re Gu

calculating depths of my soul. The face in the mirror had to be that of a girl, per

my bedr

familiar scent of beeswax and old wood filled my lungs, a scent I

in an elegant twist, her smile as warm as the sunlight that had just woken me. She was alive. Healthy. Not the

tle melody. "I was about to send a search

und my heart. A sob caught in my throat. Before I could say another word, I cro

ney, clinging to her as if she were the only solid thing in a collapsing world.

rce affection. She patted my back gently. "My swe

speak. A bad dream. The understatement of two lifetime

only a dream." She pulled back, her brow furrowed with gentle

er wolf howling at a crescent moon. In my memory, that necklace had been ripped

my gaze drawn to

his arm around my mother. His eyes, the same icy blue as mine, held a stern but loving light. My uncles,

t in my past life, the flames tu

cold, hard knot in my stomach. I forced it

hoarse. "It was just... a very vivid

izing up a soldier just back from the battlefield. In the end, she didn't press further-only brushed the back

ch clicked shut, and the strength drained from my legs. I slid down the co

lenore. Ju

betrayal, loss, and a desperate, futile struggle for survival, all as real and present as the floorboards beneath me.

nce family. Britta Vance, jealous of my status and my supposed engagement to Everet, would use the pa

e, I had hidden in the gardens for the rest of the night, avoiding every

et Cantu had so skillfully widened, presenting himself as the one p

weakness. A weakness

m

ardrobe, shoving aside the frothy, pastel-colored gowns that filled it. They we

midnight blue. My mother had commissioned it for me to wear during archery pra

e bottom. Inside was a silver letter opener, a gift from a visiting diplomat. It was slender, with a leaf-patterned h

illing stillness. This wasn't just for me. It was for the woman humming in the hallway, fo

impossible for the girl I was supposed to be. I swept my silver hair up, not into a soft, romantic style, but into a sev

I would see tonight. Their alliances, th

e door. "Miss Elenore? I

, Fi

dle of ribbons in her hand. She stopped dead

rson staring back at her from the mirror was a stranger. A wom

ammered, "you lo

ngerous smile playing on my lips. "Good,"