Ellery swallowed and pushed her memories away. “I hate to break it to you, Dom, but we’re both celebrities now.”
“So, what, will the next prophecy piece quiz us on pop culture?”
“If so, you really ought to get out more. Go to a concert or something.”
Domenic folded his hands behind his head and grinned at her. “Well, when we wrap up this whole Chosen One business, I grant you permission to take me to one.”
Their conversation carried on in the same witty, easy way that Ellery had come to expect as she steered the car down the snowy roads, deeper into the night.
Ellery parked on a deserted trail on the forest’s outskirts. She left her coat in the car. She was tired of pretending to need it, and with Domenic, at least, she didn’t have to play pretend.
“So,” Domenic declared as they traipsed through the woods, “up until today, obviously I’ve been a bit preoccupied with the notion of saving the country. But Val and Izzy are—”
“Val and Izzy?”
“What, too irreverent? They’re our wands, aren’t they?”
She let out a soft, surprised laugh.
He beamed. He was all giddy momentum, walking so quickly Ellery jogged to keep pace. “As I was saying, Val and Izzy, being Summer’s Chosen, I thought it all had to be a joke at first. Sure, my whole life, I’ve had to hold back because otherwise I blew through my training wands. And before I got to the academy, Hanna and I—we received some of the highest grades on the national entrance exam. But now that I’m starting to buy this whole Chosen One thing, that means I really have been one of the most powerful magicians in the country, haven’t I?Ha! What I wouldn’t give to have seen Mr. Abney’s face when he found out it wasme. Two weeks ago he called me the most shameless student he’s ever had the misfortune to teach!”
Domenic waved Valmordion, and illusions spun throughout the forest, so vivid and precise Ellery could spot no seams. An image of rolling green hills reared into a backdrop, cast in the rosy, fuzzy filter of a film screen. A castle perched upon the farthest one, flags waving merrily in an imaginary breeze. Fireflies danced to the drifting music, a tune old and stirring, but strange, as if played through a warped phonograph.
It felt real and fantastical all at once, as though Ellery stood at the edge of one of his daydreams. Perhaps she did.
“It’s gorgeous,” she said.
“I thought we’d both like it. Like a movie set, right?” Domenic lifted Valmordion, admiring it. The golden light of its core bathed his features, emphasizing the honey undertones of his eyes, the freckles dusting his face like pollen. Then he tossed Ellery an expectant look. “The set is pretty and all, but it still feels like it’s missing something. I can’t put my finger on it.”
Ellery drew Iskarius and conjured a phantom waterfall. It trickled down one of the hills then grew into a river, rushing across the clearing in glittering tributaries. Tiny projections of fish rippled through it, blue and indigo and silver, their scales bright as coins.
“Yeah, I think we’re getting somewhere.” With a flourish, Domenic added a trail behind the waterfall, wandering into wilderness. Thistle and clover sprouted across the hills in a polka-dotted blanket. The Winter air suddenly smelled of petrichor, as if coaxed from a fresh rain.
Emboldened, Ellery added daydreams of her own to the illusion. A city thronged around the castle. Buildings speckled the hills, some clustering into neighborhoods, others sharpening into the modern points of skyscrapers. The rhythm of life emanated from within the winding streets, people chattering andlaughing; the melodic chime of the Gold Line; wind rushing between the alleyways; the drumbeat of pedestrian footsteps—the same sounds that had soothed her so when she’d first arrived in Gallamere.Welcome home,they’d seemed to say.
She smiled at Domenic. “Your turn.”
He shook out his limbs, jumped a few times, then expanded their set threefold. Whereas before they had gazed upon their illusions ahead, as if an audience viewing a stage, now the stage circled them. Cobblestones tufted with weeds quilted the earth beneath their shoes. The buildings took on detail: gleaming glass storefronts and milling customers and chimneys sighing smoke. Carriages wove among motorcars. Pigeons perched upon a wishing well.
Domenic gestured grandly at an ornate bench, and they sat upon it. The slats of wood pressed against her back. The iron handle was cool against her palm. Their shoulders touched.
“It feels real,”Ellery said hoarsely.
“It sure does.” Domenic craned his head back and marveled at it. His leg bounced. “Maybe this is why I could never focus. All this time,thisis the power I’ve had inside me. And somehow, I’ve been expected to sit still.”
Ellery hesitated as the illusion’s performance carried on around them. It was the most masterful one she’d ever experienced, overwhelmingly complex, unfathomably vast. And although her magic felt no strain, suddenly, she couldn’t stop worrying that it would explode somehow. That it would be all her fault.
Domenic studied her. “What’s wrong?”
Ellery stood abruptly. It wasn’t instinctive for her, thinking out loud. But it was easier if she wasn’t looking at him. “My power’s always been tremendous, too. It keeps me focused, but not in a good way. It’s more that I’m always so alert, so on edge, because I know how awful the consequences could be if I lose control.” She walked toward the nearest shop, then halted before a department store window. Her reflection regarded her, and although she couldrecognize the loveliness of it, she also saw the winterghast blue of her eyes, the fractal ice crusted at Iskarius’s tip. Her shadow feathered behind her, layers and layers like the train of a gown. Its edges undulated even while she stilled.
“But the truth is,” Ellery continued, “I’ve only ever lost control out of fear. And even though I’ve proven Icancontrol my power, it’s still hard to let the fear go. Especially when I see how everyone looks at my wand. Atme.”
“Not everyone,” Domenic murmured.
Tears welled in her eyes as he joined her at the window. She studied how they looked side by side, their wands in their hands, the miasma of their magic around them.
For all that they were different, in every way that mattered, they were the same.
