A trip to the lake - open -

Of course, Peregrine, being royalty himself, knew every trick in the book as far as fooling overbearing, over-protective, tradition-preserving parents went. He had fully expected her to go on about how her father wouldn’t allow it and how it certainly wouldn’t do to have a thief as her escort to defend her against beast and foe on her perilous journey. He didn’t stop to question whether she actually wanted him there or not. He would want him to, if he was in her shoes. After all, he was Peregrine Alexander, or, oops! Jack the Shadow. Who wouldn’t want him by their side?

“Already two steps ahead of you.” He said, with a punch-drunk grin, delighted to be organizing mischief that in his eyes, wouldn’t cost someone their life if it all went wrong, or recently, in his case, cost someone their life if it all went right. That was not the point. ”Go on with your day as normal, tell your father that you love him—” He cut himself off, realizing he had been thinking of what he would say to his own father, if he was still alive. Funny, how his feelings towards him had changed since his own brother had slaughtered him. All animosity and whiny, “unfair” dealings Peregrine had had with the man had now vanished, replaced with unadulterated love. Now the only thing that wasn’t fair was that Pandion had taken him from him, and from their brother and sister as well. “…or whatever you say to him when you see him in the halls. Leave the rest to me. I have some…thief apprentices I will employ the help of and I guarantee you, we shall be the ones to escort you to Ioralta, and your father will be none-the-wiser.” He finished, with a peck on her lips.

He was becoming rather good at this. Not only that, but was it possible to actually be good at the thing you were pretending to be? He was Peregrine, the prince who was wanted for murder and no longer a prince. He was the man without a future, wrongfully ripped from everything that he loved, now masquerading as the greatest thief in Speirling, and yet, he was thinking of himself as Jack the Shadow more and more lately. Was it possible for him really to become this shadow he had fashioned himself as? What would the real greatest thief in Speirling have to say about all this? Was it really possible to become so wrapped up in a role that you actually became what you were playacting as?

“So what’ll it be, Princess?”