Three Dark Crowns

Arsinoe and Billy walk through town. She explains to Billy that Beltane begins the Ascension Year and consists of a three-day celebration. The Hunt is first, and it provides meat for the feasts. Then comes the Disembarking, when the queens’ suitors are presented, and the queens demonstrate their gifts at the Quickening, which takes place on the third night. Arsinoe believes the islanders will love Mirabella the best. Later, Jules and Joseph discuss their future, and she says she’s not ready for sex. He hopes she’ll come with him when he leaves town on an errand for his father, but she says she won’t leave Arsinoe so close to Beltane.

Mirabella has another bad dream and wakes up crying. Bree and Elizabeth arrive, having heard her shouting. She tells them she saw her “sweet sisters” dead, and she held them underwater. Mirabella says they will always be like children to her. Luca always tells her the dreams are a test, but Mirabella feels she cannot proceed with this. She loves her sisters, and she won’t kill them, even though she knows that’s what she’s supposed to do. Elizabeth gives Mirabella her white priestess’s cloak as a disguise so she can escape.

Arsinoe is light-headed from blood loss after performing low magic, but she’s hopeful that it will be successful. Jules finds Arsinoe and Madrigal in the woods and demands to know what is happening. Madrigal says she is helping Arsinoe, but Jules claims there is always a price for low magic. Arsinoe says this is her only hope now, and Jules leaves, angry.

Mirabella escapes and walks for two days. Near the coast, she brews a storm. She sees a boat topple over as a result of the storm, and the lone sailor is helpless. Mirabella focuses on the water around the boy and commands it, bringing him to shore. When he lands, she makes a fire. He is still cold, however, so she removes her clothing and wraps herself around him to share her heat. She falls asleep and dreams, again, of her sisters. When she wakes, the boy is still cold, and he asks if he has died. She tries to warm him, and he kisses her. They have sex.

Joseph’s mother dreams that he drowned. No one believes her until word reaches them that he never arrived in Trignor, and they learn that a massive storm hit the coast. Arsinoe, Jules, and Billy ride out to search for him.

When Mirabella wakes, the boy is already up. He is upset with himself, but they kiss again. He realizes who she is and tells her he is Joseph Sandrin. He says he has loved only one girl his whole life, and she says this girl need never know what happened between them. Mirabella is unlike Arsinoe and not what Joseph expected; he thinks she is brave and wild. He wants to know why she’s not in Rolanth, and she says she sometimes slips away for a while. They have sex again.

Arsinoe, Jules, and Billy know that Joseph could not have survived the water’s frigid temperatures. Arsinoe works a magic spell, using Jules’s blood, to lead them to him. As the burning charm smokes, Jules breathes it in, filling her with its desire; if Arsinoe did the spell right, the smoke will desire Joseph. Jules becomes something else—just a vessel for the magic.

Meanwhile, Joseph and Mirabella walk together. They must part soon, and neither wants to. Suddenly, there’s movement in the trees, and Jules calls out. Joseph rushes to Jules, and Mirabella shrinks away, watching them kiss. She sees Camden and thinks it must be her sister’s familiar. Arsinoe confronts Mirabella, who tries to hide, and Mirabella realizes how much she misses her sister. Mirabella realizes that Arsinoe has been taught to hate and fear her, just as the temple has taught Mirabella the same things. Mirabella tells Arsinoe she remembers everything and will share her memories with her. Suddenly, armed priestesses on horseback surround them, and Arsinoe thinks it’s an ambush. Rho snatches Mirabella, telling her she is not allowed to break the rules and must save the killing for after Beltane. Arsinoe glares at her sister as they ride away.

Luca assures Sara Westwood that Rho will find the queen. Sara says Mirabella has always been dutiful, but Luca says this is not true. She asks what Sara knows of White-Handed Queens and tells her there is an old, little-known legend of White-Handed Queens, in which “the island” sacrifices the true queen’s sisters during Sacrificial Years. Luca can’t tell if Sara believes the story, but she knows Sara will do what the temple says. Luca says she’d like the island to hear of this legend before Beltane, and Sara nods, understanding. When the time comes, all priestesses will carry long, serrated knives of the temple.

Katharine hosts William for dinner, and they make conversation. Pietyr watches them jealously, so Katharine invites William to walk outside. She doesn’t want Pietyr to be forced to watch them. William marvels that none of the triplet queens want to be courted since mainland women would be so excited to have such suitors. Katharine knows she can never feel for William what she feels for Pietyr, but she kisses him anyway.

Arsinoe says she hates her sister. Since she was almost taken in by Mirabella’s manner in the forest, she thinks her sister is very cunning. Cait rubs salve into Arsinoe’s cuts, but no one chastises her for using low magic since it brought Joseph home. Jules tells Arsinoe that Joseph has been different since his return, and she wonders if something happened between him and Mirabella. Arsinoe begins to worry because she destroyed the love charm Madrigal made for Joseph and Jules. When Arsinoe dreams, she sees Joseph drowning in a bloody sea. The next day, she asks Luke to make Jules a beautiful dress. Joseph confesses to Jules that he slept with Mirabella, and she tells him to leave before Camden kills him.

Luca and Mirabella plan her Quickening performance. She will demonstrate with fire, wrapping herself in it; she wonders if it “will burn her love for her sisters right out of her heart” (231). Luca knows that Mirabella saw her sister in the woods, but she doesn’t know about Joseph. Bree and Elizabeth were faithful to Mirabella and did not say anything in her absence. Mirabella claims she stole Elizabeth’s cloak, but the priestesses cut off Elizabeth’s left hand as punishment anyway.

Madrigal believes Jules will forgive Joseph. Arsinoe is angry with him, too. Madrigal and Arsinoe do more low magic, and when Arsinoe holds out her hand for Madrigal to take her blood, Madrigal places Arsinoe’s hand against a tree and stabs her knife through it. After sufficient blood wets the tree, Madrigal frees Arsinoe’s hand and sets the tree on fire. That night, Arsinoe dreams of a bear in this exact place. 

In the morning, she wakes Jules, and the two go get Joseph and Billy; Arsinoe tells them all that she saw her familiar. When they reach the sacred spot, the tree is completely intact, though Arsinoe watched it burn last night. Suddenly, the group sees a great brown bear, but as it comes closer, Arsinoe realizes that it is unhealthy. She holds out her hand, only then noticing the bear’s angry eyes. She says it’s not her familiar, and they all run. When the bear chases Arsinoe, Billy taunts it, drawing it away from her. She throws herself between them, and the bear slashes her shoulder and face. It throws Camden against a tree. Jules screams, and the bear claws at its chest and dies. Billy cannot stop Arsinoe’s bleeding, and they rush her to a healer. The healer cauterizes Arsinoe’s wounds and stitches her up, but her face is horribly scarred.

Genevieve and Natalia discuss the bear attack on Queen Arsinoe while Katharine mixes poisons. Natalia meets with William Chatworth, Sr., in private. She still finds him handsome, but he is not interested in sex with her. He assures her their agreement is still in place—the one they made when she needed someone to house Joseph Sandrin. Chatworth tells her what he learned from Sara Westwood: The priestesses plan to assassinate Katharine and Arsinoe, calling it a Sacrificial Year. While Natalia admits that Luca is clever, she is confident that the Arrons can handle the temple because they have done it for so long.

Arsinoe wakes and knows something is wrong with her face. When she looks, she sees that most of her right cheek is gone and lines of dark stitches cross her face. She laughs hysterically, feeling lucky that she never cared about her appearance. Billy brings her flowers, and they talk, locking eyes, but Billy looks away. He tells her he got a letter from his father but doesn’t want to open it because it will order him to go to Mirabella. When Arsinoe suggests that he could marry her, Billy says Arsinoe wouldn’t make a good wife. He loves her as a friend, and he doesn’t want her to die. He tells her about a song they sing about the triplets on the mainland; in it, the singer calls them witches.

Pietyr meets Natalia, and she tells him what Luca and the Temple are planning for Arsinoe and Katharine. Pietyr knows that White-Handed Queens are beloved by the people. He wants to know how Natalia plans to protect Katharine, but she says that the Arrons will be relatively powerless at Beltane because the priestesses oversee the entire event. Natalia accuses Pietyr of being in love with Katharine; he admits it and says that Natalia loves her, too.

Ellis, Jules’s grandfather, carves a beautiful black mask for Arsinoe. Billy arrives and offers to get Arsinoe out of the house for a while. He takes her down to the cove and shows her his boat. They go out onto the water, and he tells her that he’s taking her to the mainland. Arsinoe reminds him that the island won’t let her go, but Billy thinks this will work because the boat is his own and not from the island. Billy’s father told him what the priestesses are planning, and he tells Arsinoe about it. She doesn’t want to die, and Billy says he won’t let that happen.