Finally, she says, eyes narrowed, “I don’t trust you, and I certainly don’t trust your father. Why did he really send you here? Tell me the truth. If you lie—well, I told your father you’d be in an enemy kingdom with no friends or allies and at my mercy. So, consider your words carefully.”

I answer quickly and truthfully, no concerns telling her what I know, not after what I’ve already shared. “He wants me to learn more about your magic. He asked me to assess how powerful you’ve become, and desired information about the state of the kingdom. But—I don’t believe that’s his true motivation, though I haven’t uncovered the real reason yet. He gave me no way to provide updates to him nor any indication when I might return to Velmara. If he really wanted this info, he’d have found a way for me to communicate with him.” This revelation guts my negotiation power. If she knows I can’t contact my father, I have nothing to hold over her if things don’t go well. Unfortunately, I only realize this after the admission has left my mouth.

She once again chews her lip, and my body tenses, breath catching. I want to run my fingers across those lips, want to… Stop.

“I see,” she says quietly as she absentmindedly strokes her cat’s head, lost in her own thoughts. The room darkens once again, mist swirling around me and the floor quivering with the force of her power. Her gaze hardens, eyes lethal. Vines wrap around my legs again and squeeze tightly in warning before releasing me. “I’ll agree to give you the chance to prove yourself to me, but nothing more,” she says with an edge to her voice that makes my palms sweat. “But if you betray me, or put my people at risk, I’ll kill you and make your friends suffer. Your male warrior has only seen the tiniest tip of the depth of my power. There is nowhere you can go where I won’t find you, and I can make you and your friends pay with more than your lives. Do you understand?” Her eyes stare daggers into me, piercing deeper than another person ever has.

Finally, an interaction with a monarch that I’m used to. Threats and grandstanding are my specialty. I give her a cocky smile, the one I give my father when he threatens me and I want to get under his skin. “Understood, Your Majesty. The big bad scary Witch Queen will find me and torture me, blah blah blah. Good thing I don’t plan on betraying you.”

I think I catch a tick of her lips, but she recovers. “Good. Now, tell me, what information do you have, and how do you propose to discover the plans of the Sons and Daughters of Thayaria?”