophelia looked to the unicorns.

“It is done,” she whispered.

The mare dipped her jaw.

Then the stallion whinnied.

And they both turned and galloped away.

85

The Family Inside A Family

Princess Elena

Hall Outside the Bramble Reception Suite, Birchlire Castle, Notting Thicket

WODELL

I was lost.

I’d heard from a castle servant the men had returned from Crittich Keep.

But I was avoiding Farah, Ha-Lah and Silence who were talking with my sister about all she’d been doing since Firenze (I did this because I regularly avoided my sister—it wasn’t that I didn’t want to know, it was that I knew they’d tell me later) and I was trying to find my way back to Cassius and my room.

But this bloody castle was humongous.

So, I was lost.

I was moving down the hall toward yet another set of stairs that led up to yet another turret when I noted movement to my right and looked that way.

I then stopped, for Silence was standing at the opposite end of a large room that was filled with tables that were still set elaborately for a royal dinner that had never been consumed.

And it appeared she was standing before a miniature version (but still necessarily large) of the very castle we were both in.

“Allo,” I called as I walked into the room.

She started and turned to me.

She also gave me a small smile that she did not mean.

There would not be many smiles for a very long time and not only because of what happened that day at the wedding.

Much more had happened, it was just that what happened locally took precedence.

For now.

I wended my way through the tables to her, stopped when I arrived and asked, “Are you well?”

“I’m just…” she gestured weakly to the miniature. “It’s a miracle. This cake.”

I turned to the structure and stared at it in shock, realizing from close it was a cake.