Fifer felt it and sucked in a breath—it seemed like a good sign that this was the right thing to do. Thisbe might not be sure yet. But Fifer was. And they had a lot of work to do before they could put this plan in motion.

Coming to Terms

Thisbe rolled the thoughts over in her mind for a few days, trying to convince herself that Fifer’s idea wasn’t strong enough. That it would never work. Because for Thisbe, the whole “measuring one’s good and evil levels” had been a bit of a sensitive issue ever since she’d learned of this dragon concept. She knew that Dev was exactly half-good and half-evil. And his personality had imitated that, coincidence or not.

She also knew that Fifer was way more good than evil, and it had shown throughout her entire life. Though there were exceptions. Killing Frieda Stubbs, for example. And this recent infiltration idea Fifer had come up with was pretty much something straight out of an evil person’s playbook. So maybe someone’s level wasn’t totally indicative of what their actions would be like.

When the Revinir had told Thisbe she was more evil than good, it had felt really strange and unsettling. Rohan had heard this pronouncement. He hadn’t seemed bothered by it, but it had bothered Thisbe quite a lot. She didn’t feel evil… or particularly good, either. But the Revinir’s assumption that Thisbe, because she was more evil than good, would automatically want to be like the dragon-woman, or even work with her? It was insulting and borderline horrifying.

There was a lot to consider regarding Fifer’s proposal. But there was one thing that bothered Thisbe the most. Something she hadn’t voiced. Something she’d barely allowed herself to worry about over the past year or two. It was a preposterous fear, yet Thisbe couldn’t shake it. And now the question pounded her: If she joined forces with the Revinir, would that somehow trigger this purported evilness inside her? Would Thisbe try being evil… and like it? And worse, did Thisbe secretly want to be in partnership with the Revinir because she was more evil than good, but she just hadn’t realized it yet? Maybe she was on the brink of falling into an abyss of evil. Was that what had happened to Emma, the girl who had turned into the Revinir?

She thought about the journals she’d read in Artimé. She hadn’t gotten as far as she’d wanted to before the dragon-woman appeared out of nowhere in the jungle. But what she’d learned was that Emma was a pretty normal girl who’d felt distanced from her siblings. And when they’d left her behind to do bigger things, she became angry and turned a corner that led her down a really horrifying path of revenge.