He was a beloved brother of the true Raven Queen and the newly named duke of Harcourt, too, as Cordelia had passed that title to him. The land itself had swallowed up their grandmother; no one else would ever dare try to imprison him again. For the first time in his life, her older brother could relax his guard.

Cordelia couldn’t open her mouth to say it, though.

Beside her, Giles took one swift look down at her tightly clenched face and then said, “Did I tell you three that I’ve thought up a new song? It’s going to be my best one ever, I’m certain.”

“Already?” Rosalind groaned. “I don’t know if I’m ready yet for another—”

“Oh, this one is far more epic than my last,” he said cheerfully. “You see, it’s all about the really itchy, grimy bits between my toes and how much they’ve been bothering me these last few days of travel. It’s a follow-up to my stomach song but far more tragic and impressive. Here, listen!”

He sucked in a loud, deep breath, then clasped his hands to his heart as he launched into a piercing falsetto that soared like a cat’s yowl through all the din:

My toes! My toes!

They smell nothing like a—

“Shush!” Rosalind snorted with laughter as she gestured menacingly at him. “D’you want these people to start throwing water instead of flowers, just to shut you up?”

At the end of their row, serious Connall looked indescribably pained by his younger siblings’ antics. Giles beamed, though, as he glanced down at the small smile that Cordelia hadn’t managed to suppress. Her teeth weren’t even trying to chatter anymore.

“Cordy likes my song,” he said smugly, “and I think everyone in Corvenne will be singing it within a week at most. How could they resist? I haven’t even sung you all the best bit yet. You’ll never guess what I came up with as a rhyme for ‘toe hair’—”

“Stop!” Rosalind clapped her hands to her ears. “I am begging you!”

But of course, there was never any stopping Giles once he’d fully launched into a performance. By the time they reached the next turning of the street, Cordelia’s chest was quaking with barely suppressed laughter, and the overwhelming din of the grasping crowd around her had settled into a dull roar. Even the crown didn’t feel quite so heavy anymore. It was hers, after all—and all the people she loved would help her to grow into it.

The whole land of Corvenne stretched around her now, vast and open to all of her exploring senses.

She was the Raven Queen—and with her family by her side, she was ready to rule.

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS