“What’s in the north?”
“Another palace.”
I laugh.
“What?” he asks.
“You say that the way Jas might refer to another dress for my spoiled cousins.” I look around, taking in the view of the expansive grounds around the Golden Palace. “I can’t imagine having one place like this, let alone another.”
When I turn back to Sebastian, he’s frowning. “It’s absurd, isn’t it?” he asks softly. “So much excess here when so many suffer in Elora. I didn’t realize . . . not until I moved in with Mage Trifen.”
“Why did you do that anyway? You have magic—better magic than any human could dream of having. Why did you take an apprenticeship with a human?”
“Human magic is different, and I’m not arrogant enough to believe that I don’t need it.” He turns to the view beyond, and his gaze goes distant. “I know I’m going to need every advantage I can get if I want to be the best ruler for my people.”
“When will that happen? When will you rule?”
He shakes his head. “Only the old gods know the moment, but I want to be prepared.” He refills his glass and takes another drink, adding, “You didn’t come up here to talk about my apprenticeship.”
“No. I came about something else. But . . . it seems silly now.”
He grins, sensing my embarrassment. “What is it?”
I grab a lock of my hair and twist it nervously. “I’ve been thinking about how we can find Jas, and I remembered legends of this magical mirror that would show you anyone you wished to see.”
His eyes go wide. “The Mirror of Discovery?”
“I never knew what it was called.” I smile to hide the lie. “But when you look into it, you can ask to see someone. Maybe we could use it to locate Jas.”
“It’s hard to know what you’d see if you used it.” He frowns, thinking. “It can be unpredictable.”
I swallow. Please get it for me. Please. “But wouldn’t it be worth trying?” I blow out a breath. “Such an ancient piece of magic. I’m . . . curious.”
He laughs. “It’s the thief in you—don’t make that face, I mean it as a compliment. But I can’t have you breaking into my mother’s sacred sunroom to appease your curiosity. I’ll see what I can do.”
* * *
“Won’t the people at the palace think it’s strange that I’m gone so often?” I ask the next day as Pretha escorts me through the front door of Finn’s house in the form of Eurelody.
“They’ll think you’re studying with your tutor at her home. Finn paid the old scholar’s family well for use of the place.” She closes the door behind me, then shimmies her shoulders. The wings disappear and her body snaps back into the one I know as Pretha.
“Is this your . . . true form?” I ask, nodding at her.
“This?” She smiles slowly, and her face lights up. She’s stunning. I wonder if she’s Finn’s wife or partner or—I squelch the errant thought. Why do I care who he’s with? “Yes, this is my true form.”
“Can you fly when you have the wings?”
She snorts and waves at me to follow her down the dimly lit hallway to the back of the house. “It depends on the form I take. I can’t fly when I shift into Eurelody, because Eurelody can’t fly. Other forms . . .” She shrugs. “Sure. Sometimes. Though it takes a lot of energy to shift so completely.”
I follow her through a set of double doors into a massive library that has two-story ceilings and bookshelves lining every wall. In the middle of the room, a trio of fae males gather around a table, discussing something in low tones. I recognize Kane, and I think the other two were guarding the door to the office the night Kane carried me into the tavern. Finn isn’t anywhere to be seen, but his wolves are napping in the shadows at the back of the library.
“Hell-ooo,” Pretha singsongs, and the males straighten.
Kane grabs something off the table—a map maybe?—and rolls it up before sliding it into the back of his pants. “The princess returns,” he grumbles.
I arch a brow. “If you don’t want me here, then why does your prince keep sending her to retrieve me?”
“Ignore Kane,” Pretha says. “He’s perpetually cranky.”
Kane scowls at her, and the other two chuckle.
Pretha points to the male with dark skin, short black dreadlocks, and silver webbing on his forehead much like Pretha’s. “Abriella, this is Tynan,” she says. He smiles as he offers his hand, and I shake it. “And Jalek,” she says, pointing to the other, a pale-skinned male with buzzed white hair and dark green eyes. This one doesn’t offer a hand. Instead he gives me a curt nod and takes a step back, as if he doesn’t want to get too close to me.