Chapter 28
“Step away from the bed,” Gregor snarls. Arina’s expression dulls slightly as it drifts toward him.
Well, this reassures me about my new appearance. Without a word, I slowly stand, take a step back, and meet his eyes. Sure enough, he has cards at the ready. I wait as a little test.
“Tell me how you got here, and maybe I’ll let you live.”
“Do you really not recognize me?” I’m fighting a smile. I even told him what I was going to do. “I wonder if Twino and Ren will.”
There’s a flicker of doubt across his face, but he doesn’t ease. He really doesn’t know who I am.
“It’s me. Clara.”
“What?” He falters, cards falling into his palm, but he doesn’t banish them yet.
“The same Clara who was there to bandage you up when you split your knuckles after pummeling that guy at the Twisted Tavern in the teeth because he wasn’t about to take no for an answer from Jura.”
“Clara?” he whispers, then, louder, eyes widening, “Clara. You…You don’t…”
“I don’t look like myself, I know. That was kind of the point.”
“You said you were going to change your appearance…but I never imagined…”
“It’d be so good?” I grin slightly. “It is me, though. And I come bearing gifts.” I hold up the meat and potatoes.
“Thank goodness, we’re starving.” He goes right for it, setting the food on the bed by Arina’s legs, tearing off little bits that he gently places between her lips.
“Has it been hard to get food?” I ask.
“A little, but I’m managing. Especially since Twino and Ren found a spot just like they planned, in Fated Heights.”
“Did they now?”
He nods. “Ren’s taken to writing down all of Jura’s recipes that he can remember and practicing them. Which means I’ve had a good many meals to bring back. Still can’t quite get the lavender scones right, but he has time to practice. He’s already got a good kitchen garden going.”
“I bet he does,” I say softly, an idea forming in the back of my mind. “Any updates on the Worldkeepers I should know about?”
“Mostly preparation for Vaduin reentering the academy…” He gives me an overview of what’s happening among the Worldkeepers—which is mostly lying low following the chaos of Halazar.
While he speaks, he continues to feed Arina, and he and I take bites ourselves.
He’s oblivious to the idea that’s coalescing in the back of my mind.
He wraps up at the same time the food is gone.
“…but they’re all ultimately waiting on you to get the missing details of the vessel and make it,” he finishes.
I nod. “And I think I know what I need to do to get it.”
“Oh?”
“I did this”—I gesture to my face—“so I could move freely while I searched. But I’m going to need an excuse to be in the academy.”
“You look a bit too old to get away with being a student again.”
“I’ll ignore you calling me old.” I give him a sidelong look.
“Oh, I’m sorry, ancient, then.”
“You jerk.” I playfully punch his arm.
He gives me a wild grin and I can’t help a laugh as I stand.
“Where are you going?” he asks.
“I think I’ll take this new face for a test run and go and see the place Twino and Ren got.” I give Arina one more long look. Leaving her side is more agonizing than anything Kaelis did to change my face. “Will you look after her?”
“Of course.” Gregor nods. “We have a pretty good system. I think she understands me.”
I’m not sure about that last part. But if he has hope, then so will I. “Thank you.”
I head back to Kaelis’s apartments, and I find him in the dining room, taking his breakfast. He looks up the moment I enter.
“You’re back in less than a day,” he says, lounging in his chair. “Be careful, Clara. I might get used to this.”
I roll my eyes. “Don’t get any ideas. I need to go out, and I need less flashy clothes to do it in. I assume you have some, you hoarder.”
His expression shifts. Still amused, but slightly more alert. “Out?”
“Yes,” I say a little more firmly. “There’s something I need to check on.”
Kaelis tilts his head. “I’m certain you mean ‘something we need to check on.’ ”
“I’m doing this alone.” I fold my arms. He looks at me with a dull expression that reads as You can’t be serious. So I respond with a clear “I’m serious.”
“So am I.” He stands, the casual charm slipping just slightly. “We have no proof your new disguise will hold up.”
“Gregor didn’t recognize me. That’s a pretty good endorsement.”
“And pretty low stakes.” He shifts, pushing his chair out slightly, grabbing the arms and relaxing his hands, as if holding court with a subject and not…whatever I am to him. “You’re willing to risk being identified for whatever this is?”
“I’m going to have to try it eventually. Wasn’t that the point of all this?” I gesture to myself.
He glances away. “That’s true, but I would prefer to be there if something goes wrong.”
“And you are so much less conspicuous than me.” My words are steeped in sarcasm. “You draw more attention with your cheekbones than I would if I was still walking around in my prison garb.”
His lips twitch, as if fighting a smile. “You think my cheekbones are that noteworthy?”
“By the Twenty,” I murmur with a sigh.
“I’ll lag behind,” he offers as a compromise. “Conceal myself and shadow you from a distance, just to make sure everything goes well.”
“It still seems like too much of a risk.”
“Indulge me.” His tone softens, taking on a serious note.
I exhale. “Fine. But a hundred paces. Minimum.”
He grins. “Sixty.”
“Eighty.”
“Deal.” He gestures toward my old quarters. “Take whatever clothing you like from your rooms. The closet and dresser are both still full for you.”
I freeze mid-step. “Are they…” I can’t finish the question, the struggle I endured to make my new body flashing before my eyes.
“You’ll find them as they were before, not as they have been the past two weeks.” He stands, avoiding my gaze. Two weeks. That means there’s just under a week until the new school year begins. Not much time, but enough to prepare for my plan. “No evidence Rewina or anyone could find.”
“Thank you,” I say softly, watching as he leaves without so much as acknowledging I’ve said anything at all.
I’m slow to move. Slow to make my way across the entry and into that narrow hall that leads to the bedroom. And even slower to push open the doors.
When I do, I brace myself for blood, tools, leftover trauma—despite what he said.
But what greets me is…silence. Stillness.
The room is exactly as I left it months ago, not some magical surgical center.
Four-poster bed. Embroidered rug. A half-used candle I remember lighting ages ago on the windowsill. As if time itself refused to pass.
I’m relieved there’s no evidence, but at the same time, it’s almost as if it never happened at all.
As if this was how it was the whole time, and the person I used to be—the form I used to take—was nothing more than a dream.
The worst pain of my life should have left a mark.
But the room is as unblemished as my skin.
I stand in the doorway longer than I mean to, letting the quiet soak into my bones. Then I shake the thoughts loose and make for the bath. The tub is small, the water lukewarm. Kaelis’s would be far more comfortable…
My thoughts wander to him. To me pressed against the mirror. It’s so mild compared to other things we’ve done, yet I think about it like a new obsession. Enough that I’m fighting my hand from slipping between my legs and using the water as a lubricant. I need to stay focused.
When I return, freshly dressed in nondescript basics I found at the bottoms of the drawers still full of clothes tailored perfectly to my size, Kaelis is already waiting in similar clothes—gray cloak, worn boots, a neutral tunic that makes him look irritatingly handsome for someone trying to be forgettable.
We wind our way through the lower levels of the academy and across the bridge in silence. The crypt just on the other side of the bridge is as quiet as the old graveyard beyond it. Kaelis checks the exit first, peering out.
He gives me a small nod. “All clear.”
The graveyard greets us like an old ghost. We emerge from the mausoleum into a shaft of bright morning sunlight that nearly blinds me. I squint, pausing to fill my lungs with air, nearly to the point of bursting.
Kaelis watches me, lingering in the shadows, his eyes unreadable.
“Well, does the air taste the same in your altered body?” he asks finally.
“It tastes like freedom.” The breeze carries my soft words.
Can I really move around freely? Even before I went to Halazar the first time, I always had to be cautious—to constantly look over my shoulder.
I’ve been hunted for one reason or another since I was a girl.
The notion of possessing true freedom almost seems too good to be true.
I start walking into the city. Kaelis lags behind. Now and then I glance over my shoulder, ensuring he’s still there, especially as I enter the city limits.
The streets of Eclipse City are as chaotic and loud as ever—nobles stroll about, merchants set up their shops, the aroma of bread hangs in the air, beggars shake their cups, and there’s the occasional flare of magic.
People jostle past me without a second glance.
I’m just another face in the crowd. Not a fugitive.
Just…someone. Anyone. And, by the Twenty, it’s intoxicating.
After I use the World, this will be my life.
Kaelis continues to follow me at a respectable distance—close enough that he could reach me with a card if something went wrong, but far enough away that he’s little more than another shadow moving through the noise.
And yet, I feel him. Always.
I boldly stride along the main street. It’s the most direct route, and the most likely to be patrolled by enforcers or Ravin’s Stellis.
The only true test of my disguise is to put myself right in front of the danger.
The first batch of enforcers move past me with little more than a glance.
I turn into the main square, intending to cut through River Park for Fated Heights.
I’ve taken only a few steps into the square when a hand closes over my upper arm. Firm. Leather-gloved.
My body tenses instantly, instincts flaring. I barely refrain from drawing a card. Breathe, Clara. I turn slowly.
An enforcer stares down at me with an expression of cruel triumph. My blood goes cold.
“Got you.”