Chapter 35

"Is the Indomitable Charlie Roberts actually crying?" Barnes asked with raised eyebrows. "I thought you were supposed to be more of a man than I am."

Charlie glared at him as she wiped tears from her cheeks. "That's Princess Carnelian Chamberlain to you, thank you very much. And you'd be surprised how often the waterworks turn on with me these days." She extended her arms to hug him once more. "Whatever excuse you give for how long you were gone, it better be something you can use again. I've got big plans to abduct you to Albanon regularly in the future."

The princess, family, and friends had all arrived back at Revingale a week earlier. Once Charlie and her mother had found the others, almost all awake, Phillip and Viola helped everyone mind travel back to Albanon. They'd gone in twos, considering Barnes' ignorance of magic and Bryce's continued unconscious state. They'd met no resistance from Selvinian soldiers—any living members of the Selvinian Army had presumably followed Rasma to wherever he'd disappeared to after his talk with Charlie.

The group had returned to a Village in rather dismal shape. In their absence, the astral battle had extended beyond Revingale into the whole of the Village. Hundreds of civilians had lost their lives on New Kingdom, and several more astral soldiers. Many buildings were in great need of repair, and only the coming of spring would tell how much the Revingale Forest and grounds had been damaged. The Scraysins had not laid waste to the Village only because it seemed Rasma had called them off right after he let his prisoners go.

Luckily, the kingdom had regained two of the best monarchs they had ever had. Phillip and Viola wasted no time in setting up repair projects throughout the Village. They also planned memorials for those lost as well as parties to boost moral. Watching her parents in action, Charlie realized how very much she still had left to learn about ruling a kingdom. Barnes had stayed with them this week and allowed Charlie to show him around the Village. But it was obvious he wished to return home. Phillip had agreed to bring him back to Earth. Charlie's family and friends had met for dinner to see him off, but now it was time for him to go. Everyone stood in one of Revingale's many sitting rooms to bid him farewell.

Charlie turned to hug Eli as well. "Whoa there, girl. I'll barely be gone an hour."

She grinned. "I'll miss you all the same, Eli."

Charlie had not yet eased into calling him 'Dad' or anything like that, but accepting Eli as her father had been simpler than expected. She realized she'd always had a paternal view of him, to some extent. Eli had told her the entire truth about his time on Earth. She could hardly believe her sweet old art teacher had been protecting her all that time. She was not wild about the fact that he'd lied to her about who he was, but she realized it had been necessary. Considering how she'd first acted toward Zander on Earth, her father had been right not to open with the 'You're the princess of a magical realm' line. She was also glad Barnes had had a good friend like Eli to help him deal with her absence.

Viola stood up from her chair and hugged him as well. "I'll miss you too, sweetie." The two kissed in such a way that would probably make Charlie uncomfortable once she truly began to view them as parents. But it wasn't as though she could blame them—seven years was a long time.

Eli moved to hug Abbe and Zander goodbye as well. Charlie smiled at the relaxed interaction between Zander and her father. It seemed she was not the only person who had retrieved a parent through this whole ordeal.

She'd invited Randy, but he'd barely left the house this past week. His wounds had been slight enough to be healed fully, but the psychological wounds gained from the several lives he'd taken while under the Scraysin's control—well, those were another story. The few times Charlie had been able to see him since she'd returned, Randy had been quiet and withdrawn. She understood, of course, but she hoped she hadn't lost her happy and free-spirited friend forever. The group hoped that all he would need was time to heal.

Eli glanced at Barnes. "You ready?"

Barnes nodded. "I'll see you all again soon, I hope."

"You will," Charlie replied.

He grabbed her hand. "All this will work out somehow," he added softly.

She squeezed his hand. "I know." She hated to lie to her friend, but she'd voiced her fears about the future to him enough times this week.

Eli clasped Barnes' hand. "Be back soon," he said, and they closed their eyes.

A moment later, the two had vanished. Charlie wiped under her eyes once more. She started when Viola put her arm around her. "I know it must be hard to see him go."

She nodded, leaning her head on her mother's shoulder. "Yeah."

Not only did she miss her friend already, but she had more selfish reasons for wanting to keep him around. When she'd been busy entertaining Barnes, it had given her a chance to avoid thinking about everything that had occurred on Rasma's home base. She'd told everyone what had taken place and they'd been shocked, to say the least. Out of respect for her, none of them had spoken of it since they'd returned home.

Barnes had been the only person to whom she'd felt comfortable voicing her confusion over everything that had taken place. He served as an outside opinion, not to mention how good he'd always been at making her feel better. She knew she'd have to talk to the rest of them about all of it eventually, but that would mean she'd have to start working it out on her own. And she didn't know when she'd be ready to do that.

She lifted her head from Viola's shoulder when Kenzie showed up in the doorway with a tray. "I thought you'd all like some coffee. Also, Master TigerEye has arrived."

Viola smiled wide as she accepted her cup of coffee. "Thank you, Kenzie."

Kenzie patted Viola's shoulder. "Of course, Love."

Billie entered a few moments later. "Hi everyone!" she called. "Is Barnes gone already?"

Abbe nodded. "We tried to wait for you but you were taking too long."

She sighed. "Damn. You better bring him back soon," she said, looking at Charlie. "That's one cool friend you've got."

Charlie nodded. "I know." One look at Billie could tell her why she'd been late. She stepped closer to Billie. "How is he?" she asked softly.

Billie frowned, exhaling heavily. "No change."

Charlie squeezed her friend's hand, frowning as well. Bryce hadn't regained consciousness since their return to Albanon. His leg and two ribs had been broken in the battle at Revingale, and he'd suffered some serious damage to his heart. The healers at the Healing House said the recovery of his physical wounds was going well, but they worried about the psychic damage he'd undergone. His energy level was extremely low and the healers still couldn't conclusively say if he would ever wake up.

Charlie had tried to go see Bryce every single day, as did her other friends. She couldn't stand the idea of losing him, especially since she would know it had been her fault. It was hard enough having the deaths of hundreds of people she didn't know on her hands—she didn't know what she would do if she had to be responsible for her best friend's death as well.

As much as Barnes had tried to convince her otherwise, Charlie knew the truth. Rasma never would have hurt so many people, or even started this war in the first place, if it hadn't been for her. And she had to live with that.

She gratefully accepted a mug of coffee from Kenzie and turned back to her mother. Viola gave her a one-armed hug, letting her arm linger around her daughter's shoulders. "I was thinking we could go through more of the family records later tonight, after everyone's gone home. Does that sound good?"

Charlie grinned. "That sounds great."

It was still weird for Charlie to see a person who looked so much like herself. Viola seemed more like an older sister than her mother—she barely looked thirty. But Charlie couldn't deny the automatic bond she'd felt to Viola. It was similar to what she'd felt toward Bertha, but even more so. Viola was everything her friends had promised and more—she was sweet, friendly, and had an endearing shyness about her.

Charlie had hung on her mother's every word as she'd told stories of her, of their, family. Charlie had gone from an orphan with no family to daughter of a queen with an extensive history. Her mother had shown her records and writings from the kings and queens who had come before her. Charlie had traced the first name in the Royal Record, 'Elisabeth Margaret Chamberlain,' with a thoughtful expression on her face.

Viola had smiled as she'd looked over Charlie's shoulder. "Oh yes, that was your great, great grandmother. She was Queen Amalthea's most-trusted Advisor before she died." Viola had frowned, realizing too late that she'd brought up a forbidden subject in her daughter's presence.

But Charlie just smiled back, thinking of the golden-haired maid in her dreams who had warned Amalthea against her romance with Rasma. Now that she thought about it, she could even see some resemblance in Lisbeth's face shape, in the shape of her lips, to her mother's and her own. Viola's hair color matched the maid's exactly. Lisbeth truly had been a wonderful advisor, whatever her true job title had been.

If only Amalthea would have listened.

Viola touched her arm. "Billie was visiting Bryce?" she asked.

It was easy to see where Charlie had gotten her perceptive nature. "Yeah."

"Such a wonderful boy. He used to send me the most beautiful paintings."

Charlie nodded. "He pointed a lot of the ones in Revingale out to me."

"And if I'd known he was that same boy who took such good care of you on Earth..." She shook her head again. "I'm sure he'll be all right, sweetheart."

She looked at her mother. "I'm going to go get some air, if that's okay?"

"Of course, take all the time you need."

Charlie grabbed her coat off a chair and walked through the French double doors at the far end of the room and out onto the balcony. The snow was falling steadily onto the grounds once again—one would never be able to tell it had been a beautiful spring day a week earlier. She closed her eyes for a moment and leaned her gloved palms on the railing.

"Hey there, kiddo," a voice said behind her.

She turned and saw Zander walk onto the balcony. "Hey yourself."

He moved to stand next to her. "What are you doing out here? It's freezing."

She glanced down at her coat. "Doesn't make much difference to me, thanks to you."

They both stood in silence or a few moments. With how busy the past week had been, they'd barely found a minute alone with each other.

"Do you think it's really over?" he asked.

"The war?" She thought for a moment. "Not sure, really. He said he'd be calling his troops off 'for now.' Whatever that means." True to Rasma's word, all the astral and flesh soldiers had disappeared from Albanon. She peered at Zander. "Did all of you really know about that prophecy?"

Zander looked down at the ground, frowning. "Sure, we learned about it when we were kids. Most people didn't believe it though—Amalthea had been gone so long. Joan Athen forbid anyone from ever telling you about it. He said it might be dangerous for you to hear of your true identity before you realized it for yourself." His frown deepened. "No one ever saw any reason not to believe him."

Out of everyone, Zander was possibly taking Joan Athen's betrayal the hardest. He couldn't look at the chain tattoos on his wrists without disgust. Charlie nodded. "That's why my doctor and Abbe both acted so weird about unicorns being my animal, right? They were Amalthea's too?" He nodded. Charlie smirked. "There's a unicorn on the damned Albonian flag … I'm a dumbass."

He touched her shoulder. "Come on. Most people couldn't be expected to conceive of the idea that they're a reincarnated immortal, much less suspect it." He sighed. "I'm sorry I never told you."

She shrugged. "You were more honest with me than some people."

He shook his head. "I still can't believe it. When I think back on everything Joan Athen got away with... You know, I think I may have helped him," he said quietly.

She stared at him. "What do you mean?"

He leaned his elbows on the railing. "So often Joan Athen had us do things we didn't entirely understand—we trusted that it was better we didn't know. He had me do a lot of divining based on telepathic profiles. If I can get a feel for someone's mind, I'm usually pretty good at finding them. When I saw Barnes again, I realized his profile was one of the ones I had to look for. He was in the middle of nowhere in Silverland—it was probably right after he tried to escape the Sanctuary."

"And then Eli came after him and they both got captured," Charlie said, thinking back to Eli and Barnes' story of how Rasma's soldiers had found them.

"I don't know how I didn't recognize his mind when I was looking for him," Zander said, his voice guilty.

"Don't beat yourself up," Charlie said. "It's very possible that Joan Athen cast some kind of spell to keep you from recognizing the profile."

Zander nodded. "That's true." He looked at her with sad eyes. "How could he have done that to us? To you?"

Charlie took the pocket knife out of her pocket that she'd begun to carry and fiddled with it, opening and closing it. "I don't know. Rasma tried to convince me that Joan Athen never cared about me, only cared about himself. I don't know if he was right though."

Lisbeth wasn't the only dream identity she'd been able to place. Though most people had called Joan Athen 'Joan' as a nickname, she realized his initials could be put together to create another, 'J.A.:' Jay. He'd been that sweet little boy in her dream, the one who'd created the wooden faerie for his sister—she was sure of it. She knew that at least once upon a time, Joan Athen had been as good-natured as that little boy had seemed. Amalthea had been the first person to bring Joan Athen to Rasma's attention. If anything, she was as much to blame for Joan Athen's betrayal as Rasma.

"What other possibility could there be?" Zander asked.

She thought back to Joan Athen's last words to her for the millionth time that week. He'd been the only mortal still living who'd known Amalthea when she was still alive. Could he have been so confident in her ability to beat Rasma that he would work for Rasma to ensure that a battle between them would occur once Charlie was ready?

"Joan Athen was always thinking about the big picture more than the rest of us. Maybe he was just trying in his own way to get rid of Rasma for good."

If that had been the case, then Joan Athen had been wrong. Rasma was still out there somewhere.

Zander didn't look convinced. "Maybe." He looked at her. "How are you?"

Charlie almost laughed at the question. "Honestly, I have no idea how I am." She opened the pocket knife she'd been playing with and dragged it against her palm.

Zander rushed to take the knife away from her. "Charlie, what the hell are you doing?"

She held up her palm for him to see. The wound stitched itself up within moments, leaving only blood in its place. "I'm healing faster—I've been checking every day. It hurts less every time I do it too." She looked up from her hand. "It's not just that either."

Charlie closed her eyes and focused hard on an image in her mind for a few moments. Soon a silver box appeared in her hands. The box was incredibly detailed, with flowers, vines, and faeries carved into the silver. It played a lilting tune when she opened it. "This is a lesson from the last chapter of my Ex Nihilo textbook. I'm less than halfway through that book in Thyme's class."

Zander took the box from her and stared at it in awe. "And you didn't even use a wand…"

"I can do more and more advanced magic all the time—much faster than before." She paused. "What's happening to me?"

He put his arms around her, pulling him to her. "I don't know, Charlie. We'll figure it out together, okay? It's scary, I know, but kind of amazing too, right?"

She pulled away and looked into his blue eyes, the eyes she'd come to adore. She hated that when she looked into them now, all she could see were Rasma's even more otherworldly eyes. Her dreams of the past still haunted her with even more clarity. Much as the idea disgusted her, her dreams showed more images of Amalthea and Rasma together kissing, or doing even worse. It was becoming more and more clear that Rasma had been correct, that she truly had been Amalthea. But she couldn't begin to fathom how she had ever let that bastard into her home, much less fallen in love with him.

She touched Zander's cheek and he leaned forward to touch his forehead to hers. "Zander, I am ten kinds of fucked up right now. I don't know what anything means or how I'm supposed to deal with it." She stepped away from him. "And I can't ask you to try to deal with any of it with me."

He blinked, hurt coming into his eyes. "But, Charlie, I can help you with all of it." He grabbed her hand. "I want to help you, whatever you're going to do next."

She turned back toward the view of the grounds. "I have to go after her, Zander. And I have to do it alone."

He stepped closer to her again. "Her … the girl he told you about?"

"Rasma and Amalthea's daughter, yeah." This was the first time she'd been able to acknowledge her that way out loud. She was starting to accept that she had once been Amalthea. So if she even acknowledged that Sariah was Amalthea and Rasma's daughter—then some part of her was acknowledging that Sariah was her daughter.

He paled. "Charlie … are you sure? She's not really your daughter—that all happened in a different life." So Zander had heard her thoughts.

She looked determinedly forward. "I'm still responsible for her."

Rasma had told her how he had been tracking Sariah's soul through her different lives for years but had waited for Amalthea before attempting to go after her.

"Why did he wait till he could tell you?" he asked, voicing the question running through her own mind.

"According to him, it was some screwed up sense of fairness. The second Amalthea realized she was pregnant, she decided to kill Rasma." Considering how old Sariah had looked in Charlie's dreams, she assumed she'd either come out already looking that old or she'd grown very quickly. It could have been either—it wasn't like there was a precedent for immortal children. "He wanted to prove that he'd always been willing to fight fair for her." She shook her head. "I can't just let him take her now. God knows how powerful she might be."

"Yeah, and you don't know what kind of person she is either, being half his."

"She's half mi—er, Amalthea's too." She couldn't even call Eli or Viola 'Dad' or 'Mom.' And yet some deep-rooted instinct made Charlie want to claim this strange girl as her own. Somewhere inside Charlie, Amalthea's maternal connection to her daughter still lived—and now the damn thing wouldn't leave Charlie alone. Charlie looked toward Zander. "Rasma's giving me this chance for some deluded reason. I hardly know anything right now, but I do know I need to try and protect her from him."

He stared into her eyes. "Okay. My answer's still the same though, Charlie." He took both her hand in his own. "Let me help you."

Please, he added mentally.

She knew she should say no. This was her battle, not his. It didn't feel right to pull him into this any more than she had already. But she also knew she would never have made it through this past week, through any of this, without him. She'd tried long enough to make it on her own. Maybe it was time she accept a little help.

She nodded. "All right, if you're sure."

His arms snaked around her waist. "I am."

She looked up at him. "Zander," she said as he moved his head toward her. "I hate to say this, but I don't know if I can handle this—us, right now. My head's just so screwed up."

He looked down at her, the smile refusing to leave his face. "We'll take it slow." His arms tightened. "Would one kiss be okay?"

She smiled, trying not to think about everything that lay ahead. "Maybe one."

As he leaned in, Charlie couldn't help feeling some relief that he would be there for her in whatever uncertainty this new project would entail. Who knew when Rasma would go after the girl, if he hadn't already? She had no idea what new tactics he might employ against her. Everything he had done already—sending Rena and her cronies after her, the Scraysins, the torture he'd inflicted on her friends—were terrible enough.

But as his unsettling smile flickered through her mind, she felt sure she hadn't seen anything yet.

END OF BOOK ONE

Author's Note: I'm not really sure what to say here—we've finally reached the end. After over eight years, for you old readers. I know this isn't exactly an end. It's more of a lead-in to Unbidden Royalty. But quite a few questions do get answered, and I hope it's a satisfying ending.

I am so, so grateful to everyone for the amazing support you've given me: old and new readers alike. When I started this story, I was still figuring out if writing was really what I wanted to do. And even if it was what I wanted, I was nervous that I lacked the flowery way with words a person needed to make it as a writer.

But your insightful thoughts and wonderfully kind words helped to convince me that maybe there was a place for my sarcastic, tomboy-ish style—that pursuing a career as an author might be more than just a fanciful dream. Thank you a ninety hundred zillion times for that.

So here's the deal on Unbidden Royalty: I am going to post the first chapter when I get time to edit it, which should be in the next month or so. My current writing project (which gets highest priority because money is involved) will be mostly over at the end of October. I do have another project I'm going to be revising/trying to get published around that time, but the absence of my contracted project should still leave me a little more time to work on Unbidden. It's likely to be a long road with this series, but I'm happy to post all of the other three books if you're patient enough to go down that road with me.

Now, for the last time on Unexpected Royalty, are my responses:

girlygirl101: Nice call on Eli! Thanks so much for the compliments. There will be four books all together in the series. Charlie is a main character in all of them, but not necessarily the main character. She shares the spotlight a lot more in upcoming books, and we get a lot more of Zander's perspective.

Bla: Yay! I hope this chapter at least answered some of your questions.

Molly: Thank you! Rasma is super creepy, I agree.

Literary Dark Horse: Yep, Chapter 34 was kind of an informasplosion.

Dragen Eyez: Hmm, Joan Athen as Rasma? That would've been interesting. Glad I was able to surprise you with a few things! Yeah, we get to watch Charlie go through a pretty tough time with immortality/the implications of her past life in the next few books. I am at the lake house now and it's kind of rainy … but I'd much rather be in Pennsylvania than NYC during this hurricane madness.

Evenstar1389: No, Charlie's not a descendant of Amalthea. As said in this chapter, Charlie is a descendant of Lisbeth, Amalthea's maid and best friend. Amalthea handed the monarchy over to Lisbeth before her battle with Rasma. Thank you so much for the kind words! I was a big fan of Queen of Glass back in the day, too. So glad those wonderful books are finally getting published!

Raging Libra: Thank you! You find out a lot more about those twenty minutes in this chapter. I hope you enjoy Unbidden Royalty!

Phoebs: Chapter 24 does bring up way more questions than answers. There are some answers in this chapter … but still many, many questions too. I am planning to post Unbidden, just really slowly.

Saraniya: Thank you so much! Hope you liked the end of this story, and will continue to enjoy the other books. Sorry in advance for the snail's-pace updating.

Gah, this is the last post on Unexpected Royalty, ever! Madness! I really hope this served as a good ending of this part of the story. Stay tuned for Unbidden Royalty!

I love you guys. I really, really do.