She ran off, laughing and wiping the water from her eyes. “I deserved that.” She came back to gut the fish as Dev turned back to the river, looking for one more fish so they could eat well that night. As she watched him work, she smiled to herself. He was such a lovely friend. She was really starting to enjoy spending time with him.

Then she thought about kissing him. The idea made her gag. Nope. Not a chance.

Waiting in the Castle

The Revinir had been impatiently waiting inside the castle for the twins to break and either come to her or send one of the dragons to fetch her. And while the dragon-woman was confident in her plan, she questioned herself a few times. She’d even chided herself for taking Fifer along. This might have been easier if she’d only snatched up Thisbe and left her alone at Ashguard’s old palace. Then she could have used Fifer’s future safety as a bargaining chip. But having the twins right there in front of her had been too tempting. What a feat, getting them both. She hadn’t expected it, so when the opportunity presented itself, well… how could she pass it up? At the very least they were valuable. But she had no plans to put them on the auction block. At least not unless they failed her.

But what were they doing all this time? Having a twin holiday at that rotten falling-apart monstrosity? The Revinir hadn’t made many mistakes along the way. But maybe she shouldn’t have let Thisbe have a companion while she was trying to break the girl down. It could potentially be much longer before Thisbe was ready to say good-bye to isolation and compromise with her.

She felt confident in Thisbe’s ability to convince her sister of what needed to happen here, though. Fifer might be less evil than her sister, but she still had a wedge of it in her. And the Revinir could wager that Fifer was getting antsy to go back to her little magical world, since she was the head mage and all, which might provoke a concession just to make things happen.

One unanswered question was whether Fifer’s people had come after them. When the Revinir had dropped the girls through the roof of the palace and returned to Grimere, she still hadn’t seen anyone. If the people of Grimere had come after the twins, they hadn’t gotten close enough to them yet to trigger the dragons to act or to send a message back to her.