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“What were you doing for my father?” Magda asked. “Why were you assassinating Azuremi nobles if Claude was behind everything my father feared?”

She had a good point. There was something Bogdan and Aleksy kept from Dagmara…something that pieced together that exact information. If only she had known what it was.

“If I accept this marriage, we have access to Claude’s castle. We can find proof. Maybe he’s working with other people.”

“You can’t be serious,” Dagmara shook her head. “The potential for the trade routes is enticing, but if you accept the marriage, you could be killed the moment you walk across the border.”

“Or…he may actually want an alliance.” Magda turned away from the Scribestone, and the sparkling letters disappeared. “That didn’t quite sound like a mad king to me.”

“You remember him from your childhood,” Dagmara objected. “People change.”

Magda nodded and then froze. Her eyes widened in realization, her mouth slightly agape.

Dagmara shrunk back. “What is it?”

“People change,” Magda echoed before biting her lip, lost in thought.

Odie sat upright, recognizing her shift in emotion. He tilted his head in curiosity.

“I can’t go. We can’t risk him discovering I have Soul magic,” Magda said. “But, forming the alliance would benefit both kingdoms, and if we had access to his castle we could find the proof we need to bring him to justice for the murders. So, we send someone disguised as me.”

“Who?” Dagmara asked.

Magda gave an awkward shrug of her shoulders before gesturing forward.

“Me?” Dagmara gasped. “That’s ridiculous!” She gripped the Scribestone to prevent herself from falling over.

“Just hear me out.” Magda was pacing, lost in furious thought. “We already look similar. All we have to do is dye your hair, put on heels, get rid of that bruise on your eye, say I filled out since the last family portrait, and you’re practically me!”

“Magda!”

“You’re the only one I trust, and I don’t have the sleuthing abilities you do,” Magda tried shifting her approach.

“You’re worried he’s going to find out about your magic. What if he finds out I don’t have magic?”

“It’s far easier to say you don’t want to show it off,” Magda said. “I can’t control it. It could come out at any time and both my life and Azurem’s are over.”

“What about my health?” Dagmara countered. “Guardians are perfect—what if he finds out I’m not?”

Her friend’s face softened. “You can say it’s your time of the month. A man won’t know the difference.”

Dagmara knew she had a point, but it wasn’t enough. “I’m not a princess, and I’m certainly not fluent in Ilusaurian.”

“Neither am I!” Magda shrugged with a sheepish grin. She wasn’t a good liar.

Dagmara let out a sigh, walking over to the spiral staircase and plopping herself down on a step. One way or another, they had to find proof if Claude was behind the assassinations. Dagmara had to know why Bogdan sent her on missions. She had to avenge his and Aleksy’s deaths.

Her heart hurt remembering the coronation.

Magda crossed to her friend, putting her hand on Dagmara’s. “I know you loved my father and brother as family.”

Tears began to well in Dagmara’s eyes. Aleksy’s lifeless body replayed in her mind like a nightmare.

“If you don’t want to do it for them, do it for Teos. The alliance will return the medicine supply. Or, you can do it for me?” Magda gave a half-hearted smile. “Going in my place will protect me more than you staying by my side. I fear declining his proposal more than anything.”

A shimmer in Magda’s eye was the only indication that she was on the verge of tears. She was so strong. There was so much about her that Dagmara admired. If only Dagmara was a guardian too.

For now, she would have to be as strong as she could be, in her own way.