This is about Ann, and some new feelings about…well, what's going on. Takes place almost immediately after the second book.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
She sits, her lank hair falling into her eyes as she bends over and picks up her sewing shears. Her eyes are blank as she opens them and carefully makes a cut on her wrist, watching the blood squeeze out slowly. She lifts her hand and makes another cut, insatiable. She barely feels the pain and makes another cut.
With that third cut, a torrent of emotions sweeps over her. She sees Gemma, dancing with Simon Middleton. Though she has rejected him, he still fancied—or fancies—her. She sees Felicity, admired by the men and loathed by the women She sees both of their beauty, and a terrible, overwhelming feeling of jealousy falls over her. She sees Tom, looking interestedly at a beautiful woman who she has never seen before. She wants it, she wants beauty.
She imagines she is in the Realms. She stands, the shears falling to the floor. She touches the imaginary crown atop of the ringlets she had in the Realms, and remembers her beauty. She touches her face, as if it was truly the one she was used to in the Realms. She opens her mouth and sings, her clear, sweet voice swimming through the streams and flying up high with birds.
But she is insanely jealous. Gemma is keeping the magic away from her, not allowing her to become beautiful both in and out of the Realms—not even in, it would seem.
She reaches up for the crown and hurls it to the ground, shattering it. She can see her beautiful face in one of the pieces of glass.
She raises her foot and carefully cracks it into two.
"Good-bye, Queen Ann," she whispers.