The Revinir smiled. “I will indeed.” This was the most spirited, fun conversation she might have ever had. She was more excited for the future than she’d ever been before. And for the first time, it was only partially because of the power that went with it.

Scrambling

Thisbe’s appetite for breakfast left her. Now? This was all happening now? Obviously she wanted to get moving on this, but where was Rohan? And had he eaten or drunk anything? Was he okay? They’d been in the midst of a crucial talk when the Revinir had shown up, and Thisbe had tossed all the ancestor broth under the bed. Now, with his orders to go to the kitchen, Rohan couldn’t get to it. And if he’d eaten or drunk anything that the Revinir had spiked, he wouldn’t know he’d be in need of it. If everyone was suddenly heading to Dragonsmarche, neither of them would be able to retrieve the broth anytime soon.

It would probably be okay, Thisbe reasoned. The Revinir wasn’t nearly as focused on him today as she’d been last night. And now she had a lot of other things to keep her busy, like organizing this big announcement, which would lead to… absolutely nothing.

Ugh. That was another problem. How would the Revinir react when she found out that the agreement didn’t magically just make everything become perfect, the way she expected it would? Thisbe would have to act like she was just as surprised. Unless there was a way to take out the dragon-woman before the announcement even happened.

“Why so troubled?” the Revinir said. “Having second thoughts?”

Thisbe looked up and mellowed her expression. “I was just thinking about how fun it was to have Rohan as my mind-controlled servant. I’ll miss that when we bring everyone back to their right minds.” She shrugged. “But I can’t have everything.”

“I think you’ll find the mind control becomes boring over time,” the Revinir confided.

“Really? Interesting,” said Thisbe. “Well, I imagine he’ll be annoyed once we bring him out of it, but he’ll get used to it over time. Like the others.” She turned sharply. “By the way, did you really kill Dev? Or did you just say that for effect?”

The Revinir twitched. “I really killed him,” she admitted. “I wish I hadn’t acted quite so rashly. I was beginning to appreciate him.”

“Oh well,” said Thisbe, dabbing her mouth with a napkin. “It’s regrettable. But there’s nothing you can do now, I suppose.” She set the napkin down and got up from the table. “I’ll run to my living quarters to see if I can find something more royal-looking to wear for the occasion. I noticed several things hanging in the closet—whoever stayed in my room before must have left in a hurry. Shall we meet in the grand entryway in an hour?”