“So he held his daughter hostage in exchange for a flower and tea flavoring.” Her brow furrowed, and her lips pressed together, and I realized this was the first time I’d seen the Queen worried.

5

Aural

The wood floor felt cold and hard against my back, and a stiff satin pillow was beneath my head. Tove Kroner crouched beside me, carefully laying a damp washcloth across my forehead. His dark hair fell into his eyes, and he brushed it back while glancing up at his sister as she circled us.

Both Tove and Sunniva had said that this would go smoother without unnecessary auras, so Wendy and Finn had left us alone, rather reluctantly on Finn’s part. We’d had a brief introduction—Sunniva didn’t look much like Tove (she was a small bird of a girl with wide dark eyes and her hair pulled back into a tight braid, he a tall willow with wild hair silvering at the temples and eyes of mossy green), but they were nearly identical in mannerisms.

Their eyes were always darting around, and they took quick, faltering steps, as if they were always changing their minds about where to go. But they stood tall, shoulders back and heads held high, so they came across as confident but distracted, giving them a strange air of being lost and arrogant.

“Are you ready?” Tove asked, but he kept glancing back and forth between me and his sister, so I wasn’t sure who he was asking.

“I think so,” I said uncertainly.

Sunniva didn’t answer, and instead, she grabbed a nearby end table. It was a circle of green marble, supported by bronze legs shaped like twisting ivy, and she pushed it toward me, unmindful of the legs scraping against the parquet floor.

I craned my head up, watching as she stopped at my feet. She climbed up onto the table, her bare feet on the emerald stone, and looked down at me.

“Her halo is so dark,” she said, and exhaled roughly through her teeth. “Like there’s a storm just above her head.”

Outside, thunder clapped, as if she had summoned it, and honestly, I couldn’t say for sure that she hadn’t.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“Usually, your aura is lemon yellow, clear and bright,” Tove answered carefully. “Right now it’s . . . it’s flickering between murky gray and dark orange, with a black cloud around your head and dark particles floating around you.”

“And that means I have my work cut out for me,” Sunniva simplified. “Lie back, stay still. You’ll feel better if you close your eyes. This shouldn’t hurt too much, but if it does, tell Tove.”

My mouth had gone dry, but I managed to say, “Okay.”

She pushed the sleeves of her mint-colored blouse up to her elbows, and when she held her hands toward me, her gold bangles clinked together.