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“—has been masquerading as me.”
“Don’t listen to her!”
The Raya on the left flings a hand up, smile apologetic as she tucks one of her many wayward curls of dark hair behind her ear. “This fraud was one of my handmaidens. She stole my fairies and my identity.”
“She tried to kill me!” the other Raya screeches. “But I fought back.She’sthe one who’s dangerous!”
“If everyone could justcalm down!” Cyrus yells, as if anyone ever calmed down from the wordscalm down.“We can settle this matter in private—”
“We will handle thishere,with everyone as witness, so that I may have a fair trial,” the left Raya harrumphs. She spreads her arms wide. “Test me for glamour. Drench us in blood if you must. I have nothing to hide, unlikesome people.”
As I make my way closer, her dark eyes turn—tome.Not to the other Raya, but to me, and my heart beats louder and louder, as if it knows to fear something I’ve yet to comprehend. Her words thread through my mind again, and the sinister note in her voice hooks a memory, sending shivers down the back of my neck….
The Witch of Nightmares.
As if she senses my recognition, a smirk slices across her face before it disappears with a bat of her lashes. I suffocate suddenly, veins throbbing ice as all sense escapes me.
“She’s—” I snap my mouth shut as soon as I open it. No. There is too much that can’t be explained in front of a crowd. Because the other Raya must be Nadiya; Nadiya can’t act like anyone else if she tried. But if Nadiya’s true face is revealed, she’ll be marked as guilty immediately, when the truly dangerous one is standing next to her.
“Let me look into their threads,” I say, moving past the guards. “No blood has to be spilled today. I can figure out who the real Raya is.”
The witch narrows her gaze. “Why do you get to decide?”
“I’m the Seer.”
“Seers can lie.” She tosses her hair. “What do you have to lose if they test us both for glamour? Unless, perhaps, you were working with the fraud this entire time?”
“We can do both tests,” I grit, peeling off my gloves. “It’s not up tothe accusedto decide how we handle this. I think His Highness would agree, right, Cyrus?” I hope he can see which one is clearly Nadiya and which one isn’t. He doesn’t know that the other one is the same person who’s been invading my head, suggesting Istab him.
When I glance at the prince, he’s frowning at me, brow furrowed, as if conflicted.
“What’s wrong?”
He looks at the waiting crowd, to the Rayas, and rolls a tongue around his cheek. “The only person…who verified that Nadiya was telling the truth…was you.”
He says this as quietly as he can, but with all attention on us, we can’t avoid being overheard. Murmurs of“Who’s Nadiya?”blister through the crowd.
I shake my head. “So? I read her past threads. They’re memories, not predictions. There’s no guessing involved. What I saw was the truth.”
But Cyrus only keeps staring at me, and I realize that’s not what he means.
He doesn’t trustme.
I gape. “You can’t be doubting that I saw—I swear that’s what I saw. I saw Raya d—” But I have to stop myself. I can’t say that I saw her die, not in front of everyone else. That would require another explanation. “You don’t believe me, do you?”
He inhales sharply and doesn’t answer me. Only muttersto himself, “I can’t believe I didn’t check. We’ve been relying on only your testimony, going on a wild raven chase….”
“Enough of this,” the witch scowls. “The only fraud is this former handmaiden of mine, and—from this looks of this—your Seer. She has clearly been prophesying lies to slander me. She has been trying to seduce the prince for herself, and it seems like she’s succeeded.”
I throw a guilty look at Cyrus too quickly, who only stares at me, frozen, and I wonder what’s taking him so long to take control of this situation. With a disgusted grunt, I snarl, “This is ridiculous. Cyrus and I hate each other—”
“You’re right.” The prince finally speaks, but it’s a second too late when I realize he isn’t speaking to me. “Violet tried to seduce me.”
The lurch in my stomach is so violent, I think it could drag me down to my knees. The gasps tiding through the room could be a roar. I whip around to face him.What—
Then I look beyond him, toward the crowd. If you weren’t looking for foul play, you wouldn’t see it, subtle in the too-wide eyes and open mouths on everyone’s faces, like their minds are not entirely their own. They’re enchanted. The witch is enchanting them, like how Nadiya enchanted everyone at the ball.
“The Seer told me I didn’t have a chance with His Highness.”
