“I’m already taking over everything,” the Revinir said, starting to sound impatient. “I don’t think you understand that you’re my secret weapon, Thisbe. And Fifer is a bonus. For some reason,” she added sarcastically, “unlike Dev and the other slaves, a lot of people seem to care about you. You make great bait. Really, you should just join my side. Both of you. That’s all it’ll take to reclaim the land for the black-eyed rulers. And if you join me and we successfully take over the land of the dragons, maybe… I’ll do something nice for you.”

“You’re horrible,” said Thisbe, spitting fire.

But Fifer narrowed her eyes. What had the Revinir just said?

“Our time together could have been so much better,” the Revinir went on. “If you’d joined me from the start like I told you to, Thisbe, things would have gone very differently. But you’ll own your evil side one of these days. It’s in your makeup. You don’t have a choice.”

“Stop saying that!” Thisbe spewed more of her magic firepower at the dragon-woman.

Fifer had had enough. “Just shut up!” she shouted at the Revinir. “You don’t know the first thing about her. She does have a choice!”

“Typical outburst from someone like you who knows nothing. I can’t fathom how you ended up as ruler of Artimé. You must have drawn the short straw for that undesirable job.”

Fifer ignored her as an idea began to churn. The Revinir hitched her painfully tighter in her grip and glanced back. “Nobody’s even coming yet,” she said, sounding disappointed. “Here you are, the leader, and nobody even cares that I’ve abducted you—that’s not how I thought it would go, to be honest. But I’m not worried.”

“You are a monster,” Thisbe muttered, letting her limbs flop. She couldn’t beat the dragon-woman with magic or fire and gave up trying for the moment to regain her strength. This wasn’t how Thisbe had planned it. Now everything was going wrong. Their “one big attack” plan was foiled. While she caught her breath, she studied the dragon’s scales as carefully as she could while dangling from this frightening height. Was there a worn spot anywhere? She had to come up with an alternative plan.

“You’re right,” the Revinir admitted. “I’m a monster. You’re absolutely correct about that. But I have feelings too. In fact, I’m almost sorry I killed your friend Dev. But that’s what monsters do sometimes.”

Fifer gasped.

“What did you say?” cried Thisbe.

The Revinir cackled. “You heard me correctly. He didn’t want to give you up, but he couldn’t help it. You lied to me about the ancestor broth, Thisbe. Lied to my face.” Her laughter faded. “And I believed you. I need a good liar like you on my team. I mean it—I’ve got the dragons and, as one of them, I’m a rightful ruler too. You’ve got the black-eyed people. Together we can declare that the land is back in the right hands! But I’ve got to break you first, I see. Luckily, I know just how to do it.”