SOPHIA

"Am I really the daughter of the Rosebrights?" I asked.

Mr. Willowmarch nodded. "Yes. You were three years old when everything happened. You were taken to the Pagemoores for them to raise."

"Why not you?" asked Nathan.

"Because she had to marry Jace," said Mrs. Willowmarch. "We couldn’t raise them as siblings, could we? I wish I’d never agreed to the marriage. My Jace would still be alive." She glared at me. "You should’ve disappeared with your family."

"Are you cursing my wife to death?" asked Nathan, his voice colder than the Northern winds.

"I wouldn’t dare," said Mrs. Willowmarch. She had the good sense to look away, lest she be turned to ash by Nathan’s angry gaze.

"You wanted her to marry Jace because you thought she would eventually get the artifact, didn’t you?" Scanderoon tsked as he shook his head. "That was never yours to have, Mrs. Willowmarch."

"Who says? Are the Rosebrights only worthy of wishes?"

"In this instance, yes. But don’t you know that? The lamp chooses its owner. I wouldn’t be able to sell it to the Rosebrights if it didn’t want to be owned by them. Even if you’d managed to procure it, I doubt you would’ve been able to use it."

"We learned that aspect of the lamp’s ownership the night we tried to take it," said Mr. Willowmarch. He nodded toward me. "It’s why we wanted Jace to marry Sophia. We hoped the lamp would return to her."

This was news to me. In my first life, I didn’t know anything about the Rosebrights, the lamp that granted wishes, or the connection my family had to Scanderoon. I had fully believed the Pagemoores were my family, and I was simply an unloved daughter. Not to mention my interactions with Nathan had been forgotten because of my childhood disease.

Was this what happened when one messed with their original timeline? I suppose that was simply true about life, that nothing ever stayed the same. Not people. Not places. Not dreams. Change was inevitable.

Still. I tried to think about even a hint of what was unfolding now in my second life. Maybe because I had been so focused on Jace, on making him love me, on trying to be the perfect wife, that I had no time for thoughts about other things.

Certainly not my origins. And definitely not my own chosen happiness. I had pinned that onto Jace, and now I realized that he would’ve never made me happy. Because that’s not how happiness worked. It was never given to you by another.

You could only give it to yourself.

"What happened to my family?" I asked Mr. Willowmarch. "If you didn’t kill them, who did?"

"No one killed them," he said gravely. "They disappeared."

"Someone kidnapped them?" asked Scanderoon.

"No. They quite literally disappeared. And so did the lamp." He looked at me. "You were three years old and you were upstairs asleep with a nanny to watch over you. The rest of your family was in the basement preparing for the ritual the Rosebrights did every time the lamp was passed to the new heir. In this case, your father."

"Walk us through what happened," said Nathan.

"We don’t have time for this," said Mrs. Willowmarch. "If we don’t leave soon, we’ll miss the ship."

Something my former mother-in-law had said stuck in my mind. "You said you lost the grace of the Emperor. What do you mean?"

"She means the Emperor is getting ready to find out she and the Pagemoores had a hand in making his beloved younger sister disappear," said Scanderoon.

Mrs. Willowmarch’s thin lips pressed together. She looked straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge Scanderoon’s on-the-mark guess.

"Like I said earlier, I knew this day would come," said Mr. Willowmarch. "Not even time can destroy some secrets." He sank into the chair, and closed his eyes. "I’ll tell you what happened."

***|***|***

THE NIGHT THE ROSEBRIGHTS DISAPPEARED

We sent in hired guns to suppress the Rosebrights before they could perform their rites. It didn’t actually matter if they went through with the ritual their ancestors had created. The most important part was to basically introduce the lamp to the heir.

And lamp had approve of the heir before the wish can be granted, added Scanderoon.

Yes. I heard from the Rosebrights themselves that every so often an heir is rejected by the lamp. Usually for good reasons that if not known at the time are made clear later on.

In any case, Sophia’s father was a good man. The Rosebrights were a good family. Your mother, Sophia, was much like you in manners and temperment. And you look like her, too. Although you have your father’s eyes.

Your paternal grandparents, your father, your mother, and your little uncle were all in the basement. Our men went inside and subdued everyone.

We only wanted the lamp. We only wanted the wish.

Why were you so desperate for a wish? asked Nathan.

The Cardigill Ick, said Mrs. Willowmarch softly. We wanted to cure our son.

Wait, interrupted Scanderoon, I thought the Cardigill Ick was an illness brought from outer realmers. They arrived by ship in the Capital and it accidentally spread through the city.

Lies. Smoke and mirrors. We made up the story about the Cardigill Ick to cover the fact that Jace’s illness was not only a mystery to doctors, but also infectious. It’s why we took him to Amaranth Manor. To keep him from infecting any more people.

More people? Is he the reason so many in the Capital got it? asked Scanderoon.

I told you, we made up the plague. Some of the servants got it, but they couldn’t spread it. Only Jace could.

This sounds more like a curse than an errant disease, mused Scanderoon.

You him to Velvetleaf and let him infect Sophia, said Nathan, his voice shaking with anger. Right? She nearly died. And she lost many of her childhood memories.

All the better for us. After all, she still remembered the Rosebrights at this point. Afterwards, she never mentioned them again.