THE PERSON IN front of her was Mylo — but it also wasn't. There was something different. A slight shift in his appearance that wasn't immediately obvious to Ravenna. She stared at him for a moment, cautious. Her expression remained guarded.

"Do not tell me that you've forgotten already," he said with a small chuckle.

"That is a good attempt," she remarked. "However, I can tell that you are not Mylo. You are hiding behind a spell."

His lips twitched back into a small smile.

"It really is harder to shape-shift into a specific form more than once," the assassin stated casually. "The little details are so very important. One mistake and the spell is quite easily detected, even by the humans around you."

He lifted a hand to his head, the tip of his index finger glowing bright white with magic. His lips moved around a soundless spell as he tapped his finger against his temple. A shimmer glimmered through the air surrounding him. Pearls of white magic began to appear atop the assassin's skin, rolling toward the earth like beads of sweat. It formed into a bubbling pool at his feet.

His fingers snapped together. The magic vanished.

Ravenna's blood ran ice cold.

Caelan's eyes glimmered with unreadable emotion. "I had to be careful around your little friend," he said. "As much as I adore to shape-shift, I knew he would see through any dramatically altering spell. So I created Mylo. He was an easy character, with just enough visible differences that even Vyses never noticed."

Ravenna could not breathe. Her heart ached inside of her chest. It thumped so loudly that the sound hurt her ears.

"No," she heard herself say. Her voice was soft, a mere distant whisper to her own ears. Her head started slowly shaking back and forth. "This is not possible."

Caelan remained rooted to where he stood, watching her with cautious eyes. Denial washed through Ravenna, beating against her like a tidal wave crashing against a weathered, rocky shore. Tears swelled at the corners of her eyes, tumbling down her cheeks before she even noticed. "This is cruel," she said. She shook her head at the Caelan standing before her. "This is just plain cruel."

He watched her with cautious eyes. He gently set the mask down, atop the mattress. He then lifted his hands in a surrendering gesture, his palms turned outward and facing her. "It is me, Ravenna," he said. His voice was calm — it overflowed with a sense of patience and familiarity. "Genuinely."

"I'm dreaming," she whispered, mostly to herself. Her voice sounded broken. "This isn't real."

"Ravenna," he said calmly, "It is. I am real."

So many thoughts flooded through her. She wanted to pinch herself — to prove that it wasn't just a dream. But her body refused to listen, refused to move. Nothing worked. A stream of tears flowed heavily down her cheeks, burning her skin. Her face pinched into a grimace. "This is a cruel joke," she  heard herself whisper again. Her heart raced inside her chest. Each loud thump that the measly organ made sent waves of pain constricting through her chest. The pain tightened around her lungs and stomach. Nausea teased the back of her throat.

She lowered her gaze, staring at her hands, which were clenched into tight fists. Her skin stretched bone-white across the tops of her knuckles. Icy magic danced around her, swirls of pale blue pirouetting atop the quilt that covered her legs. She forced her fists to open, her fingers to unfurl. Her hands began to tremble.

"This is low," she said, her voice louder. It cracked around her tears. "This is very low. Even for Vyses."

What a rat. An absolute jerk. Her hands curled into tight fists again, her nails piercing the skin at the base of her palms. A flare of anger spiked inside of her. Caelan was dead. She had killed him — and it had killed her. Vyses knew that. Vyses knew how much it hurt her, especially after their little spat in front of the royal advisers.

"So is this how he decided to get even?" she demanded. Poison laced each word that escaped her mouth. "By sending a fake Caelan to kill me?"

The person in front of her was not Caelan. It was not even Mylo. The person in front of her was a fraud — an impostor sent by Vyses to torture her. To kill her. Maybe he knew that she had been trying to remove the stupid talisman.

"Ah," the fake-Caelan said. His eyes were focused on the glowing pendant that rested atop her dress. "That is going to be an issue," she heard him mutter under his breath.

She glared at him. "Yeah," she said. "It is."

Her fingers snapped. Ice daggers shot forward. The fake-Caelan instantly spread his palm out in front of him, a blinding shield of light appearing. The daggers shattered against it, and against the stones behind him. Ravenna bolted from the bed and lashed out. A massive ice spike erupted from the ground. The fake-Caelan jerked back. He bolted forward, his expression contorted with annoyance.

"Stop trying to kill me," he snapped at her.

A storm of curses escaped her. Her hands moved quick. Ice shattered all around them, as she sent dagger after dagger toward him. Each dagger shattered against his shield, creating small holes — holes that his magic struggled to repair. She took steps toward him, throwing everything that she could at him. Dagger after dagger. Ice spike after ice spike.

"How dare you!" she screamed at him. The talisman burned hotter against her chest. Jagged ice burst through the stones around her, spreading across the walls and floors like a spider's web.

How dare that rat taunt her with a fake-Caelan.

The fake-Caelan shouted out, his spell lost within the chaos that surrounded Ravenna. A brilliant burst of light exploded in front of her eyes. She rocked backward, her back slamming against the wall behind her. Her eyes squeezed shut for a moment. Pain blossomed through her veins. Something warm engulfed her hands.

Her eyes shot open. She looked down and saw cuffs of white magic had wrapped around her wrists, holding her against the wall behind her. She struggled, attempting to break free.

The fake-Caelan walked toward her. He wiped at his cheek — where one of her daggers had nicked his skin. "You've definitely gotten stronger, that's for sure," he remarked. He sounded out of breath.

She screamed out. Panic blistered through every cell in her body. She planted one foot on the ground and pulled at her right wrist, forcing every ounce of magic into her arm. The cuff snapped. Her fist swung out, knuckles laced with ice.

He caught her wrist with one hand. The other grabbed the talisman that hung at her chest. His eyes glowed bright white.

The talisman shuddered. It contorted, almost dancing against Ravenna's throat. And then it shattered.

Caelan stepped back, releasing her at once. The glow of his magic ebbed away. He kept his hands outward, his palms facing her in a gesture of surrender.

A broken sob escaped her. Her knees cracked against the stones beneath her. Caelan knelt down in front of her and reached out. His hands gently grasped her arms. Without a word, he calmly pulled her into him, his arms wrapping around her tight. Ravenna could not control herself. She sobbed. All of her emotions ran rampant through her — a miserable parade of pain and grief. She cried until her tears dried out, until her sobs turned into raspy gasps of air.

He held onto her tight until she saw sunlight break out across the sky, erasing the shadows from the world outside her window.

~

Happy 2021! 🎉

I thought it might be fun to start the new year with some good news -- like a certain favorite character returning! 

Thank you so much for your continued support for this book and for me. I genuinely can't express how grateful I am for you all! I wish you the happiest & healthiest year! I hope that this year is filled with nothing but love and good vibes! ❤