The Prince, the Thief, and the Shadow Emperor

Traveling home by way of the Black Forest, Ilya is accosted by a highwayman who unexpectedly breaks free of his magic by dissolving into smoke. Not a highwayman, he learns later, but rumored to be the malcontent spirit of a despised dead emperor killed centuries ago.

Ilya dismisses the tale as superstition and clever shadow magic ... until he sees the thief again in the very last place he expected.

(This title was previously published in LT3's That Famous Happy End anthology.)