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“How hard did the guy punch you last night? You’re being paranoid.” Teos laughed before intentionally changing the topic. “Oh, I have something for you.” He propped the crutch underneath his armpit before reaching into his vest. Her brother cautiously withdrew what appeared to be a metal ball. “I’ve been experimenting.”

Dagmara stepped directly in front of him, covering the object with her body. She glanced around hastily, but everyone was deep in their own laughter and conversations. “What is that?” she demanded.

“Calm down.” Teos chuckled. With a twitch of his head, he brushed a blonde lock of hair out of his eyes. “Instead of the jasny we use for the light explosion, this is a little more powerful. Try it.”

“No.” Dagmara wrenched the object from his hand and shoved it back in his vest. “Why would you bring it here?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to leave it in our room where someone else could stumble upon it.”

“You’re experimenting?”

“Sis,” Teos inclined his head, his jovial tone wavering. “We’re a team. My light detonation helped you escape last night, didn’t it?”

“Shhh!”

“No one’s paying attention, but if you keep acting like that someone will.”

Begrudgingly, Dagmara replaced her serious expression with a halfhearted smile and crossed her arms. She leaned against the wall nearby for support, pretending to appear like she was having a good time.

“We’re a team,” Teos repeated. “You handle the potions, and I handle the explosions. I’m better at it anyway, and I don’t know a thing about poisons.”

“You shouldn’t have to handle anything.”

“Don’t you think mom would have wanted both of us to be assassins like her?”

“No, frankly, I don’t think that’s what she wanted. She accepted Bogdan’s offer so we could have a better life, not one like hers.”

Teos let out a sigh. “Well she’s gone now, Dagmara. And if we want to keep our plush spot in the castle with money for days, we have to fill her role.”

“I’m filling her role.”

“You’d be dead if it wasn’t for my explosive last night.”

Dagmara bit her lip, remembering when she killed the captain of the Ilusaurian army. Her stomach curled.

Teos continued, “I can’t survive outside the fortress, but you can’t survive without both of our concoctions. Unfortunately, this is what the guardians ordained for us,” Teos gestured to his twisted leg, “so until I can walk correctly again, which will never be, and until the doctors find out what is wrong with you, which will never be, we’re a team.”

A sigh escaped her lips. She only wanted to protect him, but she wished he wasn’t right. How different her life could have been if she were born to another mother. How different Teos’s life would be if he wasn’t involved in the accident at the cliffs. How different her life would be if she was someone else. Sometimes, she wished she was.

She opened her mouth to speak, but her brother cut her off. He said:

“Dreamy prince, northwest, five seconds until arrival.” He batted his eyelashes at her mockingly.

Shoving his shoulder, Dagmara said, “Knock it off.”

Teos rolled his eyes, ending in a boyish grin.

“Ceremony is about to start,” Prince Aleksy said when he reached their side. Even though Teos had given her a heads up, her heart still fluttered at the prince’s proximity. “You ready?”

“Yes,” Dagmara said.

Aleksy flashed Teos a smile. “We can sneak out for our card game after the ceremony, when it gets boring.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Teos replied. “I’m going to take my seat inside.”

With that, Teos headed off, entering the throne room and making his way to a seat on the first floor.

Once Teos had gone, Aleksy beckoned Dagmara. With a gesture to follow him, Aleksy headed toward the back of the throne room, on the other side of the courtyard. There were two identical circular staircases, wide enough to fit four people across. Aleksy led the way up the stairs, Dagmara following, meticulous about her breathing. Stairs were her worst nightmare. Something seemingly trivial was what spiked her heart rate the most. It was embarrassing, and disappointing. And once again a constant, incessant reminder that she would never be normal.