It was snowing. I wrapped my cloak tighter against the cold. Roger was there to meet us. 

 "The progress has been delayed a day, while we adjust to this -" he shivered. "Unseasonal snow." 

 We were a small party - me, Ewen (because I had to), Giselle (because I had to), Kesper and a handful of my best guards. I decided to make a day trip out of it, going on foot. 

 It felt so much less stiff and formal - I felt so much less stiff and formal - hiking like any other traveller, over easy paths in leather boots and a woollen cloak. I couldn't remember enjoying stuff like this before - but this world, this body, this life never mapped neatly onto the other. My cheeks and nose smarted with the morning cold, but my limbs were warm and pulsing with energy. 

 The snow dusted gently out across the plateau, drifting down on the mountain village. 

 The inn was, indeed, clean and warm. They fed us mutton stew, real villager mutton stew, with spices, flatbread and sour mead. I had three helpings, and more than three meads. 

 After dinner one of the guards pulled out a pack of cards. Giselle yelled in delight and plopped down across from him. "Won't you join us, darling Macie?" 

 "I'm not certain that is appropriate-" Roger quivered. 

 "We'll play something terribly tame. Nothing so vulgar as money will change hands, Roger," Giselle cooed. He pursed his lips, sighed and went back to his work. 

 "What about you, Kesper?" I asked. 

 He seemed suprised. "Oh, I don't usually play." 

 "You're not being boring, remember?" 

 He laughed, and joined us at the table. "In that case, I won't go easy on you, Your Highness, even though you are my mistress." 

 He was terrible at cards. I was worse, because I didn't know any of the games. Giselle was cleaning up. 

 So I suggested spoons, which they picked up quick enough. Now the playing field was level, and things got heated. I'd never thought of myself as competitive, but turns out, I liked winning. Kesper moved fastest, but only when he noticed a match. Giselle reacted fastest but tended to jump the gun. Amacia had whip-smart reflexes. The key to victory was shutting off the thinking part of my brain altogether. 

 By midnight the whole party had joined in except Roger, who had gone to bed early, and Ewen, who hadn't. He wedged himself in a shadowy corner and watched, like some creep. If he wanted to join in, he only had to ask. I was in a good enough mood, I wouldn't have minded. 

 Me, Giselle and Kesper were the last ones playing. I realised he wouldn't stop until I did, so I announced I was going to bed. 

 He walked me to my door and bowed. "See you tomorrow, Your Highness." 

 "Yeah. You too." 

 My room was the largest (of course) but I had to share it with Giselle. That was okay. I always kept my dagger strapped to my wrist even when I was sleeping, just in case. At this point in the journey, it was like my teddy bear. She wasn't there yet, anyway, by the time sleep closed over me. 

 I woke up. 

 The light was thin, and blue. I rolled out of bed and stumbled to the window. Not yet dawn. Cold and still, silent with snow. I looked back to the bed. Giselle wasn't there. She hadn't slept there. 

 Maybe she's with Ewen, I thought. He could use a little cheering up. Not that he deserves it. 

 I dressed as quietly as I could; boots, cloak, reticule. I inched the door open. 

 The guard in front slumped over his knees, fast asleep. Where was Kesper? 

 Right. His shift hadn't started yet. 

 I slipped out the door. No one was awake to hear me leave. That mead sure had done its job. 

 The village was tiny. I'd left it behind, and was jogging across the plain. The snow lay thinly over the grass. It was easy, to widen the distance between myself and everyone else. 

 And then I got to the edge. 

 Open sky, everywhere, everywhere. The earth was so far away. I breathed in massive lungfuls of air, like I'd swum an entire lap underwater. My eyes fluttered closed, and I raised my arms up to the wind.  

 A hand closed over my shoulder. 

 I whipped around. Ewen. 

 "Kesper!" I called out. Maybe he was doing the wrong thing and watching over me. 

 Ewen jumped back. "No - no! Please, Amacia, I just want to talk to you. I just want to understand. What you did - it doesn't make sense, and it's killing me!" 

I couldn't see anything but empty plain. I couldn't get out of this. "I'm sorry this is hurting you. But I already explained my choice."

 "Not the first one. You made me love you. I want to know why. Why? Why did you make me love you, if you were going to take it all away? I don't understand what you are doing with me!" 

 "I'm not doing anything! I don't want anything to do with you!" I didn't have a proper explanation. I didn't understand either. I had to stand my ground. "How did you think this would end, Ewen? You chose to marry her, after everything that happened between us. Where was there ever space for a happy ending?"

 He was pacing, erratic. The wind picked up, throwing a flurry of snow into the air.  "You said you loved me despite trying everything to stop. You said you were ready to throw everything away for our love. Now you're saying you don't want anything to do with me! I don't recognise this person you've become. Who are you?!"

 "I'm me! This is who I am! This is who I always was!"

 "There is nothing real about you, Amacia. You are fakest out of everything - I don't know what you wanted from me, but I can see now it was never love." He slammed his hands into his face. I flinched. "You... did this on purpose. With your poisoned words and wicked lips. Blighted my heart against the woman - the only one - who showed me true love and loyalty! 

 "And now you flaunt your congress with the Lusilean bodyguard without shame. I am a very powerful man! I hold the South, and everyone wants the South. The Lusileans want the South. And you, though you try so hard to make everyone forget it, are Lusilean! You've deceived everyone! Pulled the wool over the eyes of everyone, even your own mother." I stood, frozen, on the edge of the world as Ewen's face twisted into something monstrous. Triumphant. Righteous. 

 "I see it now... I know who you are. Traitor!"

 He lurched forward. 

 Plain bloomed from his hands. 

 "Traitor to the Crown! As Duke of the South and servant of Her Holy Majesty - I demand that you confess your treachery! Confess! Confess!" 

 He was squeezing me too hard to expect an answer. I couldn't speak. I couldn't breathe. There was nothing I could do. Golden light flooded my vision. It brightened, hot and electric, across every part of me. 

 I dropped to the ground. My burning lungs reached for a ragged gasp of air. It came, hard and ugly. In and out, in and out, uneven and panicked. I was shaking. My vision was blurred. I was breathing. I was alive. 

 "Hnggh!" That didn't come from me. I looked up. 

 Ewen was grabbing his own throat, eyes bulging out and bloodshot, panicked. Gasping like me. Gasping like he'd just been choked. 

 

 What's happening? 

 "How did you do that to me?!" Ewen rasped. He watched me in even greater horror than before. "What are you?" 

 Then he said it.

 "Witch!" 

 My hand flew to my sleeve, grasping the hilt of the dagger. 

 Stab him. Stab him! Save yourself. 

 I didn't move. Neither did Ewen.  He was scared. Scared of me. 

 If he left this cliff alive, I was doomed. I had to move. I had to kill him. My fingers tightened on the hilt. Tighter. Tighter, till it hurt. Tears swelled in my eyes. I couldn't do it. 

 Ewen took a stumbling step backwards. 

 Then he cried out, softly. His hands moved from his throat to his chest. Something dark bubbled and dripped from his lips. 

 Is this my magic again? What have I done?

 His legs stopped working, just folded up, and he was on the ground. He wasn't moving. I looked up, in confused horror. 

 Giselle stood there, blood-red up to her elbows. In both hands she gripped a knife. Her eyes fixed on me, round with shock. 

 "Is he dead?" she whispered, high-pitched and breathless. 

 I knelt down, shaking. I didn't want to touch him. Because I knew the answer. "I think so." 

 Giselle made a noise of annoyance and knelt down too. She lowered her ear over his mouth. Then, for good measure, pushed the knife into his heart again. 

 "Damn it!" She slammed her bloodied hands into the snow. "Damn it." 

  She stood, gritting her teeth against the wind, still clutching the knife. 

 "Giselle-" 

  A flash of silver, and a flash of heat. Then pain. I looked down at my arm, where a thin line of blood was forming. It dripped onto the snow. Giselle had slashed me, with her knife. 

 "Ow! What the hell are you doing!?" 

 "Now you go," Giselle said. There was nothing shaky or uncertain about her now. She held the knife out, handle first. I took it with my thumb and forefinger. The handle was sticky. "Go on," she urged. 

 "What?" 

 "Cut me. Get some blood going. Some genetic evidence things went horribly wrong. Come on, we don't have enough time. I can do it myself, if you don't have the balls-" 

 "No! I'll do it." I dragged the knife across her palm, still not knowing why. I didn't know where else wouldn't cause a haemorrhage, and she was all I had right now. 

 "Hopefully I'll get away with it, too, but it's most important they believe you."

 "Get away with what? Please, just tell me what you're doing, Giselle!" 

 "I'm kidnapping us."