Page 57 of Stolen Magic

I tried to smile, but it faltered. “Yes, this is magic. It’s time for you to finally remember who you truly are.”

Her brows knit. “What do you mean?”

I lifted the charm between us and whispered the incantation that would unravel everything Callan and I had built together. The spell trembled through the air as the magic rippled outward, golden and gentle as sunlight’s kiss on morning dew. A breeze stirred the edges of the field and the mist shifted.

Gwen gasped, staggering back a step as the spell touched her. The fresh clover she’d gathered for the geese tumbled from her slackened grip as her body stilled, her lips parting with a whisper I barely heard. “Eldoria, my engagement…Callan…my fiancé.”

Fiancé. Jealousy surged to hear her refer to the man I cared for so intimately. Though the title was rightfully hers to claim, all the time Callan and I had spent together that allowed me to cherish him in ways she never had the chance to made it feel asif it belonged to me alone—I had known him longer and more deeply, even if he’d never known me for who I was.

But none of that mattered in the face of the treaty between their two kingdoms, and certainly not beside the quiet goodness they both carried that made them far more suited for one another—a perfect match that my crimes and selfishness could never hope to live up to.

Yet even though deep down I knew this, for a fleeting, possessive moment I wanted to undo the spell to take back the memories I’d only just returned.

She crumpled to her knees, clutching her head as the memories returned in a torrent of recollection. I knelt beside her, steadying her with trembling hands. “Breathe,” I murmured. “It’s alright. You’re safe.”

Tears filled her eyes as she looked up. “Lysa?” Her voice cracked with grief and confusion. “What’s going on? What happened to me?”

Recognition slowly returned as her lost gaze desperately searched my face, until she was no longer a goose girl but a princess awakening.

“Wait, I remember now. Did you—” The full recollection of my betrayal returned alongside her true identity. “You made me forget who I was and usurped me to marry into the Eldorian throne.”

Shame encompassed me. I ached to deny it, but penance demanded I take responsibility for all I’d done. “Yes,” I managed. “I betrayed you—the first friend who showed me kindness—and took what was never mine…and now I’m giving it back. I’m so sorry, Gwen.”

I unclasped the pendant I still wore that Callan had given her when they first met, the symbol of a life I had borrowed and broken. I left the fleur-de-lis tucked under my bodice, not noble enough to surrender the token he had carved for me…or at leastit felt like it had been for me, even if he thought I was someone else. I extended the jeweled pendant towards her, the heart-shaped token gleaming between us, symbolic of relinquishing his heart to someone far more deserving.

Silence settled between us as she stared at it, before her eyes slowly met mine. She studied me for a long moment, but to my surprise, she didn’t recoil or rage; she simply looked…sad. “Why did you impersonate me?”

“Because I thought it was the only way to reclaim what was stolen from me and from our kingdom,” I said, my voice raw. “But I was wrong. Taking someone else’s place doesn’t heal the wounds of the past—especially not at the cost of those I’ve come to care about most.”

Her face gentled. “Callan.”

I nodded, the ache sharp. “And you. I don’t expect forgiveness; I only want to do all in my power to make things right, to restore everything I took.” Everything but the pieces of Callan’s heart that had become mine to cherish for the rest of my days, however few remained thanks to my crimes against the crown.

Approaching footsteps sounded, a stride I’d become as intimately familiar with as my own. My heart leapt in recognition of the one who possessed them before twisting painfully at the reminder of what I was about to lose.

Gwen heard them too and rose unsteadily, turning just as Callan stepped into the field, her eyes meeting the fiancé that truly belonged to her with recognition now fully restored.

Callan strode into the meadow, his eyes scanning the misty clearing until they found mine. The tension in his shoulders eased at once, and something soft bloomed in his expression, as though I was still someone worth seeking.

“Gwen.” He stepped closer, his gaze briefly flicking towards the real princess without recognition, before returning to mewith his familiar warm smile. “I’ve been looking for you. I was hoping we could spend some time together.”

The real Gwen’s trembling fingers tightened around the pendant I had returned as she looked back and forth between us. “What happened between you two?”

The question struck deeper than I expected. My throat burned with all the things I couldn’t say. Whathadhappened between us?

A bouquet of violets. A carved pendant. Arms enfolded around me after a nightmare. His fingers twining through mine. Sharing a cloak beneath the rain. A kiss that almost was. A courtship stitched together with lies and longing, but none of it belonged to me.

“I—” My voice broke. “It doesn’t matter now.” I couldn’t say more, not with him standing so near with that same tenderness in his eyes I had once dared to believe might last.…a look I was about to erase forever.

I turned away. It would be far easier to do what I knew must be done without his gentle gaze. For all my heart’s aching pleas, I knew what had to be done. I couldn’t falter…even though it would cost me everything.

This was the last act of my penance.

I reached deep inside for the final thread of magic I had once vowed to reclaim. My heart pounded in protest like a funeral drum as I stepped towards the prince I had come to love. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

His brows drew together in confusion. “For what?”

“For all of it.” I drew a quavering breath, reaching for my second spell.

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