Shadow Heir

bonfires and crisp nights, paired with Dorian’s smile, seemed like a lifetime away.

“I think there are some rules about pregnancy and fish,” I told Evan, returning to the present. “It’s probably in one of the pamphlets the doctors gave me.”

“Ah, that’d be a shame,” Evan said, casting his line out. A breeze off the water eased some of the heat and ruffled his hair. “If you can’t have any now, we’ll make sure you have a double helping after the babies come. If you’re still here, that is. Have you thought much about it?”

I watched my own bobber drift lazily in the water. As far as I could tell, I was doing exactly what he was with technique, but he kept catching more fish. “Honestly, no. Mostly I’m just trying to get through the pregnancy, but I’ll have to figure out the rest soon enough.” I sighed. “Do you think I should stick around?” It was a foolish question, I realized, seeing as he didn’t have nearly enough background to understand the consequences of that decision.

He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter what I think. I like having you here, but in the end you have to do what you want and what you think is best.”

I almost laughed. “I don’t think anyone’s ever said that to me before.”

“What’s that? To do what you want?” His bobber disappeared in the water, and he gave the line an experimental tug, revealing he’d indeed hooked another fish. Damn. How’d he keep doing that?

“Yup,” I said. “I’ve had a lot of well-meaning people in my life, but most haven’t been shy about telling me what they think I should do.”

Evan reeled the fish in and deemed its size adequate. “People will always do that—and you said the magic words. Well-meaning. Most have good intentions for you at heart, but only you can make the final call.”

I thought back to the last time I’d seen Kiyo, when he’d been trying to kill me in an effort to stop our children from being born. That didn’t really qualify as “good intentions.” Dorian’s heavy-handed protection of me had looked out for my well-being, but it had been tainted with his own ambition. If push came to shove, I still wasn’t sure if he’d side with me or the prophecy. And yet, even as I thought that, I remembered our last meeting, when Dorian had admitted to having no ulterior motives, save to make me happy and rebuild our trust. It was hard to know what to believe anymore.

Evan assessed our tally for the day and decided we had enough fish. “Don’t want to be greedy,” he said with a wink. “Need the fish to keep making more fish. Now we’ll find out if you’re allowed to have the best fried fish in the state.”

A little Internet searching back at the house provided info on fish types and local waters that declared I could eat small quantities. Fortunately, the Reeds made an abundance of side dishes and desserts that ensured what I lacked in fish, I could definitely make up for. I went to bed happy and full, still turning over Evan’s words about doing what I thought was best. Such a novel concept.

The next day, I was left alone for most of the afternoon while everyone else tended to their own affairs. E- mail and calls were few, though Candace assured me we’d see a surge when summer truly ended and people spent more time inside. So, it was another reading day for me, and I tried to make myself as comfortable as I could on my bed, something else that was becoming more difficult with my size. No breeze came in to cool the afternoon heat, and I mostly found myself growing sleepy.

Suddenly, the temperature dropped sharply in the room, raising goose bumps on my skin. I’d been nodding off but instantly opened my eyes, wide awake. There was nothing natural about this. Shit, I thought, sitting up. Here it was, the attack we’d been dreading. And I was weaponless because I wasn’t supposed to be practicing any magic. Well, I didn’t need tools to use my gentry magic. If they were bringing the fight to me, then there was no need to remain covert—

“Volusian?” I asked in disbelief. Red eyes and a small black body materialized in the room’s darkest corner, which really wasn’t all that dark this time of day. He glared at the sunlit window in irritation. I’d been a heartbeat away from summoning a storm in the room and immediately stopped myself.

“Mistress,” he said in his flat tone.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded. “I commanded you not to come!”

I also hadn’t told him where I was, but that made no difference. With his bonds of service, Volusian would always be able to locate me. Still, I figured not giving him any concrete information beforehand would be useful, in the event someone attempted to wrestle control of him from me. Likewise, I’d commanded him to avoid the Otherworld altogether, in the hopes of keeping him off the radars of those who might try to use him.

“Yes, mistress,” he agreed. “And were it up to me, I assure you, I would stay out of your presence for as long as possible, unless I was coming to end your life and rip you limb from limb.”

“Well, that’s very thoughtful,” I said. “And yet, here you are.”

“Others forced me to, mistress.”

I’d nearly relaxed, but this set me on high alert again. Sending my mind out, I tested the magical bonds that kept him under my control, half expecting them to have vanished. But no, we were still solidly connected.

“Rest assured, mistress, I am still enslaved to you,” he said, guessing what I’d done.

“Then how the hell did others force you to come here?”

“With enough magic, it is possible to compel me to obey small commands while still bound to you,” he explained.

“That would take a lot of magic,” I said. Commanding Volusian full-time was difficult enough. Overriding that bond—even for a small order—was equally difficult. “I can’t think of any one gentry who could pull that off.”

“One gentry didn’t,” said Volusian. “King Dorian and Queen Maiwenn worked together to force me to come to you.”

I had to replay his words a few times before I finally believed them. “Dorian and Maiwenn? Worked together? They’d never do that. You must be confused.”

Volusian’s eyes narrowed. “Do I look as though I get easily confused, mistress?”

“No ... but ... it doesn’t make any sense... .”

Oh, sure. Dorian and Maiwenn were both extremely powerful, and I didn’t doubt that together, they could send Volusian to me. I also knew they each had valid reasons for it. Dorian had never approved of me running off here, and Maiwenn ... well, she wanted to kill me. Yet, those reasons didn’t exactly mesh with each other enough to explain why those two would unite.

“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