I straightened my posture, puffed out my chest a little, and threw in an indignant gre food measure. “He ran that way!”

  The guard didn’t fully buy my story, his heavy armor g ominously as he marched closer. His silver dragon emblem, ented to gleam like a silver mp, marked him as one of the elite royal guards. Inner security.

  The kind who’d take one look at you sneezing wrong and sp you with a treason charge.

  Just my luck.

  “Guard,” I said, trying to keep my voiposed yet distant, like I wasn’t some thief about to scamper off with a small fortune. “I’m a princess.” I lifted my hand, letting my sig ring catch the dim light. Its unmistakable insignia shimmered briefly before I ched my fist dramatically. “And my bag… my bag!” I let the image of Ian ughing at me fill my mind. The rage, the humiliation—tears welled up, real ones. “He took it!” I choked out, voice crag.

  If Ian’s memory was going to haunt me, I might as well put it to use.

  The guard’s gaze darted to my ring, and one of his entments fred, a faint glow firming its authenticity. He nodded slightly, but kept his pierg stare fixed on me, his hand lingering on the hilt of his sword. “You saw someone?” His tone was clipped, effit, as though anythihan precision would offend him.

  “Yes! I ran as fast as I could, and then this man—” I stopped myself, my voice hitg, as if the memory was too painful to ret.

  Without hesitation, he flicked his wrist, casting a spell that spread across the ground like silver she glowing entment pulsed, creating a shimmering circle around me. “Wait here. Don’t move. The captain will assist you,” he ordered before turning and marg toward the corridor ahead.

  I stood perfectly still, watg the guard’s silhouette disappear around the bend. The moment he was out of sight, I looked down at the spell, its glow refleg on my beautiful heels.

  Sorry, Captain, but I have a schedule to keep.

  With a silent prayer to every deity who might still like me, I stepped out of the circle. It fred once, angrily, then dimmed as I darted away.

  The prince’s voice broke the tension, full of his smug amusement. “Impressive. You’ve onized inpetence. Quite regal of you.”

  “Shush,” I muttered, weaving through the maze of corridors with the speed only guilt and adrenaline could fuel. “You appud my genius when we’re out of here.”

  I reached the now-clear exit, my heart hammering in my chest. As I pushed open the heavy door, a sliver of fresh air greeted me. I couldn’t help but grin, wiping away the remaining tears from my performance… memory.

  “Pn Z,” I whispered to myself. “Always works.”

  The prince groaned, his frustration palpable. “I don’t know if I should be amazed at your luck or your audacity.”

  “her,” I whispered, darting through the imperial halls with practiced speed. “Just tell me when I teleport and maybe—just maybe—don’t risk me like that again.”

  “Soon,” he replied, his tone smug. “And I don’t owe you anything, pretender.”

  I rolled my eyes but didn’t respond.

  Despite my memory being a little fuzzy retly, these halls were as familiar as my face. I’d spent tless hours here, whether trying to impress someone or exploit something. Navigating them felt like sed nature, even under pressure.

  Especially under pressure.

  “You better cooperate,” I muttered under my breath, my voice with mock menace, “or you’ll feel the prerak upakaran.”

  The pri out a scoff in my mind. “Good one.”

  I didn’t reply, pushing open a heavy door that led to the third princess’s kit. Ihe room was deserted, the air thick with the faint lingering aroma of past ary efforts.

  “You’re joking, right?” The prione carried a hint of desperation. “You ’t be serious! Nobody knows—”

  “I do.” I grinned, my fidence trasting with his panic.

  “Nonsense!” His voice rose, a mix of anger and fear.

  I tiptoed through the kit, my heels making soft taps against the tiled marble floor as I approached a cealed doorway at the back. “Have I found the sn? The obelisk? The imperial treasury?”

  He fell silent.

  The door creaked open, revealing an abandoned guard room. Dust motes danced in the faint light filtering through a small, barred window. I stepped inside and lowered myself onto a rickety chair, its wood groaning uhe weight of my… let’s say, exhaustion.

  Now it was the priurn to be silent.

  “I promise to fulfill your wish,” I whispered again. “But before that, you better cooperate. Unless, of course, you want to be... motivated by prerak upakaran.”

  The pri out what sounded like a resigned sigh—impressive, given he cked actual lungs. “Pretender, you drive a hard bargain.”

  “I learned from the best.” I smirked.

  “Fine,” he relented. “I’ll advise you. But let me make this clear: robbing the imperial treasury is pure lunacy. Even in my time, it was sidered the height of foolishness!”

  “A, we did it.” I stretched out my legs, reing just enough to take some of the pressure off my sore muscles.

  “The pace is under lockdown now,” he tinued, his tone irked. “If you had anythihan me, even anendary artifact wouldn’t save you.”

  “Then it’s a good thing I’ve got you, isn’t it?”

  “Pretender…” His voice was strained, brimming with the long-suffering frustration only a prince cursed int could muster.

  “Prerak—” I began, drawing out the word with dramatic fir.

  “I GET IT!” he snapped, his regal posure finally crag.

  I couldn’t help but grin. “Good. Let’s get out of here, yhness.”

  The area shifted again.

  This time, we found ourselves in a damp, dripping cave. The air was heavy with moisture, and the faint sound of water dripping onto stone echoed softly around us. The only source of light came from narrow cracks overhead, spilling a sparse, brownish hue into the gloom.

  It was disorienting, like being lost in the shadowy twilight of another world.

  I shivered involuntarily. That was... odd. I shouldn’t be able to feel the cold—at least not uhere was magivolved. “Great,” I muttered, ing my arms around myself as if to ward off the chill. “This wasn’t the pher.”

  “Where are we now?” the prince asked, his tone carrying the heavy weight nation. “A smugglers’ hideout?”

  “Shiluo Miao,” I answered meically, my voice quieter than usual. My eyes sed the dim surroundings, searg for anything magical. But it was difficult. The st light made everything look ft, and even if there had been something, it would’ve been nearly impossible to spot in the murk.

  The prince fell silent for a moment, likely processing the name.

  When he finally spoke, his tone had shifted to one of grim seriousness. “Pretender. With you, I feel like we’re on a worldwide tour of mythical pces—like tourists who’ve actally stumbled into the forbidden wing of the royal pace.”

  I snorted softly, my breath misting in the damp air. “Guess I have an aptitude for finding the impossible.”

  “No, no, no,” he corrected, irritatiourning to his voice. “It’s not ‘finding.’ It’s ‘walking into danger headfirst without thinking.’ You realize this is a cursed pce, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, I figured that part out.” My eyes tio s the uone walls, their slippery surfaces sparkling faintly in the dim light. “What I don’t know is what’s doing the cursing—and why I’m cold.”

  “Cold?” His tone sharpened, seeping into his words. “Pretender, if you feel the cold here, it’s not just the atmosphere. There’s something—”

  “I know.” I cut him off, my voice low but firm. “Looking for it. Or the thing I want.”

  I stumbled through the damp darkness, my hands brushing against the cold, uneven surfaces of the surrounding rocks. The light filtering through the cracks above was useless now, and each step felt like I was walking blindfolded in a maze of shadows.

  I k was here—somewhere.

  The pyer whinally found it cimed as much, and Lucy had verified it oest server befleefully exploiting it.

  I was te.

  Half an hour passed. My patience frayed with each kiudge, and futile scrape at the stubborn stones beh my heels. It felt like a test run all ain, when Lucy was faster. The damp air g to my skin, heavy and oppressive.

  Or maybe it was the curse.

  It shouldn’t be s in the reward room, but who knew with curses? Not me. Then, finally, one rock shifted. Not just shifted—it rolled easily under my foot, as though it had been waiting for this moment.

  YAS!

  I crouched down, my fingers immediately digging into the hidden crevice. There it was—a small metal tube, its surface cool and smooth under my fiips. A triumphant grin spread ay face as I held it up to the dim light. “Hah,” I breathed, brushing off the dirt. “Who would’ve thought this little thing will be worth so mu a few years?”

  “You got what you wanted,” the prince said, his voice tinged with unease. “Let’s vanish. This pce is giving me bad feelings.”

  “For once, we agree,” I replied, tug the tube securely into my iory. “Let’s move.”

  I focused on the ring, feeling its magic pulse and tug as the world dissolved around me. When it reformed, we were standing in a meadow in the night, the sun only a faint memory over the horizon.

  Waist-high emerald-green grass swayed gently in the breeze, brushing against my legs as if weling me. A soft babbling came from a nearby stream, its crystal-clear water weaving gracefully alongside us before joining a wider, deeper river in the distance.

  The air was rich with the aroma of wildflowers—sweet and delicate, along with the earthy aroma of the meadow itself. It was the st that could lull someoetting their troubles, but not me. My eyes were fixed on the far end of the meadow.

  There, rising te above the ground, was a sheer gray cliff.

  Atop it stood a wall—solid, imposing, and unmistakably defehe wall loomed high, tall enough to dwarf at least three human soldiers stacked atop one another. It stretched from the riverbank on one side, curving and disappearing into the craggy embrace of the mountains oher.

  It was more than a wall; it was a boundary, a decration.

  The soft shuffle of boots caught my attention. Soldiers carrying magical lights to illumihe evening patrolled the top of the wall with precision, but they were only a few in numbers for wall that long.

  “Where are we now? A mythical farm?” the prince asked, his tone suspicious.

  “This is…” I trailed off, tilting my head to get a better look at the soldiers and the massive fortifications. My gaze swept over the structure and the surrounding nd, taking it all in with a sense of pride I hadn’t expected to feel. “My fortress.”

  “I had a bigger castle,” the prince quipped, his tone as smug as ever. “This? Quite small. And the entments—sloppy work, at best.”

  I rolled my eyes, shaking my head as I started toward the gate. The soldiers on the wall seemed to stiffen at my approach, their patrols slowing just enough to give me the impression they were assessing me.

  Or maybe just trying to figure out who the heck I was.

  “Hush, you,” I muttered under my breath, adjusting the straps of my stolen bags. “There wasn’t even a wall here a week ago. ’t believe this.”

  The clot to the gate, the more the enormity of the wall hit me. The faint shimmer of wards lihe edges—funal, though not perfect.

  It was a start, at least.

  “Maybe we have a ce of stopping Irwen here,” I added, almost to myself as I reached the open gate. Nobody was stopping me.