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I was not so surprised to see that the two had chosen each other. After they had led me to the well, they deserved each other.

They halted atop the steps, both pale as the snow still piled around the town.

“Gesela,” Elsie said, breathless. “We—we thought you were dead.”

“What a surprise it must be,” I said, “to discover I am not.”

Roland and Elsie exchanged a look.

“We went to your house, searched the whole thing,” said Roland, who attempted a hard and indifferent expression but could not hide the haunted look in his eyes. “You were nowhere to be found.”

“I imagine you did not expect to find me at all,” I said. “Which must be why all my things have gone missing.”

There was silence.

I looked at those gathered, their faces much the same as the day I left, a mix of pity and fear and discontent.

“What will you all do to atone?” I asked.

“Atone?” Roland seethed. “You cannot blame us for thinking you were dead! You fell down the well!”

“I can blame you all I want,” I said. “There is no part of this that isn’t your fault, Roland.”

He shivered as I spoke his name, and I rested my hands atop one another as I sat, elevated above them all, on Balthazar.

“I shall ask you again. How will you atone?”

The mortal ground his teeth and released Elsie’s hand. Taking a step down, he drew his sword.

The gathered crowd gasped, and Elsie reached for his arm.

“No, Ro!”

I did not move as he bellowed. “You are a wicked spirit come to haunt us!”

His dramatic display brought a smirk to my lips.

“You dare draw your blade against me?”

“Do you think you are someone? Now that you have survived the wood?”

Whispers erupted, and Roland silenced them with a shout.

“Be gone, beast!” he hissed.

“She is not a beast,” said Casamir’s voice. “But I surely am.”

The thorn and shadow of my dress began to move, sliding over my skin.

“What witchcraft is this?” Roland demanded as Casamir took form behind me, his arm banded around my breasts, hiding my nakedness now that I no longer wore his gown of thorns.

The crowd gasped in earnest now, shocked by the sight of him.

“An elven prince!” someone shouted. A few people screamed and some fainted at the sight of him, which I was certain he enjoyed.

“Silence!” Roland cried. “Gesela, what is the meaning of this?”

I felt Casamir stiffen at the sound of my name on the sheriff’s lips.