WHILE IT WASN'T exactly freezing yet, the air held a crispness to it that settled over my skin the way the changing of the seasons always did. It made my veins tingle as the wind rushed through the leaves clinging onto the trees, and stirred a lightness in my chest from the stark, cloudless sky. At least that was one familiar thing about this place, and that was it. Even from the first time I saw it riding through the city on Sir Nico's horse, the capital city of Norcrest itself had changed.

The streets were overtaken by brightly colored tents, streetlamps were wrapped in gold and orange ribbons, and more banners of the same colors shuddered in the delicate twilight breeze. They spanned between close-knit buildings like spiderwebs, set against the backdrop of a brilliant orange sunset. All of the city had been consumed by the sky and its fall festival.

A group of townspeople gathered in one of the many streets that broke into a roundabout, hoisting up a heavy-looking archway. It was adorned with even more streamers, fresh-cut fall flowers, acorns, pinecones, dried berries, and bare branches. Two people stood on either side, and one person stood in the middle, but despite everyone else standing around them, those three people were the only ones doing anything.

Then I realized why, when the person in the middle – an older woman – bent at her knees and held her hands out. She slowly folded her hands over themselves, over and over again, before straightening up. Out of nowhere, they collected a yellowy golden glow. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Magic. She was going to use magic.

I waited for the soft humming feeling that would come with it. Whenever Lady Heathwood described using her magic, she always said her body would buzz and tingle. The sensation was close to how the floorboards would feel when an orchestra struck a chord. The woman using the magic was across the roundabout from me, and so many people were talking, but...

There.

I stopped breathing. The sensation was faint, but soft, like the final note that hung in the air once that perfect chord was hit, and it warmed something in me.

It felt familiar.

When the woman straightened up, the glow in her hands leaping out and wrapping around the archway in thin flowing tendrils. "And heave!" she shouted.

The two men on either side of the archway did as she said, pushing against both ends of the archway to help stabilize it while her magic pulled the entire thing up. What would've probably taken a bulldozer and five men in my world, only needed two people and one sorcerer. My fingers tightened against my shawl, pulling it closer around me as the archway stood upright while the men anchored it in place with ropes and stakes. The people cheered as the visible traces of the sorceress's magic faded out of sight. The feeling and warmth came to an abrupt stop, and I was left shaking from more than a sudden chill.

"The festivities are complete!" a random man shouted, which made everyone cheer even louder.

I hung back while they shuffled off, probably back to their homes. To the places they knew they belonged. I waited for them to disappear before I approached the arch.

Lady Heathwood described using magic as something that could linger – just for a little while, like a footprint – and called it an imprint. She always romanticized a magic imprint as a way to remind a sorcerer or sorceress that they were infusing a piece of themselves into something, but it was also a weakness. The villain of the story had used Lady Heathwood's imprint to track her and steal her magic.

I wanted to test that imprint out for myself, but the sound of that sorceress's magic didn't leap out at me when I got closer. It was gone. But that feeling...

I shut my eyes and focused, the way I would if I was trying to pick out the notes of a guitar in a song. It couldn't be that much different. Still nothing.

To strengthen her connection to sense magic, it sometimes helped Lady Heathwood to touch the thing she was studying. She did that with Sir Ashwell when they first met to find the source of where he'd been poisoned.

I scoffed. At myself. What the hell was I trying to prove? "I can't believe this shit..." I pressed my hand against the archway's bramble-covered surface, the branches rough against my palm and fingers. I squeezed my eyes shut harder, as if I could fade into the black, trying my best to block out everything else. I needed to feel that sensation again. I needed to know.

There.

It was slight, barely a whisper, but a soft fluttering magic crept out to meet me. It vibrated against my skull in soft, lapping waves. It wasn't as strong as it had been when I first heard it, but there was no denying it.

The pounding in my head from when I first woke up in this world felt exactly like this. Just on a bigger scale.

"Lady Joan?"

I yanked my hand back from the archway and reeled around, finding none-freaking-other than Sir Nico Monster Extinguisher sneaking up behind me. He was dressed like he had been when we first met – leather gear, sans cape, sword hanging off the loose belt cinched at his narrow waist. I pressed my hand against my chest, sucking in a shaking breath only because he startled me, nothing else. "Do you always start conversations by scaring the – by scaring people?" I demanded, biting back a curse, forcing myself to remember the role I had to play.

He looked like he was considering my words. "My apologies, Lady Joan. From now on, I shall have a page at my side to announce my entrance to every space I enter to avoid startling you."

"You joke, but that doesn't seem like such a terrible idea to me," I shot back. Especially when I also had to force myself to remember he was a threat. That his job, given to him by the King of this country, was to find out the truth about Claire and I.

He smirked, but the expression quickly fell when he glanced around. "Where is your guard?"

"I don't... have one?" I frowned back, to which I was only met with a more severe expression. Great. I already made another mistake.

"My Lady, Norcrest is a safe city, but it is not wise for you to travel unaccompanied," he explained. "Especially given your public arrival to the castle. Everyone in the city knows the royal family is entertaining you and your cousin."

It made sense. Claire and I were supposed to be noble people for crying out loud. But now that I knew that – knew more about this world and its rules – at least this was a mistake I could play into. "I just wanted some fresh air." I smirked. "You wouldn't tell anyone, would you?"

"Oh no, I will not be pulled into any schemes," he said, but it didn't stop the charming smile quickly returning to his features. "I'll have you know I have quite the pristine reputation as defender of this keep. I won't let it be tarnished by any acts of rebellion, no matter how politely they may be requested."

"Nico, come on! We must make haste before all the seats are taken!" another male voice suddenly shouted, making us stop short and turn. A group of three men and one woman similarly clad to Sir Nico stood across the roundabout, looking relaxed and excited. As soon as they saw me, though, they quickly straightened up and pulled their shoulders back. The one who spoke made a quick bow. "Sincerest apologies, My Lady."

"Go on without me," Sir Nico called back. "I will join you shortly."

I didn't move when he turned back to the castle. "Where are you going?" I asked.

"I am personally escorting you back to the castle, My Lady," he replied, but he knew what I really meant. When I didn't say anything, and he noticed I didn't move when he took a step past me, he explained. "The night before the Autumnal Festival is usually the quietest for the Royal Guard. It's become a tradition to seek out the spectacles of performers anxious for tomorrow."

"What kind of... spectacles?" I asked and tried to hold back the cringe from saying the word spectacles. The people here talked so weird.

"Any kind you can think of," he replied easily, with a smile that could rival the sunset in its brilliance. "Music, acting, magic –"

My chest went tight at the idea of hearing music. It'd only been a couple of days since I listened to it, and yet it was the longest span of time I'd gone without it. A very small, very insistent desire to hear what these people called music around here stirred within me. "You said magic?" I asked instead. Because there were more important things to worry about. I just had to get through this, and then I would be back home with my Spotify account and guitars and brand-new band –

"Yes," Sir Nico said, oblivious to my turmoil. "Some of the best sorcerers and sorceresses come from all over the world to put on shows. A few may already be out tonight."

The best?

"Go on without me!" Sir Nico shouted after the other knights, who still hung near the town square, waiting. And now they were leaving, and I would be, too. I would get locked back up in a castle like one of the stupid heroines in all of Claire's stupid period romances. I was running out of time.

"Take me with you," I blurted out.