[MAGGIE'S PoV]

Of the multitude of things I suck at, archery was definitely a big one. But at least it was a distraction from my growing distrust of Raini and her creepy goth boyfriend—well, fiancé. I suppose Tobias, the friendly knight with the sort-of-but-not-really southern accent, was her boyfriend. It was a weird dynamic to keep track of.

After spending hours cooped up in Raini's tower watching her practice sorcery, Raini led me to a training ground located off the palace's giant hedge maze. Cas was there, along with Tobias, Julian, that Ander fellow, and a few other knights I didn't recognize. Lion was there too, or so I assumed from the mane of curly dark hair.

She playfully taunted Cas as he notched an arrow, but then Julian said something in her ear and she hurried to pull her helmet on and excuse herself from the area.

"She doesn't like me," Raini said with a light, laughing huff.

"Why is that?" I shivered against the chill and pulled my shawl tighter around my shoulders. Snow dusted the roses dotting the hedges. What month was it now? I'd lost track of how much time I'd spent here in the Shadow Realm.

"Oh I don't care to know, I'm not particularly fond of her either." Raini shrugged, then looped her arm with mine and grinned. "You like me, don't you?"

No, my gut responded. Anyone who could talk so calmly about "stealing the magical essence" from a non-human wasn't going to rank highly on my list. But obviously, I couldn't say that. Even if I didn't like her, I needed her to like me. I needed her to feel comfortable enough around me to answer my questions. "I do!" I answered cheerfully. "I like you a lot, your brother too. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to meet you."

Raini patted my hand and smiled over at me as we crossed the final distance to the training ground. "I have a feeling we're going to be great friends."

I smiled as well, relieved that she seemed satisfied with my response. "I think so too."

Then she turned and waved towards her brother. "Oh Kitty-Cas, look who I brought!"

Cas sent an arrow flying wide, inches from Ander's head. The blonde knight looked up from his book and fixed Casimir with a dark look, the depths of which I couldn't fully identify.

"Lady Jacint-J-Jackie, hello again!" Cas waved to me with the hand that gripped his longbow. The knights standing in his proximity stepped back.

"I'll take that," Julian muttered, prying the bow from Cas's grip.

Cas bounded over to me on long legs, grinning from ear to ear. He too had changed his outfit from our dip in the fountain that morning and was now dressed in tan trousers and a billowy shirt in a lovely shade of blue. Again he was crownless, but I suppose it would get uncomfortable to wear one all hours of the day. "I'm s-sorry for this morning," he said.

"Oh no, that was completely my fault." I shook my head, only half-noticing as Raini unwound her arm from mine and floated over to where Sir Tobias stood. Favaro had separated from us shortly after we left the sorcery tower, claiming important business, and Carlyle had decided it was in our best interest to follow him, so now I was once again alone-or as alone as I could be in a crowd of knights-with Prince Casimir.

"I'm starving," I continued, "when's dinner?"

"We'll be joining mother at the theater shortly-dinner will be served there. Until then do you—would you like to try archery?" Cas offered, nervously twisting his fingers. "Here you can use my—wait, where's my bow?"

Julian cleared his throat and nodded to the weapon in question.

"I hope you don't mind shooting left-handed," Cas said as he took gentle hold of my shoulders and steered me in front of the target.

I nervously took the bow from Julian and accepted an arrow from Cas. "I don't think it matters what hand I use, I'll injure someone either way."

Julian, Raini, Tobias, and the others all took additional steps back. Ander closed his book and excused himself from the training grounds. Smart move.

Cas stood behind me and explained how to properly hold the bow, how to notch an arrow, how to pull back the strings. For a moment it was like he forgot he was talking to me. His words came out smoother, more confident, and full of an energy I hadn't yet heard from him.

"My father taught me how to shoot," he said. "Just before the war started. I hope to one day show him my improvement but..."

"But?" I echoed, frowning as I tried to line up my aim with the bullseye. "Can't he just come down from his room and watch you?"

"Father isn't here, actually. He was gravely injured in the war and wen to our northern palace to recover. I haven't seen him since." Cas sighed.

I let the arrow fly and was pleasantly surprised when it hit the target. Not remotely close to the bullseye, but at least I hadn't skewered a knight. I prodded a bit further. "You haven't been to visit him?"

Cas handed me another arrow and shook his head. "Mother won't allow it. I write him letters, though."

I made a mental note to include this information in my next letter to Kindle. While notching the next arrow I met Cas's eyes with the sweetest, lash-fluttering gaze I could muster, while trying to keep my tone casual. "I take it King Jareth isn't planning further expansion any time soon then?"

Cas's face went bright red and he flicked his eyes to his feet. "N-n-no definitely not. We—er, the knights—Lumina's main focus is to keep the non-humans from rebelling. We don't have the power to expand further and pr-probably couldn't um, couldn't handle another war. We just need to keep the rest of the Realm in line. K-keep the citizens safe."

That was promising information for sure. I repeated his words a few times over in my mind so that I could get the exact phrasing down in my letter. I probably wouldn't have a chance to get back to my room before the play, but I didn't want to forget what he'd said. I asked, "don't you have a lot of soldiers, though?"

"Not r-really, no. Mother has been trying to remove funding from the m-military in order to fuel repair efforts and w-work on fostering goodwill between Lumina and the n-non-human nations. F-father's advisors are ruling in his stead and they're n-not happy about it at all."

I frowned but kept my tone light. "What would you estimate the numbers are then?"

Before Cas could answer, Raini shouted, "Jacintha dear, please stop flirting and shoot already!"

Casimir's face somehow managed to go even redder, and he took a small stumbling step away from me. I notched the arrow again, aimed, and fired. Raini ruined what had been a perfect information gathering moment, but I kept the irritation off my face. There would be other chances, maybe that night at the play?

After my fourth attempt— when a bee buzzed a bit too close to my ear, my aim went wildly off course, and the arrow plunked off of Julian's chest plate—I decided I'd had enough archery and passed the bow back to Cas. Defeated, I trudged to Raini's side.

He set up his next shot and pulled the string effortlessly, the arrow landing maybe a centimeter short of the bullseye. The attending knights clapped politely.

"He's very good at that," I commented.

"You should see him when he's not distracted. I dare say my brother is the best archer in the realm." Raini giggled. "You have an odd habit of breaking him."

I watched him shoot, his warm brown eyes intent on the target, and considered Raini's words. What was Cas like when I wasn't around? Could he form full sentences and walk straight lines? It was hard to imagine, but it made sense. Given how mortified Julian looked during my first encounter with Cas in the woods, maybe he was used to a much more coherent Prince Casimir.

Would I ever get to meet that Cas? I regretted the thought as soon as it entered my mind. Considering I planned to murder his mother and vanish to a different realm in just a few short days, that didn't seem likely. But before I could dwell on it, some missed cue passed between the assembled knights and everyone dispersed for the evening.

Raini looped her arm through mine once again and led me in the direction of the hedge maze. She was touchy-feely in a way that made me miss Faye. "Have you ever had honey braised unicorn?" she asked.

"Definitely not," I answered, swallowing my surprise. This wasn't the first mention of unicorns I'd heard in my time here— I'd even seen one once, briefly, in the stables of the Abandoned Order's manor. But this was the first I'd heard it described as food.

I briefly considered claiming to be a vegetarian, but I'd already eaten bacon at breakfast that morning. At least, I thought it was bacon. In light of this new information, I sincerely hoped it was bacon.

"It's delicious, you'll have to try it," Raini continued, unfazed by my quickly paling face. "They'll be serving that and herb-crusted kelpie as the main dishes at dinner. Surely you've had kelpie?"

I shook my head. Now that I thought about it, going vegetarian for the remainder of my time in the Shadow Realm didn't seem like a half-bad idea.

"D-don't force yourself to try unicorn if you don't wish to, dear Jacintha," Cas said quietly as he joined us at my other side. I may as well give up on trying to get him to call me any sort of nickname. "I um, I can't bring myself to eat it either. Not since I helped deliver a foal in the royal menagerie."

"There's a menagerie?" I gasped, my hand finding his arm.

Cas smiled, a blush coloring his cheeks as his eyes flicked to my hand. He stumbled twice over his own feet, then nodded and mumbled. "Would you like to see it?"

I managed not to laugh at him. "Absolutely."

His smile grew brighter, rivaling the sunset behind him. "Excellent. Tomorrow after breakfast. I'll take you."

I wondered how many animals our worlds had in common. Would this menagerie be entirely made up of creatures of legend, or would they have animals I knew— giraffes, elephants, lions?

At that thought, I glanced behind us at the distantly shrinking training ground. It was empty now, save for a tiny cluster of stewards putting the weapons and targets away.

Julian trailed a few feet behind us, chatting amicably with Tobias. Lion hadn't rejoined us. Cas had mentioned wanting to introduce us, but given her constant disappearing act, I wondered how likely that was to happen. I didn't really care to meet her, but if she was as much Cas's guard as Julian, I wanted to at least be able to write about her in my report back to Seraphim. If they were sending me home, the least I could do was be thorough.

Maybe she would come with us to the menagerie. Or maybe she would be at the dinner show that night.

Apparently, the royal theater wasn't attached to the palace. The royal family, their attending knights, and all the guests of the ball were loaded into gold-trimmed carriages to be driven the short distance to Realta's entertainment district.

Before I had the chance to climb into Cas's carriage, Raini once again spirited me away. Her's was even more opulent, with plush green velvet cushions on the seats and a mural of a tree on the ceiling. Its roots were gold-leafed, curling down around the curtained windows all the way to the floor.

"We'll have more fun riding together. The boys are so very dull." She fluffed out her gown as she took a seat. "Besides, this will give you the opportunity to properly introduce yourself to Mama."

"Mama?" I echoed, just before the carriage door opened and Queen Amaranth herself was handed in. The spacious carriage suddenly felt cramped and stuffy beyond measure.

"Good evening, my firefly," Amaranth greeted Raini with a soft smile.

Raini's own smile flickered in a way I couldn't quite process. "Good evening, Mother. Have you met my new friend Lady Jacintha?"

"I have," Amaranth answered, gracefully taking the unoccupied seat beside the carriage window. For one embarrassing moment I thought she wasn't even going to look at me, but then her ashen eyes found mine and I prayed for invisibility. "I see you've had time to dry off."

"Yes ma'am," I breathed. Ma'am? Was that formal enough for greeting a queen? Whether it was or not, she said nothing else to me for the entire trip to the theater.

That wasn't to say the ride was silent. Raini happily carried on a conversation with both of us, carefully engineered in a way that allowed me to avoid speaking directly to Amaranth. I would have to thank her for that later.

The theater itself was gorgeous, not that I expected any less, but the round white structure was unlike anything else I'd seen in Lumina, or in the entire realm for that matter. It looked like something out of a history textbook—Roman, or maybe Greek. It was all stark marble columns and draping tapestries with glinting gold thread, accented by what I was certain were real gemstones.

"Father commissioned the best architect in Nox to build this. If those gnats are good for anything, its design sensibilities." Raini sniffed in response to my open-mouthed awe.

I quickly snapped my mouth shut and smiled her way, ready to comment on the beauty of the structure or my growing hunger, but words left me when from somewhere on the crowded street behind us, I heard my name.

Not Lady Jacintha. Magdalyn.

I whipped around, but none of the passersby were looking in our direction. It hadn't been Carlyle; he was back at the palace, and besides, he only called me Maggie.

"Is something wrong?" Raini asked. She'd already moved a few paces ahead, joined by her brother and their knights.

"I thought I heard..." I shook my head. It had been a long day, and I was deliriously hungry. "Nothing."

I hurried after them into the theater. The inside was as lavish as I was expecting, maybe more, and bustling with nobles. Cas, Raini, the Queen and I were lead by a steward up two flights of stairs to what I assumed was the royal box.

It seemed that during the carriage ride Cas had slipped on a neatly tailored coat and arranged his crown amongst red curls. He smiled at me, then missed a step on the stairs and nearly brought the steward down trying to right himself.

"Stars, help me," Julian muttered, low enough that no one else seemed to hear him. During our ascent to the box, I'd ended up right behind him. We hadn't really spoken since the ball when he called me beautiful. I still wasn't sure what to think of that. He certainly didn't seem happy with the concept, but I was beginning to realize that Julian's only states of existence were annoyance and exasperation.

"Juju," I called, climbing a bit quicker to squeeze myself onto the same step as him.

He glanced my way. "Still running with that unfortunate pet name?"

I ignored the ire in his tone. "Is the other knight coming? Lion?"

"Now that would be a wonder," Julian scoffed. "Most likely she's off tormenting the new recruits with combat drills—She'd mentioned something about wanting to scare off the lazy ones. As if I didn't have to drag her kicking and screaming through most drills her first month."

We reached the top of the stairs and were quickly ushered to our seats at a long wooden table. Cas was surprisingly forceful as he grabbed my shoulders and steered me to the seat right next to his. "There," he sighed as he sat down.

Raini took the seat at my other side, amusement plain on her face. She fluttered her golden fan. It seemed to be a habit for her, even though the theater was plenty cool already. Somehow Favaro had made his way to the theater as well, and he took the seat at the end by Raini.

Amaranth took the final seat, at Cas's right, and only then did it occur to me that the knights wouldn't be eating with us. Julian and Tobias didn't seem to mind. They stood tall and confident by the stairs, ready to shield us from anyone who might try to climb up. Hopefully they'd found time to eat beforehand or I would feel horrible the entire meal.

Now that we were settled and servants bustled around pouring deep red wine in our goblets, I took the time to admire the full majesty of the theater stretched out before us.

With the way the box was structured, I could see the entire stage below us while also having a great, up-close view of the gorgeous mural on the ceiling. A map of the world, or so I assumed. I recognized The Realm Under Twin Shadows from countless hours playing SoL, an almost triangular continent with Lumina in the middle and Nox, Aeterna, and Ignus at each of its points.

But the rest of the ceiling was covered with islands and landmasses I didn't recognize. There was swirling Luminous script naming each significant body of land— Fiametta, Melotto, Doone, Eyaden, Eupemia. Silly as it was, up until that moment I hadn't really thought about the fact that this was a world. A planet, more than just the tumultuous continent I was familiar with.

What were those other places like? Were they constantly at war with themselves like the Shadow Realm? Or were they unified, more concerned with fighting other kingdoms across the sea? I wasn't dumb enough to think there was peace anywhere. Not even on earth did we have that luxury.

Before my strangely sullen thoughts could get any darker, the curtain rose on the stage, and the first course of dinner arrived with it. "Oh, thank the Lord," I sighed as some sort of pale, creamy chowder was placed in front of me.

I dug in immediately, and had an unladylike mouthful of steaming hot corn—it was definitely corn—chowder when Cas asked, "what Lord? This meal was provided by the palace staff."

Swallowing hard, I hid my mouth behind my napkin in an attempt to regain some dignity as I tried to come up with a valid, believable response. I had nothing, but thankfully I didn't need to worry about it. Down on the stage, a well-dressed man took center stage and all chatter on the lower levels hushed.

"Welcome, everyone, to this most glorious celebration." The man shouted, his voice booming out over the crowd even without the aid of a microphone. The acoustics of the theater were amazing. "Tonight we honor twenty-five years of marriage between merciful King Jareth and his devoted queen, Amaranth." He gestured towards our box as he spoke.

Ah, so that's what this week-long ball was all about. How sad the king himself wasn't here to enjoy it. Surely he could come down from his palace in the north for something as important as this?

Amaranth nodded her head demurely to the man on the stage, her tired face revealing no deeper emotion.

"Join me on a journey through the years, as we witness the story of our King's life, our Queen's love, and our kingdom's strength!" With a final flourish of his hands, he bowed off stage as the lights dimmed and a single spotlight illuminated the center of the stage.

String music swelled from the pit, and a man and woman dressed as royalty stepped into the spotlight. The woman held a baby bundled in cloth the color of Lumina's flag. The man's arms encircled them both protectively. "We will name him Jareth," intoned the man.

The spotlight went out, and a moment later the stage lights rose in full at the cue of the music. The man and woman, who I gathered were supposed to be King Abaddon and Queen Lynn, danced their way around the stage as a parade of older and older identically dressed boys wove around them— Jareth, at different stages in his life:

Young Jareth learning to paint with his mother, preteen Jareth departing for the knight academy, teenage Jareth studying battle strategy with his father. At some point, a young, frail-looking brown haired girl joined the parents on stage, and teen Jareth danced to soft music with her on his toes.

Cas must have noticed the confusion on my face because he leaned over to whisper. "That's Meiranda, Father's little sister. You may not have heard of her, she was sickly her whole life and died young."

That only served to confuse me further. I never knew Jareth had a sister— she wasn't mentioned in the game.

The set changed slightly, with the castle of Lumina shifting to the left to make room for a colorful castle of sandstone and stained glass to take up the right. As the castle emerged, so did a line of scantily clad dancers with bad body paint and a cluster of about six crowned men and women with equally coppery-brown painted skin. Yikes.

I felt Cas tense at my side.

Lynn and Meiranda embraced Jareth and Abaddon, then danced together to the other side of the stage— Ignus, I could only assume, but did they have to depict them like that? The queen and princess bowed deeply before the royal family of Ignus, of which only two members were brightly dressed— a conniving looking man in villainous reds and blacks, and an elegant young girl in nearly glowing white and gold.

"For peace," Queen Lynn sang. Then she and her daughter danced in an elegant spiral with the Ignean royals. I even recognized some of the dance moves from Kindle's prayer to the Illuminator.

Everything seemed joyful and light, but then the music took on a more sinister undertone and the darkly dressed man wove his way through the dancers until he was right behind Lynn. He snaked his arms around her waist, and led her into the beginnings of a sensual tango— but Lynn stepped away and slapped him hard across the face. The music cut short.

"Prince Azir, mother's uncle. He was ambassador to Lumina," Cas informed me under his breath.

Scandalized, Lynn took Meiranda's hand in hers and marched from Ignus's side of the stage back to the waiting arms of King Abaddon in Lumina. To the slow, haunting tune of a single cello, the stage went dark apart from two spotlights:

One shining on the happy family of Lumina, and one on Prince Azir Danthragnir, standing alone.

A few other whining strings joined the cello, and some interesting stage-work replaced Azir with a massive black-scaled dragon marionette. Flames shot from its mouth, and the audience gasped. The dragon rose from the stage and looped once over the heads of the crowd for dramatic effect before crashing down atop Lumina's palace.

The puppet vanished in a cloud of smoke, there was a blood-curdling child's scream, and then Azir walked from the haze to center stage. He held aloft a bloody knife, and the stage went dark to the tune of jeers and cries of sorrow from the audience.

A funeral march played, and our bowls of chowder were swapped out for plates of thinly sliced fish-looking meat crusted with herbs and seasonings. The kelpie, I assumed.

On stage, the lights came up again to show Jareth and his father dressed in black, laying flowers before a painting of the queen and princess. A shadow of Azir swinging lifelessly on the gallows washed across the scene.

"Did he kill them both?" I whispered to Cas.

He shook his head. "Just the queen. Meiranda died of heartbreak upon the shock of witnessing her mother's murder."

I almost scoffed but managed to catch myself. Heartbreak, what a way to die. It only ever seemed to happen in old books or cheesy movies like the Star Wars prequels. It also only ever seemed to be inflicted upon female characters, but that was a discussion for another day. And besides, this was supposedly a real situation.

I turned my attention back to the stage, where King Abaddon seemed to be plotting war against Ignus as retribution for the untimely deaths of his wife and daughter. Jareth pleaded with him to reconsider, but Abaddon didn't want to listen until—a flash of light, a burst of woodwinds— in her white and gold dress, the Danthragnir girl I now realized was meant to be Amaranth flew across the stage and flung herself to the ground at Jareth and Abaddon's feet.

It was a pretty picture; Amaranth folded in a bow with her glowing white skirts pooled around her, her palms turned up in a sign of mercy with a literal olive branch in her grasp. "As recompense for my people's crimes, I offer my life unto you."

Jareth knelt and tenderly helped Amaranth to her feet, the music became a soft waltz as they danced together and flower petals rained from the ceiling. They kissed. The audience applauded.

To my right, the real Amaranth pushed her plate away and quietly excused herself from the table. She gave Cas's shoulder a light squeeze as she swiftly made her way to the stairs.

Wow. I was an idiot for only then realizing that this entire production was propaganda of the highest degree. I watched the rest of the play with a new awareness, my disgust rising with each passing scene.

Next was Cas's birth, then Raini's. Then a scene where the king and queen of Ignus— Alcindor and Emelai, Cas said—arrived with their own son and daughter to dance happily with Lumina's royal family. The golden age, a time of peace and unity for the entire realm.

Young Raini and the princess of Ignus held hands and twirled in giggling circles, while Cas taught the Ignean prince how to string a bow.

"Oh please," the real Raini scoffed quietly from my side.

"Did you not get along?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"No." She elaborated no further.

The cheerful scene ended with Amaranth approaching her husband in tears. She dropped to the floor, palms up, just as she had after the death of Lynn. "My love, I come to you not as an Ignean but as a loyal citizen of Lumina." The actress spoke the words with a dramatic waver. "I've been made aware of a great betrayal. Despite pledging themselves our allies, the Danthragnirs are plotting our demise."

Jareth stroked his copper beard. "My dear friend Alcindor, is he capable of such a thing?"

Amaranth nodded somberly. "I know it pains you, merciful husband, but for the sake of our kingdom—for the sake of all humanity— you must strike first. No Ignean can be allowed to survive."

I pressed my hand to my mouth and looked over at Cas. His face was neutral. As was Raini's. But Favaro... he was smiling.

I knew the story well enough from this point on, I'd heard it from Kindle. I'd seen the aftermath in his eyes, and in the nightmares I could sometimes hear him waking from on the other side of my bedroom wall. I didn't care to see the glorification of it.

Following Amaranth's earlier example, I pushed myself away from the table and hurried for the stairs. "Jacintha?" Cas called.

For a moment I thought maybe Julian and Tobias would try to stop me, but they both stepped aside and let me rush down the stairs, through the much too warm lobby, and out to the cool, night-dark street.

The nausea that I thought would pass after eating had only grown in size thanks to that play, and I ended up vomiting into the bushes that lined the theater. Wiping my mouth on the back of my hand, I climbed into Raini's jewel-encrusted carriage. I found Amaranth sitting inside, looking to be in a similar state.

With quiet understanding, she handed me a clean handkerchief.

"It must have been bad selkie," I said, a lame attempt to diffuse the strange situation I'd found myself in.

"So it was," she agreed quietly.

We sat like that, wordless, until the play ended and the audience poured from the theater.

Kindle had called her a traitor. Now I understood why. But part of me wondered if Queen Amaranth was as much a prisoner of Lumina as Kindle was.