Shadow Heir

Cryptic but promising overall, I decided. I was about to give the bird a return message when I suddenly heard the lock being opened on my door.

“Get out of here!” I told Spots. “Come back ... er, later.”

He was already up in the window before I could finish talking and wiggled his way out through the bars just as some guards entered. Their faces were grim. One jerked my hands forward while another bound them with chains.

“Her Majesty wants you. Now.”

For a moment, I thought the time I’d been dreading had come. Varia was going to give me some terrible ultimatum. Yet, something about her and her flair for the dramatic told me there would have been a lot of setup and fanfare. This had a hurried feel. An urgency, like something was wrong.

The feeling further intensified when I wasn’t marched to the throne room. Instead, I was taken to Varia’s own chambers, shoved roughly inside a posh sitting room done entirely in periwinkle velvet. Varia was there, lounging on a divan, looking as though she’d gotten out of bed in the last hour. She wore a robe that matched the room, as well as some furry slippers. Her brown hair was worn down but didn’t look like it had been brushed. She stayed in that reclined position, as though trying to present an unconcerned air, but the anger in her voice betrayed her when she saw me.

“Where are they?” she demanded. The dogs were at her feet and began yipping. She silenced them with some treats.

I glanced around, looking for some kind of assistance or context for her question. “Um, where are what?”

“The people you traveled here with.” She sat up and fixed me with a glare so icy that it was easy to see her as the blight’s creator. “Where are they, and how in the world did you break them out?”

Chapter 21

I said the first thing that came to mind.

“Sooo ... you lost them?”

Varia glared, not nearly as serene and commanding as she’d been yesterday. “This is not a game! Tell me how you accomplished it. You are still in possession of your powers. How did you escape and set them free?”

I put my hands on my hips. “I may still have my powers, but I’m also being kept in a locked room surrounded by guards and magic users! The kind of magic I’d need to escape would involve me blowing out the door, and I think someone would’ve probably noticed that. Besides, why the hell would I then go back to my cell? I would’ve walked out with my friends.”

“I don’t believe you,” said Varia. “No one can escape those dungeons. They must have had assistance.” The dogs started their racket again. More treats.

I shrugged and tried not to look too smug. “My friends are pretty resourceful. Maybe your security’s not as good as you think.”

Inside, I was jubilant. Jasmine and the others had gotten away! At a basic level, I was simply happy they were safe. In the greater scheme of things, it also meant my hands were no longer tied. I could summon a storm right now and have no fears of retribution. Of course, that would be pre-emptive since the rest of my plan wasn’t yet fully developed. The more I studied Varia, though, the more it became obvious I wasn’t the only one who’d reached this conclusion about my new freedom.

“I wouldn’t be so arrogant if I were you,” she said. “As I said before, I hold a lot more game pieces than you do and control a lot that’s dear to you.”

I kept my face neutral, but inside, my heart was racing. I remembered her previous lists of threats. Right now, my friends were off the table, and I sincerely doubted she’d found Isaac and Ivy. What did that leave? My kingdoms. She was pissed off enough about the escape to do something drastic, and nightmare scenarios ran through my mind. What if she blasted one kingdom to show me she was serious about the other? There was a staggering amount of innocent lives in my hands, and if she did attempt to hurt them, I really would blow her apart now, storm or no storm.

Varia smiled cruelly. “Soon you’ll see just how much I control when—oh, for the gods’ sake! Get them out of here!”

Her moment of drama had been derailed when those wretched little dogs began barking again. A servant quickly scooped them up and scurried out of the room. She swore when one of them bit her.

“Now then.” Varia nodded toward a guard. “Bring him in.”

The guard gave a curt salute and hurried out the door. He returned a moment later with a prisoner—Dorian.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who’d gotten an early wake-up call. Dorian looked a little worn around the edges but otherwise showed no signs of injury or distress. Indeed, he wore his typically indolent look, as though he’d wanted to come here in chains and Varia had been kind enough to oblige him. His eyes flicked briefly to me before focusing on Varia. He gave her one of his charming smiles.

“Your Majesty. How nice of you to call me to breakfast. And I must say, you look very fetching this morning. I’m always saying women don’t go to enough trouble to match their décor. I also always say that brushes are overrated. Right, Eugenie?”