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Her fingers drum on the table. “I do always seem to be two steps behind her.”

My nails dig into my seat. Are they trying to back out at the last minute? “This is different, Mynick. If she thinks I could be there, she’s going to come out of the shadows to look for me.”

He rests his elbows on the table and leans in. “Finding your mom would be easier if you came with us to the Ball.”

I sit back in my seat. “But that’s impossible.”

His brows bounce. “It isn’t.”

“Ah, that’s brilliant,” Abby squeals. “Why hadn’t I thought of that before?” She squishes his face between her palms and kisses him.

“Slow down. Thought of what?”

“I can change your face.” His smirk curls darkly. “Anatomer magic is one of my strands.”

“You can use it on someone else? You can make me look different?”

He nods. The Ambrose motto. Intellect cuts the sharpest. It almost makes their pride palatable. Almost. If Mynick is willing to get his hands dirty, then maybe he is worth trusting.

“I’ll need a dress.”

“Happens to be my favorite hobby,” Abby says. “I can still come with you, if you’d like. Mynick?”

“Sure, the Veil of Mums is always a rad time,” he says sardonically.

“Then it’s settled,” I say. “Let’s get out of here.”

Twenty

Quell

Mynick’s hand shakes as it moves down the slope of my nose. Every muscle in my face squeezes, then tingles, as my mouth shrinks and my lips plump. New hairs sprout, thickening my brows and changing my hairline. My eyes are suddenly heavy in their sockets, and I can feel them widening. The slopes of my cheeks fill in, and my long hair darkens to the color of night, shortening into very tight coils that hang above my shoulders.

“Someone’s coming.” Abby ducks her head into the bathroom we’re using inside the lavish hotel.

“Almost,” he says. His magic trickles down my back like a rush of warm water; my body widens in some places and narrows in others. My skin tone warms, deepening from golden brown to a bronze hue.

“How long will this last?”

“It will wear off gradually over time. An hour, maybe two. But sometimes personas can dissolve spontaneously. “

“So I am walking in here and my disguise could wear off any second, without notice?”

“You’ll feel some tingling. Just try to keep calm.”

Talking with lips that don’t feel like mine makes each word out of my mouth sound a little funny. Then I realize…

“My voice!” My heart knocks into my ribs as the pieces of the plan feel like they’re coming undone.

“I can’t help you with your voice in a time crunch, I’m sorry.”

“This is a terrible plan. Maybe you and Abby should just go and I stay in here.”

Mynick smooths his hands over the dress Abby put together for me, and my body fills it like it was made for me. “You can’t back out now. You’re almost there.”

He’s right: finding my mom will be much easier for me, if I can just keep calm. He surveys his work before stepping out of the way so I can see myself in a mirror. A lackluster diadem sits on my head. I glare at it before moving my arms and rotating my head. Sure enough, the stranger staring back at me does the same.

“What was she like? In case I’m seen by someone who knows her.”