“It is unnerving, the unique skills of your kind. It will take time to become accustomed to it, though I will say I am enjoying my newfound freedom in your land.” Her piercing gaze shifts from Zander to me. She bows deeply. “I am Caster Gesine, Your Highness. We knew each other once, but I see now that Wendeline was right, and I am no longer a familiar face. You are Romeria, but not the one who left Ybaris.”
My heart skips a beat as I search the shop for the older woman. I see nothing but walls of shelves lined with jars and mirrors reflecting my face back at me. “Where is Ianca?”
“She is safe outside of Cirilea. The journey here was long and took its toll on her, but she is anxious to meet you. Wendeline said you did not know what you had in your old life.”
I shake my head. “I didn’t believe in any of this.”
“Did Aoife curse me?” Zander interrupts. “Did she weaken my mind by binding my heart to Romeria?”
I clench my teeth against the sting of that question.
Gesine’s green eyes flitter between the two of us. “We can discuss what she did when the time is right. I think you will see soon that it does not matter.”
“You speak in riddles,” he growls.
“It may seem like that.” She nods to my hand. “That ring. Remove it if you will. I would like to get a sense of your power for myself.”
Zander watches me intently as I slip Queen Isla’s ring off my finger. That heady thrum of power begins crawling through my body almost instantly, intensifying with each passing moment.
“Remarkable.” Awe blossoms over Gesine’s face. “It is unpleasant for you?”
“Very.” I don’t know how to describe this sensation. It’s a mix between the prickling, tingling buzz of pins and needles in my limbs, and a surge of adrenaline through my veins.
“That feeling will dull when you learn how to contain it.”
“Thank God for that,” I mutter. In the shadows behind Gesine, I spot an unfamiliar woman’s face staring back at me. I startle, and seeing that it’s a reflection in a mirror, spin around to look behind me. Only Zander is there.
I turn to face the mirror again, my wariness edging in.
I reach up to touch my cheek.
The woman in the reflection does the same.
I touch my nose.
She does the same.
“Oh my God,” I whisper, clutching at my neck as waves of shock engulf me.
The floating orb brightens, shining more light.
I take in the stranger looking back at me, with her angular face, her pale-blue eyes, and her heart-shaped lips. The only similar thing to both of us is the color of our hair. “This isn’t my face.” Or my voice.
“An illusion,” Gesine confirms. “The caster bound that to the ring, as well. To give you some semblance of familiarity, and make the transition into Princess Romeria’s body easier.”
“To help me.” This was Sofie’s version of help, along with the spells to stifle my caster powers. She thought of everything.
“I would suggest you slip the ring back on for now. Until you learn how to contain what stirs inside you, you will not be able to focus on much of anything else, and we have a journey ahead of us.”
Within seconds of the cool gold band encasing my finger again, the purring adrenaline quells. I glance up to see my familiar face in the mirror once again. The one constant that I’ve known all my life.
It’s the only thing I have left.
A single knock sounds on the door, and Elisaf ducks in. “Soldiers are moving in. We have only a moment.”
“We must move with haste, then.” With a sweep of Gesine’s hand, the counter slides aside to reveal a gaping hole beneath and the tip of a ladder.
I push aside my bewilderment at her ability to do that. “The last time I followed an elemental somewhere, she sent me to this godforsaken place and put me in this body.”
Gesine dips her head as if to acknowledge my anxiety. “My only purpose here is to guide you in what already is.”
Do I believe her? I don’t think I have much choice. I can’t stay here, and it’s clear I’m not welcome to follow Zander.
I look to him now.
“The Legion will be waiting for me.” His eyes drift to my mouth, and something unreadable passes. “This is where we part ways, Romeria Watts of New York City.”
“Right.” Where he was once a stranger to me, now I am one to him, regardless of the nights we’ve shared. An ache stirs in my chest, but I set my jaw. “Goodbye.”
His jaw tenses.
“You have misunderstood,” Gesine says. “You both must come.”
“No,” Zander and I counter in unison.
“She is not safe anywhere around me, and we have different paths,” Zander adds quietly.
“Your path is the same and must be taken together. Romeria, I’m sorry, but the old is now destined with the new, and there is no going back. There is only forward.” Her eyes show sympathy.
I nod. I knew as much.
She shifts her attention to Zander. “The seers have seen the end of the blood curse, and it is at the tied hands of the Ybarisan daughter of Aoife and the Islorian son of Malachi. Is that not what you wish?”
“Yes, I have seen it too. So did everyone sitting in that square today. I know what Romeria is, and that is not how I want to change Islor. Not by killing my people.” Bitterness flares in his voice.
Her responding smile is gentle. “That is Aoife’s way, but that is not the only way.”
“And what will you get out of this? Do not tell me you have risked yourself for the sake of Islor.”
Her fingertips skate over her golden collar. “Freedom for my kind, eventually. Perhaps I will see it before my days come to an end. Perhaps not.”
Shouts ring outside. Elisaf steals another glance from the curtain. “We no longer have another option.” He points toward the opening in the floor.
With a deep sigh, Zander nods.
One by one, we climb down the ladder. My boots splash in murky water that smells of sewage. Torches reveal a dank tunnel that leads into darkness.
With another wave of Gesine’s hand, the counter drags itself back into place, hiding our route. Her sleeve falls with the movement, revealing an emblem that shimmers with a golden glow.
I point to it. “What is that?”
“My affinity to Aoife.” She pulls her sleeve up and holds her arm out, allowing me a chance to study the mark—a circle encasing a golden deer that spans the width of her forearm. There are two more circles in a line above it, only smaller, one with a bronze bull, and the other with a silver butterfly. “I have affinities to three elements, though my ties to water are much stronger than the other two.”
“Find the gilded doe,” I whisper. Is this what my father meant? Find Gesine?
“We will take this tunnel to the rookery where there is a skiff waiting to sail us outside the Cirilean border.”
“I must meet my soldiers in Eldred Wood.” Zander’s voice offers no negotiation.
“And then we will head north together, to the Venhorn Mountains.”
Elisaf groans. He’s clearly not fond of that plan.
“You know what lives in those mountains.” Zander gives Gesine a pointed look.