“Then I’ll bring him back.”

“What if I can’t find it?”

She wrinkles her nose and tips her head in a smooth feline movement. “Then your mate will die.”

At those words, my chest squeezes like my ribs are tied together with thick iron chains.

“Bring him back now,” I plead. “He can help me find it. And if we can’t, we’ll find another way to repay you. You have my word.”

Zerra paces a few more steps in the other direction, taking her time. I get the sense she wants to make me squirm, and I do my best to control my temper. She’s the only hope I have right now, and I have to remain on her good side.

If she has one.

Just from this single interaction and my brief window into her past, I suspect the good side of this High Fae queen-turned-goddess was set on fire and burned to ash a long time ago.

“No,” she says. “I don’t care for that idea.”

“But Nadir knows more about the rulers and their kingdoms than I do,” I say. “He’ll be a much better asset in aiding me. I’ll find it much quicker.”

I try modulating my voice into something that resembles confidence when my insides are liquefying into a raw pool of regret.

“And have you two plotting against me?” she asks. My forehead furrows as I think about the last thing the Empyrium said to me. They want to replace Zerra . . . and that’s when their final words come barreling back with the force of a tidal wave.

A queen without a queendom.

They want me for the job. I think.

Does Zerra know that? Am I now a threat to her?

Suspicion burns up the back of my neck. What are the odds Zerra found me only moments later? Surely the Empyrium wouldn’t have told her? And if they did, why?

I shake my head, pretending I have no clue. “I don’t know what that means. Why would we plot against you?”

I don’t want this role. It’s the last thing I want, just like the original rulers who also refused this fate. They wanted to return home and help their people recover from the disasters plaguing their lands. That’s what I want. I want to return to Heart and take my place where I’m sure I belong.

I ignore the tiny, chastising voice in my head telling me that maybe that has never actually been my destiny, even if it’s what I want.

But one problem at a time, I guess.

Should I tell her I don’t intend to replace her? Would she believe me? What if she doesn’t know about any of this, and I’d just be revealing everything to her?

“We wouldn’t do that,” I say. “I don’t even know how we’d do that.”