Page 50 of Stolen Magic

Growing to care for.

These precious words struck deep. I wanted to savor them, but Myst’s warning whispered through my thoughts.Don’t allow sentiment to derail the mission.

I knew she was right, but in this moment my heart was louder than reason.

Callan lightly traced the seal with his fingertip, causing me to shudder. “The fact you’ve been hiding it gives me reason to believe you understand its significance. You were right to protect it until you knew if you could trust me. Do you trust me now?”

That question reverberated through my heart, which already knew the answer. Yes. Against all odds, Ididtrust him.

Something inside me shifted, allowing me to finally acknowledge a quiet, fragile truth: perhaps the glamour masking my seal hadn’t failed after all; perhaps I’d let it fade. The closer I grew to Callan, the more the lies I’d so carefully spun around my identity unraveled from the growing part of me that wanted to be truly seen…byhim.

I was tired of pretending, of hiding behind illusion and stolen names. I’d clung so tightly to control that I hadn’t realized how much of it I’d already lost until I feared I had none left. Some small, selfish part of me yearned for him to see past the deception and care for the girl buried beneath the lies…even if it cost me everything.

Ididtrust him. And while he had no reason to trust me in return, I wanted to finally change that. The moment had come to be brave and finally reveal a portion of myself to the man who would either accept me…or be the source of my ruin.

I drew in a breath, my fingers curling into the damp fabric of the cloak wrapped around us, grounding myself against the weight of what I was about to confess.Take courage, I told myself.Even if it costs you everything.

“I haven’t been entirely honest with you,” I said, my low voice nearly lost in the whisper of rain against the gazebo’s roof. “About…who I am.”

With another steadying breath, I allowed him to see the part of me I’d fought so long to conceal. Closing my eyes, I reached inward to the fragile core where the last threads of my precious, hard-earned magic scavenged in secret pulsed. With a whispered incantation, I released them, ignoring Myst’s hiss of horror.

Soft, silver light bloomed from my fingertips, spreading into the air like stardust caught in wind. Shimmering, delicate petals unfurled, waltzing between us before dissolving to mist. I gasped as a wave of agonizing heat pulsed through my seal before cooling as the last of my magic vanished.

When I opened my eyes, Callan was staring in wonder. The way he looked at me in that moment made the loss of magic almost bearable. For the first time, I didn’t feel like something to be feared or hidden. I felt…seen. It warmed something in me I’d long thought turned to ash.

We watched the last of the spell vanish beneath the haze of rain. For a long moment Callan didn’t speak, his expression still shadowed with stunned realization, before his voice finally came, quiet and reverent. “So it’s true then. You have magic.”

I gave a tentative nod. An awed smile spread across his face, achingly gentle.

“All this time, Eldoria believed your court’s magic died during the conquest ten years ago. But it’s still alive…inyou.”

The silence that followed was heavy with everything I couldn’t say: that the princess he believed me to be wasn’t the one who carried this magic, but rather the witch pretending to wear her name.

Though that dangerous truth I wasn’t yet strong enough to share hung in the air like another secret between us, his gazeheld mine, soft and steady, accepting what I had offered without condition. He reached out, cupping my hand between his with a care that made my throat tighten.

Something tender and fierce flickered in his eyes as he looked up at me. “I never expected the princess of the kingdom whose magic we stole might still possess it,” he murmured, his voice soft with wonder. “I understand the reason for your distance, why you felt the need to keep this hidden in a court as corrupt as mine—you were protecting yourself.”

At this unconditional acceptance I finally submitted to the quiet surrender I hadn’t known I’d been holding back. I stared at him, nearly drowning in the tenderness he extended. His thumb brushed lightly over the mark on my skin, tracing it not with fear but a look akin to reverence.

“I’m glad you trusted me with this,” he said. “I want to knowallof you, not just the part you’re expected to parade through the palace halls.”

Emotion burned behind my eyes. Though I still harbored truths far darker than he realized, his acceptance struck something deep within me. This growing tenderness compelled me to meet him halfway as he leaned forward, just enough that our foreheads nearly touched.

“You can trust me.”

And unlike all times he’d offered this promise when I’d been blinded by vengeance, it was nice to at last believe him.

CHAPTER 18

Asoft hum suddenly pulsed at the edge of my awareness, the low thrum of dormant magic, subtle but unmistakable. I paused in the corridor, my hand on the stair rail, listening. The stone hallway was nearly silent this late in the evening, save for the hush of wind curling through the window arches. The farther I followed the power tugging on my senses, the stronger the pull grew, until I rounded a sharp corner.

Lord Velgrin, the court’s magical advisor, suddenly emerged from the shadows near the conservatory doors, as if he’d been waiting for me. I stopped short.

Silver-threaded robes draped his willowy frame, the formal folds gleaming faintly in the low candlelight. I had only ever seen him at a distance since the night Callan had introduced him at dinner the night I arrived. Now, up close, his pale eyes glinted like frost beneath heavy brows, sharp and assessing. He offered no bow or formal greeting, only silence as taut as a snare.

“What an unexpected delight,” he said at last, his voice hushed and cold. “The little handmaiden from the forest who knows her way around sigils and memory veils. And here Ithought our prince merely had poor taste rather than a death wish by fraternizing with someone as dangerous as a witch.”

Horror seized my breath.Handmaiden, notprincess. Somehow, he knew who I was, as if those glacial eyes had peeled back every layer of disguise and seen straight through to the truth I had desperately kept buried.

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