Chapter 12 - THE QUEEN BEHIND THE WALL
The knocks continued every midnight. On the third night, the silver arch split enough for a woman’s eye to appear in the darkness.
It belonged to Queen Aurelia.
She had not aged. Gold veins crossed her pale skin, and a crown of translucent wings moved behind her like living glass.
“My beautiful grandson,” she said. “You have brought me the vessel.”
Adrian raised the original slipper. Aurelia recoiled from its light.
“Where is Cinderella?”
“Which one?”
The question spread fear through the room.
Aurelia claimed the girl at the ball and the woman called Ella were not separate people. Midnight had divided one soul into desire and memory. Cinderella was the part that endured suffering; Ella was the part that wished to escape it.
Ella believed her instantly. The explanation fit her stolen memories and desperate love.
Orren did not.
“True glass recognizes a divided soul,” he said. “The original rejects her.”
Aurelia smiled. “Blind men are easily impressed by what they cannot see.”
She offered a bargain: open the Moon Door, and she would reunite Ella with the sleeping girl. Refuse, and both would die during the eclipse.
Helena urged Adrian to seal the wall permanently, sacrificing whoever remained beyond it.
Ella stepped toward the opening. The golden threads beneath her skin brightened.
From the darkness, another voice cried out.
“Don’t let her touch Ella!”
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It was Cinderella—but she called the mysterious woman by a different name.
The sound broke before anyone understood the word.
