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“Are you really going to persist with the charade? Isn’t my presence here enough to prove the game is over?”
I swallowed hard, glad of my veil. “I don’t understand what you’re accusing me of.”
“Did you really think I wouldn’t find you?”
“I’m not who you think.”
“Let’s see, why don’t we.” He reached for me, and I recoiled.
“Don’t touch me!” I exclaimed.
“Don’t fake false modesty. Remove it or I will remove it for you.”
“No—”
Before I could finish my sentence, he lunged, dragging me against his hard body.
I gasped. “How dare you!” Meanwhile, Palla did nothing, which surprised. A glance at my friend showed her frozen. Literally. “What did you do to Palla?”
“Ensured she didn’t get involved.”
“How?” I’d not seen him get close enough to her to cast any potions.
“You’re not the only one with tricks,tizana.” I could see the sneer as he said it.
“What you see on the stage is an act. Nothing more.”
He still had a hold of me as he growled, “Take off the veil.”
Defying him wouldn’t serve any purpose. In a physical battle, I’d lose.
I glared as I removed it. Maybe he wouldn’t recognize me. The hue of my skin, color of my eyes and hair, my entire appearance had shifted drastically.
He gripped my chin and eyed me side to side. “I see your spell has worn off.”
“Spell?” I snorted. “Are you going to blather on about magic again?”
“How do you think I froze your friend?”
I glanced at Palla, still frozen in place. “Wait, are you claiming to use magic to keep her from moving?”
“Would you like me to do it to you too?”
“Go ahead,” I dared him. “Magic isn’t real.”
“Oh yes it is, Sharia, who is Tizana Sunra on stage but was born Asharee, daughter of Marizka and Petr. Thought to be dead with her family of a gigamander attack.”
My blood ran cold. My mouth dried. “How do you know that?”
“I’m king. I have access to all the records in this land and then some. People die. There’s a notation of it. A visitor from another country, related to a queen, arrives in my city and visits a widow before the castle and I have to wonder why. And so I inquire about this Qynn, who, it turns out, is a retired tizana. I find out about the girls she fostered. Discover she has one girl who disappears of a sudden illness just as a stranger appears in our city. One who was so obviously not Weztrogian.”
He knew an insane amount about me. “When did you suspect I wasn’t Jrijori’s niece?”
“The moment I saw you.”
“What gave it away?”
“The fire inside you. You didn’t have the ice of the Weztrogian mountains in your eyes. I saw fire. Heat. The kind that comes from the desert.”
