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“Was that a hint that I should recite poetry or offer you my coat or something?”

“You don’t need todoanything. I know you’re chivalrous, Sir Knight. It all comes down to your smile.”

“I thought you couldn’t see me.”

“I can’t. But I can hear your smile in every word that you speak,” I told him earnestly.

His laughter echoed in my ears like a happy memory. “I love the way you see the world.”

“Which is how exactly?” I wondered.

“With so much more than just your eyes.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that.

“Tell me about your other spell.” His voice grew more serious. “How did you learn that one?”

“From a poem.”

“A poem?”

“Yes. It was in the news,” I replied. “A video montage of Knights marching into battle. The audio track was a short poem, only a few lines long.”

“And you knew this poem was magical?”

“Yes. I could hear it in the voice of the girl who recited it. It was clearly a spell. Granted, I didn’t know what that spell would do, but there was only one way to find out.”

“You tried a spell without knowing what it would do?” He sounded impressed by my recklessness. “I would have done the same,” he added in a low chuckle.

“I was desperate for magic.” I brushed my fingers across the Spirit Tree’s trunk, and multi-colored lights began to pulse beneath the smooth, translucent bark. “Any magic at all.”

“So what does this poem-spell do?”

“It’s a minor glamour spell. I use it to conceal pimples.” The admission sent blood rushing to my cheeks.

He laughed. “Oh, there’s no reason to be embarrassed. Knights do things like that all the time.”

I clutched my hands together, hopeful. “Really?”

“Absolutely. Knights want to look fabulous just as much as the next teenager. Trust me on that.”

That actually made me feel a little less silly.

“Thank you,” I told the invisible stranger.

“For what?”

“For being so nice to me. And for not telling the Government about my magic.” I angled a tentative look in his direction—or at least where I thought he was standing.

“I won’t tell anyone about you,” he promised. “But I hope you’ll tell me more about yourself. I’ve never met anyone like you.”

Something about this invisible stranger made me want to open up to him, to spill my whole life story.

But a savage, monstrous shriek cut me off before I could even begin.

I recognized that sound. I’d heard it so many times before. On the news. Beyond the town wall. But never in person.

So I knew what I would see even before I turned around: the Cursed Ones. They were here. Somehow, they were here.