“Oh, but she’s not actually your sister. That’s what she’s been too cowardly to tell you!” Lady Elianora’s voice rang with satisfaction as she swept forward to stand between them. “She never belonged in your little family in the first place. I could tell at a glance that she was wilder and far less suited to the throne than either of you dear children—and there certainly were not three infants in your mother’s belly when she fled into that nightmarish forest!”

Lady Elianora beamed fiercely down at Rosalind’s and Giles’s stunned faces. “My dears, I am so terribly sorry you’ve had to suffer this awful shock. As the only true family you have left now, I hope you’ll give me the chance to prove my good intentions. Just come with me and—”

“No!” Cordelia yelped. “Giles—Ros—even if you leave me, please don’t trust her. She’ll—”

“Wait.” Giles stared up at Lady Elianora. “You told Cordy she wasn’t our real sister? Just because she … was adopted when she was a baby? Or something like that?”

“Well, of course she’s our sister,” Rosalind said flatly. “Don’t be absurd! If that’s what you’ve been holding over Cordy’s head that’s made her turn so grumpy and ridiculous …” In one smooth move, Rosalind scooped her sword up and pointed it directly at her grandmother. “We’ll stay right here with her, thank you, and you can leave without all of us.”

“I’ll explain all of the tedious details to you later, my dears.” Lady Elianora’s voice sharpened with irritation. “It all comes down to your mother’s deceptions, as usual. But you two and I have fabulous places to go now and some very important people to meet. So I’m afraid that I simply must insist …”

She held out her free hand. Magic gathered thickly in the air with an all-too-familiar prickling against Cordelia’s skin.

Cordelia couldn’t transform to protect her triplets while Lady Elianora gripped her wrist. She had no sorcery of her own to change the world around her, either. But Connall had said there was a key to unlocking every spell—and a power far greater than her own family’s magic thrummed through the earth beneath her.

Some things were even more important than freedom.

“You will never take my family away from me!” she snarled.

Then she dropped every one of her inner walls of protection to speak directly to the land. I’m here. I’m ready. Just save Giles and Rosalind, and I promise: I’ll do whatever it is you’ve wanted from me all along!

Magic coiled through the air around Lady Elianora as she spun to face Cordelia, flinging out her free hand.

Earth erupted directly beneath her. She staggered back, fingers finally loosening around Cordelia’s wrist.