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I hugged my knees and let the infinite sky embrace me. Old gods, so far away they were but pinpricks, stared down. Were they leaving us for something better?
Lumi Komarova, I silently said to the gods, hoping they might carry my words to her and make her stop ignoring me.Sister, other side of my Spirit. We need to talk.
The magic spiraled out of me, past the people bartering, partying, and arguing below. I pushed it down the bond that let me find my twin sister during the fire.
The stream grew into a river as I let go.
“Don’t ignore me.”
Nothing.
The bats squeaked as they returned home.
The palace glittered like marcasite when the first rays of sun hit it. Below me, Tal was going to sleep, the palace waking up. How could they understand us if we did not even inhabit the same parts of the day?
Leaning against the cupolas of the Royal Theater’s roof terrace, I broke my fast on the bread I took from Mandible Street. I could hide here, in the theater attic, among old costumes and props during the day. Search for Lumi and a way to reach Dimitri during the night. Surely von Lemerch had more pressing concerns than tracking me down. Especially as her silencing curse still held.
After reading the letter I carried everywhere in the bag strapped to my thigh, I could have run to Dimitri, begged him to trust the words and me, despite having revealed I was a fraud. Hope and lorists’ tales of love overcoming all had told me to do it. If my sister had not been delivering the real princess to the palace that morning, I might have tried. Not even the Wishmaker could have made him listen to a word I had to say after Helia von Heskin revealed she had been kept prisoner by my twin.
It seemed all my life, I had pretended to be someone else. Ironically, the stolen moments alone with the prince during the previous month had been the most genuine of my life. Not that he would believe that anymore.
Howhe left after I could not even give him my name replayed for the thousandth time in my mind. The confusion in his mismatched eyes had transformed into betrayal. Face closed as he retreated.
I had been honest, shown him my most precious memories, and it had pushed him away.
Perhaps, with the real glass crown and Helia now in his possession, it would be like I had never been a princess. Like we had not fought and kissed, shared secrets and touches. Just an impossible dream I had woken from. If only I could be sure this was enough to disrupt von Lemerch’s plans to take the throne and kill him.
It had been the right thing to do. His resulting rejection understandable. Or so I told myself every time my chest constricted, and regret filled me. I still had to reveal the letter’s contents to him. Somehow find a way for him to trust it.
Could the magic reach him in the distant palace? It was a foolish desire, a wish fueled by shared moments I could not forget no matter how he must hate me now. I sighed and turned from the glittering palace windows to the equally distant stars.
Before I left, I had questioned Flora von Heskin, my pretend aunt, and though she had not revealed much, it was enough. Von Lemerch had promised her the prominent place of Talian ambassador if she incapacitated Helia, the real princess set to marry my prince.
She had told me the royal Oberwaldian sigil on Helia’s arm, a copy of which decorated my own, would have informed Helia’s mother, the Head of her House, if she died, and possibly even roughly where she was. Helia had wanted to break off the engagement, and von Lemerch could not allow that to happen. That’s how Helia ended up in a half-dead stasis under my sister’s watch. Flora had insistedthat after the Day of the Dead, nothing in Tal would be the same because the Goddess was rising and I would regret my betrayal.
Perhaps if I had not overheard how they did not plan for me to survive either way, her threats would have mattered more.
During the whole conversation, my stepsister stared silently. Whatever she knew, she would never talk. Not after I cursed her.
The theater stood at the edge of North’s Place, the view almost identical to the one Lumi and I admired after the failed theft at the von Mekeln manor that started it all. Though for her, it started years ago.
Again, I unsuccessfully directed the magic to reach for her. When she revealed how many secrets she had kept from me and demanded I pick a side, there had been no time to talk. She wanted me to follow her into more death and mayhem. And I could not. It seemed by choosing to save Dimitri, my sister had decided I had placed myself against her.
I rested my hand on the closed bag. Lumi and her rebel friends needed to know the contents as much as the prince did. I might do at least that much good after getting involved in this mess, for even if the royals believed the incredible truth it carried, I doubted the king would share it with the wider population.
Ivan Gregorious III of Tal had sickened the day after I exchanged the letters. Had von Lemerch wanted only to ensure he did not learn the truth, or had I infected him? My hands shook despite the summer heat. Unless von Lemerch told me, I would never know that either, and I planned to never see her again.
In the dawn light, I memorized the picture drawn at the back of the paper—a delicate white star flower. Pretty. Seemingly innocent. Deceptive. Would Dimitri describe me the same?
Icould not remember having ever seen its likeness, but flowers grew everywhere in Tal. If I found it, other answers would be close by. The picture was signed Lord Bersig, Councilor of Tal. He might write the king again after not receiving an answer. Hopefully, the king would be alive to receive the letter.
The song of the early morning, birds calling to each other, street sweepers whistling, bats settling, joined the melody inside me.
Lumi, where are you?
Again, the magic rose in answer to my wish. It sped through the bond between us, a fifth limb I had felt my whole life without realizing and found only emptiness on the other side. But she was out there, alive, somewhere. The knowledge stilled my panic.
The truths about our heritage were as much mine as hers. She had denied me part of myself, not trusted me to make my own decisions. Now, she denied me the opportunity to confront her. Once, I thought her not at home in the dark. How wrong I’d been.
