I looked up at Bavasama and then over at her silent audience of nobles still sitting around the dining table, all of them staring at us.
“Since only one of you is royal—and I’ve always had a soft spot for family,” Bavasama said, “I’m going to let my darling niece here choose. Who’s it to be Allie?”
“No.” I ground my teeth together, my eyes fixed on my aunt’s.
“Choose,” Bavasama said. “One of the three of you dies. Who will it be? Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for one of them? The girl, perhaps?”
I swallowed but kept my mouth shut.
“No.” Bavasama shook her head. “I’ve heard about how she treated you. Seen it, too. You see, I have a mirror of my own. Not as nice as the Mirror of Nerissette, of course. Mine only allows you to look between worlds, not travel between them, but it still let me keep an eye on you and Preethana. Did you know that?”
I just glared at her, not saying anything, refusing to give her the pleasure of knowing that she was getting to me.
“I watched your entire childhood, just planning for the day when I got to kill you. But in the meantime I watched as this maid tormented you. She called you Fish Girl. Shoved you around. Treated you like nothing. So why should you give your life for hers?” She looked over at Jesse and pursed her lips. “What about the boy? He’s handsome enough. Not very bright. Cowardly. But you would never have to doubt his loyalty if you spared his life.”
I stayed silent, still glaring.
“No? Well, someone has to die, and you have to choose. Otherwise, I kill all three of you, and that’s a bit of a letdown. So come along. Which one lives? The girl who tormented you or the boy you were supposed to fall in love with? Come, come, not like it matters. You thought they were dead anyway. This just corrects the mistake. Choose.”
“I’ll do it.” Jesse coughed and then tried to stand, wobbling because of his bound ankles. “If you leave Allie and Heidi alone, you can have me.”
“Oh, how noble,” Bavasama said sarcastically. “How chivalrous. In the end the boy who was supposed to be your Crown Prince is willing to die for you. Although, it could be a trick. He could be hoping that his offer will persuade you to choose her to die instead.”
“No,” Jesse said, louder this time. “Don’t choose, Allie. I don’t want you to choose. I’m volunteering. She can take me.”
“Jesse…” I turned my head to stare at him.
“It’s okay.” He smiled at me. “It’s my fate after all.”
“There’s no such—”
“You.” He turned to the Fate Maker. “You said I was an accident. That I wasn’t supposed to come through to this world. You said that I was a spare.”
The Fate Maker nodded. “You were.”
“But I’m not.” Jesse kept his eyes locked on the Fate Maker. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot. All of us have a purpose here. The cat didn’t just pull us through for no reason. I must have a purpose, and this is it.”
“What?” I looked at him, and he turned to smile at me.
“I was sent here to be the Golden Rose’s Personal Knight,” Jesse said. “To lay down my life to protect hers.”
Bavasama stepped forward. “That’s lovely. Very sweet. The boy who died to save a girl who’ll never love him back. That’s just beautiful. Kill him no—”
The discordant wail of a hunting trumpet split the air, and everyone froze as somewhere outside a lone dragon let out a high-pitched, angry howl.
Chapter Twenty-two
“No!” Bavasama looked at me, her eyes wide. “No, they can’t be here yet.”
“Wanna bet?” The guard let go of me, stepping backward like he was going to flee, and I moved closer to my aunt, putting myself between her and my friends. “There’s not much a couple of ticked-off dragons, a dryad who’s lost her second family, and my lord general can’t do if you give them enough incentive.”
“That incentive isn’t going to save you,” Bavasama said. “You’re still my prisoner, and when all of this is over and your army is defeated, I’m still going to kill you.”
“I’d love to see you try, Auntie Bav.”
She jerked her arm forward, trying to slap me, but between the judo classes that Mom had insisted I take and years of watching out for Heidi in the halls, I knew something about being prepared for random kicks and punches. Instead of letting her make contact, I ducked and did the one thing I’d never had the guts to do with Heidi: I hauled my own fist back and smashed it into her nose.
“Allie!” Heidi screamed.
“Kind of busy right now,” I said as I lashed out at my aunt again, managing to scrape a couple of my fingernails across her cheek.
“The Fate Maker and that other wizard are getting away,” Heidi said as Bavasama threw herself at me and we toppled to the floor, pulling each other’s hair and clawing at each other.
“You’ve got legs! Go stop them already.” I lifted my face, trying to head butt the woman sitting on top of me.
“Oh, great, I’ll just go take on a wizard, and when that’s done I’ll start bare-knuckle boxing with a couple trolls,” Heidi said. I didn’t bother responding while trying to keep Bavasama from getting in a solid punch.
“I’m going to kill you,” Bavasama said, her face close to mine. “I’m going to kill you, and it’s going to be slow and very, very—”
I managed to get a good grip on her and flipped us over, shutting her up, me on top this time with my knee digging into her stomach.
“Painful,” she said with a grunt and then reached for my hair, trying to rip it out by the roots.
I jerked my head back, away from her, and tried to roll us over so I could bash her head against the floor.
“Guards,” Bavasama yelled from underneath me. “Guards!”
Two big, burly hands wrapped around me, and then I was lifted in the air. Looking around, I saw that all the other nobles had fled and Jesse was pinned in another guard’s grip, squirming to get free.
Bavasama stood up slowly and wiped her hands on her skirts before reaching up to wipe the edge of her mouth. “You think your army is going to stop me?”
“You better believe it,” I snarled back.
“I’m the rightful ruler of this world.”
“You’re a psychopath.”
“I will rule this world,” Bavasama taunted, “and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
“And once again, I have to say,
“Of course.” She came closer so that we were nose to nose. “Here’s the bet. If your army defeats me, then you get to kill me and keep my kingdom.”
“Sounds like a good bet to me,” I said, thinking back to what I’d seen in the Orb of Fate. Esmeralda had said that the only thing the Orb could show you was your heart’s deepest desire, but there was some part of me that couldn’t help but think that maybe this time it had shown me what was to come instead.
“But if they fail,” she snarled, “I’m going to march you out onto those walls and cut off your head before throwing your body into my moat and putting your head on a pike for your entire army to see while they kneel in allegiance to me.”
“Not going to happen,” I said confidently.
“Oh, yes, it will. Then I’m going to have your father and your boyfriend the dragon and all your friends brought to me, and I’m going to torture them
