“Sorry,” I told her. “You aren’t going anywhere. You’ll be lucky if I don’t break out the Depo-Provera and fill your cell full of abstinence propaganda.”
“Cell? You are not locking me in any cell.” Her lips were puffed into a pout. Again, she seemed so much like any ordinary surly teen that I nearly laughed. She looked more like a girl who’d been grounded from texting than one who aspired to be an all-powerful fairy queen.
When I didn’t respond, the impact seemed to truly hit her.
“You can’t…you can’t do that! Do you know who I am? I’m a princess. I’m Storm King’s daughter! My son is going to rule the worlds.”
I shook my head. “No, you’re a self-absorbed brat in serious need of discipline and counseling.”
“You can’t do that!”
“I can…or did you forget who I am? I’m the big sister who rules a kingdom and isn’t going to let you jump all over this prophecy.”
“You can’t lock me up forever,” she warned.
“She’s right,” a voice behind me said.
I turned and saw Ysabel hovering near the doorway. She didn’t look terrified of me anymore, but she no longer bore that cocky arrogance. She looked cool and aloof.
“You can’t lock her up forever,” continued Ysabel. “You should kill her.”
“What?” Both Jasmine and I spoke at the same time. Ysabel seemed perfectly blasé about it all.
“She’s your greatest rival to bearing Storm King’s grandson. So long as she lives, she always will be an obstacle. The only way you’ll be free and retain your power is if she’s gone.”
I started to protest that I didn’t want to beat Jasmine to the prophecy. Then, I realized that part didn’t matter. It was Jasmine’s own desire for getting pregnant that was the problem, and Ysabel was right to a certain extent. As long as Jasmine was around, I wouldn’t have any peace.
I slowly shook my head. “I’m not killing my own sister. But I am double-binding her. Somebody get another set of iron cuffs.”
I saw a few guards flinch. Even with as little iron as the cuffs had, that was still more than most gentry could comfortably handle. Doubling it would stunt her magic even more, but that human blood was still going to give us trouble.
“I want her cell guarded at all times,” I told Rurik. “With more than you usually would post. And make sure you’ve got guards that can actually use magic.” Someone had returned with the second set of cuffs by then, causing Jasmine to start up a new round of shrieks and protests.
Rurik gave me a nod and then said in a low voice, “If I could speak to your majesty in private?”
I arched an eyebrow. Rurik always obeyed me but rarely bothered with formalities or respect, which didn’t bother me. In public, though, he always used my titles, and I wondered what was on his mind. We stepped out of the room, past a disapproving Ysabel, and came to a halt a little ways down the hall.
“Keeping the girl locked and under guard might not be the best idea,” he said.
I groaned. “Don’t tell me you think I should kill her too.”
He shrugged. “Dorian would tell you to. But if you insist on keeping her here, then get that demon of yours to guard her.”
For a moment, I thought of the fire demons. Then, I realized he was using a more generalized term. “You mean Volusian?”
“I’m not saying they’d do it….” Rurik hesitated. “But I’m not saying they wouldn’t either. A lot of those guards might be tempted by the thought of fathering the heir, and if she offered…”
“Good God. She’s fifteen.”
“Old enough. It didn’t stop Aeson, and if she convinced one of the guards, her age wouldn’t matter. I’m guessing your, uh, friend wouldn’t be so easily swayed.”
Volusian swayed by sex? Hardly. Particularly if he was under my commands.
“Fine. I’ll summon him.” Volusian would also stop any magic she could muster.
“You might also consider finding a potion master to create a tincture of nightshade.”
“A what?”
“It’s a drink that will inhibit her from using her magic.”
“Isn’t nightshade poisonous?”
“Not to shining ones. Not if mixed with the right ingredients. With her human blood, it will, ah, leave her a little…disoriented. But it won’t kill her.”
“I’m not going to keep her in a drugged stupor.” I started to return to the room and then paused to give Rurik a canny look. “Why warn me? I remember a time when you wanted to father the heir. Why not take your own shot?”
“With her?” Rurik snorted. “I still wouldn’t hesitate to beget Storm King’s grandson-but she’s not the one. The heir’s mother should be a warrior, and unfortunately, that only leaves you.”
“You’re never getting near my bed, Rurik.”
“Yes, I’ve deduced as much. But I would still support Storm King’s grandson and would be nearly as happy for my lord the Oak King to father him.”
“Dorian? That’s the only other alternative as far as you’re concerned?”
Rurik’s expression seemed to wonder that there could be any question. “Who else?”
I shook my head and left him, off to order the imprisonment of my sister.
Before setting Volusian on permanent guard duty, I had one brief task for him. He wasn’t very happy about it, not that that came as any real surprise.
“My mistress, as usual, is intent on furthering my eternal torment.”
“I don’t really see how watching a teenage girl is that bad-for you, anyway. It’s going to be a lot harder on her.”
“I am a being of considerable power. I cannot die. If you insist on enslaving me, you should use my abilities to bring nations to their knees.” Volusian’s red eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “Instead, my mistress dispatches me to supervise children and deliver love notes.”
“It’s not a love note! Just ask him, okay?”
Volusian blinked once and then vanished.
While he couldn’t teleport, exactly, he could travel much faster than human or gentry. After Jasmine’s capture and Moria implicating Art, I wanted nothing more than to sit down with Kiyo. I needed to talk this out. I wasn’t used to this sort of turmoil and indecision in my life. I longed for the days when my job had simply been to go out, find the monster, and get rid of it. It had been a lot easier than this sort of deliberation.
Kiyo, to my knowledge, was with Maiwenn, and I’d dispatched Volusian to see if Kiyo would come to me later. It was the closest I could get to making a phone call in the Otherworld-but still far from it, seeing that it took Volusian about twenty minutes to get back to me.
“You see?” I said when he appeared in my bedroom. “That wasn’t so bad.”
“The kitsune says he will come to you in two hours,” Volusian said in his flat voice, not deigning to acknowledge my comment.
Two hours. Well, it was better than nothing. I sighed. “Okay. Thanks.”
Volusian simply stared. My gratitude meant nothing to him.
“Alright. Go watch Jasmine then. Don’t let her escape, and for God’s sake, don’t let her get pregnant.”
“For how long?”
“Until I say so,” I snapped.
The malice radiated off Volusian, but my mastery of him would not let him disobey. Demeaning task or not, he had no choice. He vanished.
Once alone, I lay back on my bed, hoping two hours would go by quickly. Like everything else among gentry royalty, the bed I’d inherited was plush and luxurious, with a thick down mattress. The covers were heavy brocade and almost never needed in this weather-but they felt great to lie against. It wasn’t quite sunset outside, but the light was fading, casting long shadows onto the room’s heavy stone walls. I’d need to light torches soon.
A knock at the door forced me upright. “Yeah?”
It was Nia. She gave a polite curtsey. “Your majesty, you have a guest.”
For a glorious moment, I thought it was Kiyo. Then: no. It was too soon. And Nia wouldn’t have announced
