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When I saw that she wore the same simple black fabric as I did, her eyes flashing a bit desperately, I forced myself to breathe steadily.

My magic dissipated slowly as it realized I wasn’t in danger, thankfully.

“Bracelets,” the woman said, gesturing to a cylindrical rack of golden bands. Most of them at least partially resembled the chains I’d worn on my wrists for so long—the ones I despised with every ounce of my being. “I have bracelets,” she continued. “To hide your scars.”

I retracted my wrist from her grip rapidly. “Why should I hide the evidence of my survival?”

Her nose wrinkled. “It’s an imperfection.”

“I far prefer imperfection to lies.” After spinning on my heels, I slipped through the crowd, headed toward the castle once again.

No more distractions.

I was there for a purpose.

I wove through the city, ignoring all other calls from those who wanted me to purchase their goods. My coin pouch was tucked into my underclothing, secured against my hip, at the warning of the shopkeeper my friends and I had purchased clothes from. Thieves on the road would take what they could see and reach, he had warned.

Except weapons; few were daft enough to steal a weapon.

And though I didn’t know how to use the dagger on my thigh, it was still comforting to have it there.

I reached the castle an hour later, my heart beating a bit quickly as I approached. My magic responded solely to my emotions, so I fought to keep myself calm, to keep the beast within me at bay.

The castle wasn’t a monstrosity, like I’d expected it to be after Akari’s description of the one she was raised in. The Shadow King’s was large and beautiful, but not unbelievably so.

Shaped like a miniature mountain, the castle was built on a foundation of stairs. The building itself was wide on the bottom, and narrowed as it stretched upward, with three peaks at the top.

The walls of the structure were crafted entirely from shiny stone that seemed to have been pumped full of shadow and smoke. The vapor within looked more like it was swaying and dancing the longer my eyes were trained on it.

Shaking my head at the walls, I focused on the doors.

There were no guards outside, protecting the building the way I expected them to be.

Maybe they were inside, with the king.

It didn’t matter; I would get past them, wherever they were. If they wanted to kill me, they’d have to go through my magic.

And no one but Vena and Akari survived my magic.

My bare feet padded lightly on the shadowy stairs. The shadows in the stone seemed to gather beneath me, growing darker as my toes and the silk of my dress slid over them.

When I reached the massive double doors, my hand pressed to the surface of the one nearest to me. I almost expected someone or something to come out and attack me, to tell me I didn’t belong there, or to somehow sense that I meant to kill the king.

None of that happened, though.

The stone was smooth and warm beneath my palm, and slid open easily when I pushed lightly against it. Something about the castle felt… familiar.

I assumed the magic in its walls was responsible for that feeling, and stepped inside.

My eyes trailed over the large, friendly space. It wasn’t empty like my prison had been, or simple like the inns I’d stayed in. The floor was covered in more of the smooth, smokey stone, the ceiling far above my head made entirely of glass, allowing the moon and stars to shine into the space.

Couches and chairs faced one another out in front of me, with a few people sitting in various places on them. Some looked to be practicing magic, while others conversed. They all wore white or silver, making their wealth obvious.

A large staircase stretched upward to my left, and another set of double doors like the ones I’d just come through were off to my right a bit.

“Hello.” One of the women on the couch noticed me and waved, catching me off guard. “Can we help you?”

Despite the obvious difference in our financial levels, she didn’t sneer at me.