Shadow Heir

“What exactly did they command you to do?”

“To come to you, mistress, and tell you they have a message for you. They also told me the message—”

“Did they command you to actually tell me the exact message?” I demanded.

“No, but—”

“Then don’t,” I said, relieved I wouldn’t have to magically counteract them. “That’s an order.”

Volusian’s face remained typically expressionless. “My mistress is not curious?”

“No,” I lied. I was terribly curious. But, I also didn’t want to be swayed by anything those two had to say. I didn’t want to hear Dorian’s pleas about me coming back, no matter how well-intentioned he might be—partially because I was afraid I might want to give in. I also didn’t want to find out what Maiwenn’s role was in this. If she’d convinced Dorian to work with her, then maybe she had some song to sing about how she’d seen the errors of her ways and no longer had a hit out on me. I certainly didn’t believe that, and honestly, I had a difficult time imagining him buying it either.

Some worried part of me wondered if maybe it wasn’t about me and the prophecy after all. What if something had happened to Jasmine? In that case, Dorian would have found a way to tell Roland, and I had to believe my stepfather would’ve gotten that news to me. I supposed the other possibility was that something was wrong with my lands. Maybe they were suffering from my absence more than I’d realized. Yet, when I touched those threads that connected us—even across worlds—I felt nothing particularly concerning. I was still joined to my kingdoms and had sensed none of the desperate longing from them that I had in the past when I’d left them with no caretaker. Honestly, I sensed no emotion at all from the lands. If anything, the connection felt kind of numbed, probably from my absence. Still, it was there, and it was steady.

“No,” I repeated. “I can’t. I can’t hear what they have to say. I’ve got a good thing going here. This is the right place for me to be, and I can’t let anything ruin it right now.”

“As my mistress wishes,” Volusian replied. “Do you have any further commands for me then?”

“Just the same ones as before. Avoid the Otherworld. Don’t come here again. Unless ...” Inspiration hit. “If they try to summon you, come here immediately if you’re able.” I didn’t know if Dorian and Maiwenn would attempt the feat again, but it would require a complicated set of spells. If Volusian could get to me first, I could probably strengthen our bond to prevent others’ influence. “Come to me if anyone attempts to summon or compel you. Do you understand?”

“Yes, mistress.”

“Then go.”

Volusian vanished, and the room instantly returned to its previous temperature. Still, I couldn’t help a small shiver. Dorian and Maiwenn hadn’t found me, not exactly, but they’d come much closer to it than I would’ve liked. I knew sending Volusian away was the smart thing to do, but again, the question nagged at me: Why would those two work together? In some ways, that bothered me as much as Volusian’s visit. Time and distance had made me start to miss Dorian, and some of the old fondness was starting to return. The thought of him playing some game with Maiwenn made all of my kindly feelings start to crumble. What was he up to?

No matter how hard I tried to push it aside, it was yet another thing to keep me up at night. That, the fear of a gentry attack, and my own pining for my Otherworldly lands continued to wake me up sporadically. I spent my days exhausted, having to nap a lot in the afternoon to make up for what I missed when the rest of the world was sleeping. One night, about a week after Volusian’s visit, something else startled me out of sleep, though I couldn’t readily figure out what it was.

I lay there in the dark, panicked, stretching my senses to see what had made me wake up. There was nothing magical around, nothing out of the ordinary. I stayed awake for some time, listening and waiting, but still found nothing. I had finally allowed myself to begin to drift off again when a small pain in my pelvis brought me back to alertness. It wasn’t the most uncomfortable thing I’d ever experienced, but it certainly got my attention. A lot of the muscles in my abdomen and back tightened as well, and I caught my breath, waiting for it to pass. After several seconds, it did, and my body relaxed.

I rolled to my other side, wide awake now. I had no clock in my room and couldn’t say for sure how much time passed, but eventually, I felt that same muscle seizing and pain, only slightly more intense than before.

“Crap,” I said aloud.

I eased myself out of bed and turned on the light. I found some drawstring yoga pants that I put on with the oversize T-shirt I’d gone to sleep in. Trudging down the hall, I made my way to Candace and Charles’s bedroom door and knocked. She opened it in about five seconds, an athame in one hand and a gun in the other.

“What’s wrong?” she asked immediately, peering behind me.