“There have to be other options,” Niffin said. “Le Poing Fermé has made an offer. We will make a counter offer.”

Malita and Niffin trailed me up the stairs to our bedrooms.

“They don’t negotiate,” I said.

“We do not have to tell them what our counteroffer is.”

I paused, hand resting on my bedroom’s doorknob. “That’s not how negotiation works.”

A devious grin curled up the corner of his mouth. His purple eyes twinkled, full of mischief. “They do not have to know that. They do not have to know a single thing unless we want them to.”

Chapter 10

Malita and Niffin followed me into my bedroom. I locked the door behind us and collapsed on my bed as they settled into matching wingback chairs forming a cramped seating area near the fireplace. Someone, a servant probably, had turned down my bed and lit tapers on the mantle and bedside tables, even though the gas sconces on the wall provided plenty of light. I studied the candle on the nightstand closest to me, watching the flame sway and flicker, letting it entrance me.

“Here’s what I see as my choices.” I smoothed my hands over my knees, over and over, as if I could soothe myself with my own touch. “Option one: forget Jackie Faercourt, forget the Council of Magic, go to Inselgrau, and face Le Poing Fermé on my own terms.”

Niffin sat at the edge of his seat, his back ramrod straight. “Even if Malita and I come with you, even if you have Gideon at your side, would it be enough to defeat them?”

I snorted and bent over to unlace my boots. “If we were to face any one of them individually, yes, the four of us might be enough to take down a single Magician.” With coordination and help from a few key allies, I had stood up to Jackie Faercourt and beaten him in Barsava. Since then, I’d grown stronger, more proficient at wielding my powers. I could put up a formidable fight. “But we wouldn’t be facing an individual. We’d be battling a group of master Magicians, the most daunting in all the Continent. I’ve met a few of their members, and I don’t think what people say about Le Poing Fermé is a lie.” The cabal’s leader, Ruelle Thibodaux, had been a monster who could pour pain into my body as easily as pouring water into a glass. How did I fight against power like that?

I was exhausted, like a tatty old rag wrung out and hung to dry, but the news of Le Poing Fermé’s occupancy of my homeland had shot of bolt of electricity straight through my heart. Every nerve in my body clanged and chattered. There would be no sleeping until I worked off some anxiety.

Pacing, I rolled my shoulders, working the tension out of the stiff muscles in my neck. The carpet beneath my bare feet felt as soft as clouds, and I wriggled my toes into the thick pile. “My decision still stands, Niffin. For the safety of you both, I want you to take Malita home.”

Malita’s harsh gasp made me cringe.

“What about my wishes?” She rose and stood before me, feet spread, arms crossed over her chest, chin raised. “You do not get to make decisions for me, Evie.”

“I know you’re homesick. I can’t ask you to stay, to risk yourself.” I squeezed her arm. “If anything happened to you—”

“That is the problem.” She pulled away and peered down her nose at me. “You never ask.”

In shame, I let my chin drop to my chest, and I stared at the floor. “How could I? It would be presumptuous of me.”

“You are a queen, Evie. It is your right to ask. As it is my right to refuse. As it is also my right to accept.” Passion blazed in her dark eyes. “You feel... responsible for me. I never asked that.”

“I know—”

She raised a hand, stopping my interruption. “I only want a friend, not a....” She glanced at Niffin and spoke a few words in her own language.

He translated: “Protector, guardian, savior.”

“I take care of myself,” she said. “But you must let me.”

“I can take care of myself, too, Evie.” Niffin rose and stood at Malita’s side. Together, they were a daunting barrier—a wall of stubbornness.

“But the bickering...” I waved between the two of them. “You two are on edge, stressed. To stand up to Le Poing Fermé, we’ll all have to be at our best. Focused. United.”

Malita nodded. “I can do this.”

I arched an eyebrow at Niffin, questioning.

“If Malita stays...” He flicked a thumb toward his chest. “I stay.”

“What about the homesickness, Malita?” I asked. “What about being away from your clan, Niffin?”

The two glanced at each other and seemed to conduct a silent conversation through looks alone. Finally, Niffin answered. “We are not talking about forever, Evie. Malita will go home again one day. So will I, even if it is only to visit.” He glanced at Malita again. “I have left the Fantazikes not as a fugitive, but with Justina’s blessing. Perhaps this is the path I am meant to take. Perhaps Malita and I are destined to be together, and this is the only way.”

Humility flooded me, diluting my apprehension. “I don’t know what to say.”

“You say nothing,” Malita said. “You ask.”

Like a bubble rising to the surface of a pond, one final urge to tell them to go, to not have them risk themselves, to have them leave before it was too late, rose up my throat. I swallowed it. If I couldn’t do this one thing, ask my friends to stand by me, I didn’t deserve to call myself Lady of Thunder. “Malita, Niffin...” I met his cool purple stare. “Will you both do me the honor of joining my court? Stand at my side, advise me, guide me, help me defeat Le Poing Fermé, and restore peace and prosperity to my country?”

Malita’s expression was solemn. “Yes. I will.”

Niffin’s respect for the seriousness of the moment was less grave. He winked. “I look forward to returning to my clan one day and telling the story of how Niffin Tippany, the fiercest Fantazike, defeated Le Poing Fermé. I will be a legend.”

“As long as you don’t try to claim you did it on your own,” I said.

“I might be willing to admit I had some help.”

Malita thumped his shoulder, but he swept her into his arms, ignoring her yelp, and kissed her soundly.

Turning away, I slouched on the edge of my bed. “Now that that’s been settled, we can return to discussing our other options.”

“I do not think facing Le Poing Fermé on our own—just you, Gideon, Malita, and I—is the right option.” Niffin plopped into his chair, pulling Malita into his lap. She melted against him, her bearing as relaxed as I’d ever seen around him. Perhaps that was what they’d needed most—certainty. Staying together, with me, would be dangerous, but at least there was no more indecision about their futures. They’d committed to a path. Now they could commit to each other.

A jolt of jealously zinged through me. I swallowed it down. Gideon and I would be together again, eventually. I had to believe it.

“Neither do I,” I said. “Option two is to give in to their demands, which I’m not willing to do.” Unless things get really desperate. Dear gods, please don’t let things get that desperate.

“Is there an option three?” Niffin asked.

“I think so.” I squirmed farther back on my bed, folding my legs crisscross before me. “Le Poing Fermé wants Jackie released from the Council of Magic. As much as it sickens me, I’d be willing to give them that much of what they wanted.” My mind spun as pieces of a plan started falling together. “They think of me as their pawn, but what if I turn their plan on its head?”

Niffin’s brow furrowed. Malita leaned forward, her expression curious and intent.

“What if, instead of agreeing to be Jackie’s pawn, I make him into mine?”

“How can you control a Magician as strong as Jackie Faercourt?” Niffin asked.

I folded my fingers together under my chin and grinned. “By finding a Magician who is stronger than him.”

We strategized until Malita could no longer keep her eyes open and Niffin yawned more than he talked. Formulating a plan eased my dread enough that, when my friends turned out the lights and tiptoed out of my room, I didn’t bother changing out of my clothes. I rolled up in the bed quilt, closed my eyes, and finally, blessedly, went to sleep.

***