“We think they might be responsible for the strange magic some claim to have noticed around the palace. That this magic might be the cause of my brother’s illness flaring up,andfor the rough spell you went through yesterday.”
Sephia’s stomach gave a sickening lurch.
That’s why the doctor and the servants didn’t seem to suspect me.
They thought someone else was responsible for that shadowy energy.
And maybe they were? She didn’t know enough about her own magic to say for sure. She had always kept it hidden, buried deep inside of her at her parents’ insistence. She didn’t even know what she was capable of. She had assumed those shadows were here because of her, but maybe they’d originated elsewhere, and then simply sought her out because like called to like?
“Is that a…common problem here?” she asked. “I thought the Shadow and Sun Courts had stopped their wars a long time ago. Middlemage serves as a mediator between your two realms, and things looked relatively peaceful as far as I could tell from the Central Palace.”
“All true enough. But sometimes troublesome things slip through the cracks. Not everyone wants to keep our hard-earned peace. The Shadow Lord is young and ambitious. Hungry for more power, some say, at whatever the cost.”
“You believe he wants to start another war?”
He started to reply, but then pursed his lips and seemed to rethink his answer. His voice was oddly strained when he finally said, “It wasn’t long after he first took the throne that our city was attacked and my parents were killed. We never proved anything, but it’s difficultnotto suspect them when things like this start happening. They’re different from us in many ways. And their magic is…darker.”
“Darker?”
He nodded. “You must have learned something about it, given your twin and her innate Shadow magic?”
She pretended she hadn’t, only because she couldn’t bear to talk about that magic—hermagic— out loud.
The weight of all of her lies felt exhausting, suddenly.
“Our magic centers around life and protection,” said Tarron. “Theirs aligns with death and deception. Necromancy, shapeshifting, possession…perhaps I’m biased, but I can’t think of a singlepositivething their magic might be used for.”
Her skin prickled at the harsh tone of his voice. She stared at the river, watched the water parting around her submerged toes.
He must have noticed her barely-suppressed turmoil this time, because he said, “Again: Forgive me. I didn’t want to trouble you with all of this.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m glad you told me.”
He frowned, but after a moment he sighed and said, “It’s better if you’re aware, I suppose. Maybe it will help me worry less about you.”
There it was again—that word.
He wasworried.
Abouther.
She had been prepared to be a suspect. She knew how to fight, how to sneak in and out of places she didn’t belong, how to hide her magic. But she was less certain of what to do about the fact that he wasworriedabout her.
Especially since she was in control of the very shadows he believed threatened her.
She might not have summoned them, but she had ordered them away, hadn’t she? It was the combination of the Sun ring and the witch’s potion that had caused her to faint, not the Shadow magic.
What a mess I’m in.
She had come here to protect her sister.
Instead, she had become a spark that might inadvertently set a fragile peace ablaze.
Feeling suddenly restless, she stood and walked along the river’s edge. She searched the clear waters for sparkling geodes, the way she and Nora used to do. She spotted a particularly round rock and reached for it.
A cold chill swept through her as she grabbed it and sank back onto her heels. She lifted her gaze to the opposite bank, and she immediately spotted the reason for that chill:Another shade beast was watching her.
She froze with the rock in her hand. She was wearing the prince’s ring, and yet that beast was still there.
