Gareth stepped from the glare of that circle of sunlight. He blinked, stared at the haggard face of the Master of the Hall of Mages. They stood in a sumptuous room decorated in diamonds. The walls dripped with strings of them, and any slight movement caused those strings to sway, the stones to sparkle with mirrored light. Magic had crafted tables from enormous stones, including a fireplace surrounded with a mantel of the rock. A curtain of diamonds hung from the corners of the canopied bed, draped the sides of the tall windows. Chandeliers with teardrop-cut diamonds studded the ceiling. In the evening, the room would sparkle in the glow of fire and candlelight. Right now, it flashed with a dizzying array of prismatic color from the refracted sunshine.

He frowned.

Had Merlin’s curse truly, finally, been broken?

“That is not an illusion of the sun coming through the windows?”

“No, Sir Gareth,” replied Queen Victoria. “It is as real as you or I.”

“I do not understand.”

“That is obvious,” said the Master, his white brows creased together in thought. “Surely you had some inkling that the curse had been broken.”

“None. I…” Gareth turned to Victoria. “Your Majesty, do you still wear the relic?”

She nodded, brown curls bobbing against her cheeks. She pushed up the sleeve of her gown, the blue poplin cording into folds at her shoulder. The bracelet easily slid down her arm, dangled at her wrist. “It still has not tightened for me. Although, oddly enough, that fact isn’t as important as it seemed to be a few hours ago.”

“Thank Merlin!” snapped the Master. “I think the spell is finally wearing off. I’ve had enough of love spells to last me a lifetime.”

“You know, Uncle,” mused Queen Victoria, “I did not believe you… about Lord Ghoulston… and Sir Gareth.” She frowned, a delicate wrinkling of smooth skin. “But I feel as if I am waking from some strange dream…”

“May I see the relic, Your Majesty?” interrupted Gareth, forcing his voice to stay calm.

“Oh, yes. I don’t see why not.”

Lord Sussex sighed with relief as the queen removed the bracelet and handed it to Gareth. “You wouldn’t have given it up a few hours ago,” he said to her.

“I rather think you are right, Uncle.”

Gareth studied the band of silver, turning it until the moonstone caught the reflection of the sun, something it had not done since the time of Merlin. A crack ran along the middle of the gemstone, something it had not possessed before, either… when had he first noticed it?

“What is it?” asked Lord Sussex, turning his attention away from his niece.

“The gemstone is cracked.”

“And it did not have this flaw before… no, apparently it did not. Do you think it has something to do with why you have not been… taken, again?”

“I am not sure.” Gareth felt the room sway. Alas, he could not ignore his injuries. They would never be magically erased again. He smiled, although he rather imagined it resembled a grimace, and staggered back to the canopied bed, collapsing onto a puffy blanket.

Why must they always be puffy?

“I first noticed the crack when Lady Yardley gave it to the were-lion in the Hall of Mages. Yes. But I thought it a trick of the light. Nothing happened to cause the break… nothing that I can recall.”

“Mayhap it did not happen then,” said Lord Sussex, dragging over a silk-cushioned chair sprinkled with diamonds at back and arms, and settling his bulk atop it. “Good heavens, Victoria. Do you realize we are witnessing an historic event?”

“The entire past twenty-four hours have been historic,” replied Victoria, who began to pace the room, stepping in and out of that glorious beam of sunshine, her brown hair sparkling every time the light touched her head. She looked beautiful. Almost as beautiful as Millicent.

Gareth squeezed the band of silver.

“Think back,” prodded Lord Sussex. “Can you recall anything unusual that happened before then?”

“I…” Gareth flinched. Before they had met with Harcourt, he had woken up in Lady Yardley’s bedroom… and he had discovered that Millicent had broken his heart. “Can it be?”

“What, man?” exclaimed Lord Sussex, leaning forward in his chair, his eyes bright with excitement.

“I heard something crack…” But he had thought it was his heart.

“And?”

“And… could Merlin be that vengeful? Yes, of course he could. And after the way I felt when Millicent betrayed me, I cannot blame him.”

Lord Sussex let out a huff. “I’m not following you. What, exactly, is the nature of the curse that confined you to the relic? I have only bits and pieces of rumors.”

Gareth nodded. Yes, best to start at the beginning, and reason this through. If reason could be found from it. And who better to help him puzzle it out, than the Master of magic? After the battle with Ghoulston, Gareth had every reason to respect the intelligence of this man. “The words have been etched in my mind, for they have echoed to me again and again over the centuries. He said, ‘Only true love will break this spell, boy, and I curse you to search until you find it.’ And I thought I had.”

“With whom?”

“Lady Millicent. The shape-shifter who helped us stop Ghoulston.”

“Ah,” acknowledged Lord Sussex, “the one who tried to take the relic.”

Queen Victoria paused in her pacing, a fleeting look of hurt passing her features. Then she shook her curls and resumed her course, only the slight tilt of her head in their direction indicating that she still listened.

“And so I could not understand why the spell hadn’t broken,” continued Gareth. “For I knew I loved her truly. So I thought Millicent must love me in return in order to break the spell. I used all my powers of persuasion to make her fall in love with me. And I thought I had succeeded—until Ghoulston’s men killed Nell.”

“Who is she?”

“A firebird, methinks. But perhaps more.” Gareth stretched his back, loosening the bindings around his waist. It hurt. But he had no time for that… or time to puzzle out the origins of Nell. “She is the only person Millicent had ever loved, and when Nell was taken from her, it hardened Millicent’s heart once more. She is… Lady Millicent has a strong sense of self-preservation.”

“Wise girl,” muttered Queen Victoria.

Lord Sussex frowned as he glanced at his niece. “You cannot blame yourself… or doubt your judgment of love because of a potion. It seems to me that Prince Albert had managed to capture your true affections before Ghoulston interfered.”

The queen smiled at that, her eyes suddenly glassy. “He was extraordinarily charming. And handsome.” She blinked at Gareth. “Not as handsome as you, of course—good grief, the drug must still be affecting me.” She started to pace again.

Lord Sussex turned back to Gareth, tiny dots of colored light sprinkled across his heavy features. “You must have been wrong about the shape-shifter. Her love must have been strong enough to break the curse—because here you are.”

Gareth shook his head. “No. I think I had it all wrong. When I was in Lady Yardley’s bedroom—”

Victoria gasped.

“Because Millicent had given her the relic to prove to you the truth of Ghoulston’s plans,” Gareth hurried to explain. “Or, well… yes, to see if Lady Yardley could break the curse.”

“Lady Millicent must love you very much to give the bracelet to another,” said the queen. “That is an unselfish act. She cared more for your happiness than her own.”

“Or she did not love me enough to keep me.” Gareth held up a hand as Queen Victoria opened her mouth to protest. He winced as his bindings pulled with the movement. Anyway, he must become accustomed to pain, and mortality. If he died now, he would never wake again. He grimaced. “At least, that’s what I thought at first. That she had betrayed our love, had betrayed me. And it broke my heart. And in that moment… my world turned upside down, and I felt as scattered as I often do when the relic releases me. And I thought I heard the breaking of my heart.” Gareth glanced down at the moonstone. “But now… I think it was the gemstone, and I believe I was set free at that very moment. Aah… of course! No wonder it did not tighten around Millicent’s wrist. The curse had already been broken.”

“Betrayal.” The Master rubbed his forehead. “What, precisely, did you do to make Merlin curse you into a relic?”

“I seduced his lover. Vivian.”

Victoria stumbled. Lord Sussex nodded with wisdom. “Then it makes perfect sense, Sir Gareth. Merlin did not curse you to find your true love. He cursed you until you were betrayed by your one true love. So you felt the same pain he did.”

“I believe you are right.” Gareth glanced down at the moonstone, ran a finger across the jagged crack in the gem. “Only now do I understand what I did to Merlin, and how deeply my actions hurt him. The old wizard fooled me for centuries. He wanted me to suffer as he had suffered. I had always thought a woman’s love would break the spell. Verily, women have betrayed me before, but none have broken my heart because of it. Only my own pain from the betrayal of my one true love could break the spell… my love for a woman… not the other way around. It just took this long to find the one woman who could wound me so deeply… And I no longer believe Merlin designed the relic to help me. Indeed, I think it just chose women at random, making it harder for me to find my one true love.”

“I find this most distressing,” said the queen. “Now you are free, and yet…”

“And yet, I am not sure if Millicent will have me.”

Lord Sussex snorted. “I lack your tender sensibilities, my dear Victoria. My concern is for the safety of the Crown. Will you give me the relic, Sir Gareth Solimere?”