THERE WAS SOMETHING eerie about walking through the castle after the sun had set and moonlight shone through the large windows. Servants passed in shadowy tendrils while Miss Myrina guided me back to my room. There were fewer people – knights, specifically – on duty. There was always one outside mine and Jo's chambers, but the hallway was surprisingly empty.

Jo's room was dark underneath her closed door. She hadn't returned from the library yet.

I worked my troubles out by chewing on one of the pieces of ice that was supposed to be in the cloth on my hand while I paced my room. My hand already faded from the purple monstrosity it was hours ago into a dull yellow-green. The healing tonic was legit.

Part of me wanted to stop pacing and go find Jo. What if she was caught in the library? Would it look questionable for a noble of Velein to have books from both kingdoms scattered about, especially after my fumble at dinner? Why did I have to be such a terrible liar? I couldn't believe I said my only career goals were to help people. What a pathetic answer! When it came to my future, I only got as far as wanting Stanford, but I didn't even have that now. I didn't have anything but these lies. My stupid, terrible, useless lies.

I was floundering. Tonight made me realize that. If I were here alone, I would've been made before the first sunrise in Larnwick.

At least the king was generous enough to only imply that I was a lost girl with no ambition, something my mother would've told me straight to my face. Or maybe she already had, I couldn't remember. I could see the smug expression that would go with it, her hands waving carelessly in the air, as she said the words in a kind tone, sometimes with a giggle, as if it were a joke. As if I were a joke.

The door to my room burst open. I jumped to my feet, blood pounding in my ears as I took in my breathless best friend. Jo looked like she just ran a marathon, face pale, her chest heaving. Her eyes were wide and feral. "Claire," she panted out. Then she dropped her hands to her knees. "Fuck, this castle is big.

She looked like she was going to pass out. I rushed to her side, floundering around her because I didn't exactly know what to do if she passed out, and ended up hovering until she slumped into the stool at my vanity. "He knows," she finally said.

My heart plummeted to my feet. "What?"

Jo seemed to catch a second wind, shooting up from her seat to pace my room, almost following the exact same trail I'd been using before. "The King! He knows we're frauds, or at least he thinks we are. He's having that stupid monster extinguisher guy spy on us until he can collect enough info to know for sure."

My head spun. I thought the lies we built up were solid... enough. Weren't they? We'd done as much research as we could, I'd spent my entire life reading about this world to know for sure. How was it not enough? I leaned against a post of my canopy bed, a little unsteady, while Jo freaked out enough for the both of us. We needed to stay calm. "Tell me what happened," I said.

"Our information... it has to be wrong!" She said, rolling the sleeves of her dress up to her elbows. The long, thick fabric made it difficult to bunch up, and ended up spilling down her arms. She gave up with a frustrated huff. "Swords and Roses must be wrong."

"It's not wrong," I told her. I was confident in that. The book guided us this far. Nobody had questioned my knowledge of Velein. "If anything, it's saved us from being completely clueless."

I didn't want to add that if anything, they might have been questioning us because of Jo and how obviously alien she was to this world. It wouldn't be fair, but it didn't make things any less frustrating. We were best friends, for crying out loud. Didn't she at least pick up something from hearing me rattle on about my favorite things, watching my favorite movies and shows?

"Then it's not enough," Jo snapped, her tone harsh. Harsher than I'd ever heard it before, at least not directed at me. "Not when it has them questioning us. Spying on us."

"How do you know any of this?" I demanded, losing my patience. "Start from the beginning."

Jo huffed out another sharp breath, fisting her hands on the fabric around her hips. She looked ready to explode, but I remained unmoved, as always. Her frustration was nothing new to me, even if this situation was. I was the neutral one. I was the calm before or after her storm. No matter how ready I was to spiral, I was solid. I had to be for the both of us.

"I was on the way to the library," Jo began, settling. While she continued to pace, the speed was less frenetic. "I heard voices so I jumped into a linen closet, then I saw it was both of them, His Royal Doucheness and Sir Monster Killer. When they got close, I overheard them talking about us. The King wants Nico to look into us and follow us around like they're on some kind of espionage-type shit. Apparently, the King knows the Canterwell family so well, that he said he wasn't aware the family has girls our age out in society yet."

Shit.

"I thought this place was supposed to be slow with communications, or whatever?" Jo demanded when I didn't say anything fast enough. "Wasn't it hard to get these kinds of updates back in the old days? Or maybe not here, since they have toilets and running water, they probably have fucking email!"

"Jo, we can't panic," I said. "It'll lead to mistakes –"

"Mistakes have clearly been made if the King is sending a watchdog after us." Jo snapped again, the words and fire in her eyes directed solely at me.

I froze under the heat, the pressure. I couldn't help it. The Jo I knew... she wasn't like this with me. I didn't recognize her. Sure, she had been mean to her bandmates and Dustin and anyone she deemed useless to her or her plans, but not me. Not like this.

Jo must've taken my silence for something else, because she frowned at me. "Hello? Earth to Claire – We're fucked! We need to get the hell out of here before we end up in jail or executed. We have to go now!"

She took my hand, but I snatched it away from her. The movement jerked me out of whatever I was feeling, too. "Jo, take a breath," I said, my voice hard. Because I was right. Because I wasn't the one panicking. I was calm. "The King isn't sending Nico to arrest us. He's just watching us. If we let him know we're onto him, it'll only make the situation worse."

But she was shaking her head before I even finished talking. "It's over, Claire. This fantastical lie you've created is done. We're done. It's time we get the hell out of dodge."

"If we leave now, it'll only make us look more suspicious," I countered. I was right. "The horses and our luggage have already been explained away. Correspondence does travel slow here, so we have time on our side if the Counterwells respond to a letter from the King. Besides, we probably have a better chance at getting out of the world if we stay in a place that has more access to magic and information than us just wandering the woods or small villages."

Jo stopped walking, leaning back against the wardrobe across from me. She folded her arms across her chest and glared at the ground, worrying at her bottom lip between her teeth. She was mad, I knew, but more than that she was scared. The circles under her eyes were as dark and almost as purple as my hand had been earlier. When was the last time she slept? She'd done all of it for us. She stepped up to survive this world by staying up all night reading Swords and Roses, willingly went to a library to try and do research on this world. I needed to step up too, and get out of my comfort zone. I needed to... to lie, and do it well.

I had to start now.

I finally crossed the space between us and put my hands on her shoulders. I was about to lie to my friend again, the guilt already making my stomach flip.

"We're going to be fine, Jo," I said, when I actually wasn't sure. But I believed we would be, hoped we would be, and that had to mean this wasn't quite a lie. "You've been cooped up in this castle for too long. I mean this in the nicest way possible, but you should go touch grass or something, maybe sleep? I'll handle anything that may come from the King's request in the meantime."

"Claire–"

"Just for now," I interrupted. "We're a team, remember? Us against everyone. I don't know how we got here, but I think it's the only way we'll get out of this. We'll find the answers. Together."

Jo released a slow breath. Her body relaxed a little. "Okay."

Despite the dark cloud of what ifs edging at my mind – at probably both of our minds - we smiled at each other anyway. We would get through this. I was Lady Claire Canterwell, descendant of the noble family of Velein.

And Jo – Lady Joan Austin, my cousin and best friend no matter what lie was told – was beside me to help me when I would need it.

We would be all right.