Alexios caught her, and the old king's arms closed around his daughter with a gentleness that didn't match his reputation.
She'd hugged the Primordial Villain first.
Then sprinted straight into the arms of the King of Vraven.
The same girl, the same warmth, handed to two men who had been trying to kill each other for months as if loving both of them was the most natural thing in the world.
Felicity pulled back from the hug, still glowing, and seemed to remember something. She cupped her hands around her mouth with the casual tone of someone calling a cat out from under the couch.
"Mother! Come out! It's time to go sightseeing!"
The ground rumbled.
A section of frozen earth split open twenty paces away, and Queen Morgana rose from beneath it on a pillar of compressed stone, her dark purple hair plastered to her face with mud, her enchanted gown caked in filth, and her iridescent eyes burning with enough hatred to melt the ice off the dwarven king's block.
