Queen of Hearts

Epilogue | Kameron

It wasn't until a week later that I was formally crowned the Queen of Hearts.

There had been a lot - and I mean a lot - of things that needed to be settled beforehand. The first thing had been attending to Hannah. As the Dorlae had healed her, they had informed us that Jen had completely shattered the bones in Hannah's left leg from the knee down. The damage had been too great to fix, so the Dorlae had amputated that part of her leg instead. They had lulled her to sleep during the operation so that she did not feel any pain.

Since that now one of her legs ended with a stump, Hannah was put on a makeshift wheelchair with a blanket covering her legs to preserve her dignity. Penny and Hudson took turns wheeling her around the palace.

Next, we checked up on everyone who had fought with us in the battle. When Jen had whacked the Beast with her tail in her dragon form, he'd gotten a minor concussion, but he was mostly fine. Evan had a few serious bruises, but they weren't anything the Dorlae couldn't heal. The others were physically fine, but Jas had still not stopped crying over Josie's death. Everyone tried to comfort her, but she would push them away. When Jeanette had heard about Josie, she'd begun to sob. Surprisingly, Jas gave her a hug to try and calm her.

They were not the only ones grieving. Kelvin was hugging Eva while she cried, patting her back awkwardly. It was later when I found out that both their twins, Chae and Olivia, had perished in battle.

The redhaired twins, Sabkan and Gatlee, had both been killed. I would miss their optimistic attitudes, and their jokes. A loss that came as a shock to me was Angeline's death. The green eyed girl was so skilled with her throwing knives, I had never thought that anyone would be able to strike her down. I guess I thought wrong.

Even the weaponry master, Samidha, was now gone.

And alone, I grieved for my sister's death, even though I knew deep down that it had been necessary. If my father was feeling sad over the loss of his youngest daughter, he didn't show it. Jen's grave was put a far distance away from the others in the palace cemetery, and I was fine with that. As long as my sister had a grave, I would be happy.

The funerals lasted three entire days, for we even dug graves for the guards. And somewhere in my heart, I did mourn for those guards, because they were my people too.

After the funerals, it took another couple of days to restore the palace to its former glory. And as we were midway through fixing the cracks in the throne room, the Cheshire Cat revealed one last thing - Evan was the youngest descendant of Jendil, who was the founder of the land.

"Seriously?" Evan had asked, flabbergasted. "Holy shit."

"Well, it explains the electricity," I winked at him as I focused on my telekinesis, working to mend the palace walls.

By the time the castle was completely fixed, word had spread all around the land that the Queen of Diamonds was defeated, and the Princess of Hearts was about to take her place as ruler. I'd begged my father to have a private coronation, for I feared that I would somehow embarrass myself if there was a large crowd watching me be crowned.

He was reluctant, but eventually agreed, saying that I had done enough to at least be granted what I wanted.

And so the audience at my coronation was only people I knew. As my father fitted a golden crown on my head, my friends began to cheer and whoop in a way that was definitely not appropriate in a royal castle, but I just laughed, watching them.

"Damn, I'd take a picture, but I'm pretty sure I accidentally destroyed my phone," Evan murmured when the coronation was over, speaking to mostly himself. "I need to get a new phone."