I smoothed my nightgown over my belly. I had already…taken care ofthose aching feelings that had plagued me all day. I could have just stayed in my own bedroom, but I did not want to leave volatile Annalisa alone after her whole family went into a frenzy at dinner. She might even light the palace on fire if someone were not there to talk her down.
The door unlatched and I sat up. Annalisa trudged in, her curls a mess and her blue dress smeared with dark splotches of rabbit stew. A few red scratches marred her face, but I found no evidence that she had received a kiss from the empress’s blade.
Instead of greeting me with an insult or complaint like I expected, she yanked her unfinished painting off the easel and ran to her window. Before I could stop her, she threw the window open and hurled her canvas into the night with a scream.
“Anna! Why would you—?”
“It was awful!” She whipped around, tears streaking down her cheeks. “Horrible! Grigory deserves better—”
A hard knock echoed on the door. Annalisa stomped over to answer before I could take a single step.
She yanked the handle but only left a crack in the door. “What?”
“Is Serafina there? She was not in her bedroom.”
I furrowed my brows. The voice belonged to Derrick but it did not sound like him.
“Everyone has had enough of you for one day,” Annalisa snapped.
“I need her.”
Something about his clipped words sent a shiver down my spine.
“Go away, Derrick!” Annalisa shouted, slamming the door in his face and locking it.
Her whole body clenched and she screamed behind her teeth. She stormed over to her window and gripped the windowsill. Her curls danced in the gentle night breeze.
I quietly joined her and gently pulled on the loose laces of her dress. Camille and Dinah usually fawned over Annalisa after a spat with one of her sisters when we were in school, but now I was all she had.
Annalisa complied as I slid off her bodice and then untied her skirt, but she just stared into the night as the waves crashed against the cliffs below.
She seemed so…hollow. I had to fix it.
I placed my hand on her shoulder. My crystal radiated a gentle warmth against my leg as my magic activated—maybe she would let me in. “You are not worthless, Anna.”
She let out a shaking breath, but did not respond.
I kept my hand on her shoulder and joined her at her side, letting the soft sea air kiss my cheeks. “You are the most talented artist I know. You are brave and honest, even when no one wants to hear it.”
Iwas only honest because magic forced me to be.
I leaned my head further out the window so I could look into her eyes. “Neverunderestimate the freedom honesty gives you.”
Annalisa’s lip trembled. “‘Der’ was my name for him. ‘Lis’ was his name for me. We had our own made-up language.”
She choked on her words as her eyes brimmed with tears. I stroked my thumb on her shoulder and rain fell in my mind again.
She let me in.
“He is my twin, the other half of my soul…but now he hates me too.”
The rain fell harder and my vision swam. I closed my eyes and over the sound of the rainfall I heard two small children giggling and stomping in puddles.
“Race you to the bull statue, Lis!” A small boy called over the rain.
Annalisa turned and I let go of her shoulder. I opened my eyes as the magical connection between the two of us broke. Annalisa had just sent me a memory, but she did not seem to realize she had done anything.
She crossed the room where a thin castle tower painted on the wall stood guard near her dressing table. A long vine of rainbow flowers curled up the tower.
