“Steady, friend,” Angelique murmured. She scratched the crest of his neck. He swatted his tail like an angry cat before letting out hisbreath.
Satisfied that the constellation had been soothed, Angelique leaned back in the saddle, stretching hersenses.
Kozlovka was a northern country, so although summer had almost arrived, the air was cool. The pine forests were a blaze of green, and the whole country seemed to smell of dampearth.
Angelique tipped her head as she carefully felt for anything magical or off.I can’t sense anything. But magic sensitivity is an art that has continuously evaded me no matter how I work toimprove.
She stopped trying to sense the sorcerer when they were granted passage into the gleamingpalace.
“Pegasus, would you rather remain here, or return to the skies?” Angelique asked when they halted in a courtyard. “I assume sometime today, I’ll ride out to start my observation of Sorcerer Rothbart, but I don’t know how long it will be until I amready.”
She dismounted, cupping Pegasus’ soft velvet muzzle when he pressed it against hertemple.
He breathed deeply into her hair, then strode back in the direction they had come, passing back through the palace gates—to the bewilderment of the guards postedthere.
Yevgeniy shielded his eyes with a hand as he watched Pegasus. “Will he bealright?”
“Yes.”
Yevgeniy smoothed his well-trimmed beard. “Even with a sorcererabout?”
Angelique tried to discreetly fix one of her underskirts that made her gown puff a little. “I don’t know entirely what he’s capable of, but I imagine if he feels endangered, he’ll simply return to thesky.”
The Emperor whirled around to gape at Angelique. “Return to thesky?”
“Yevgeniy!” A woman with shiny blonde hair highlighted with gleaming streaks of silver glided from the castle. She was beautiful and stately with pronounced smile lines and an innate elegance that came withconfidence.
It took Angelique a few moments to recognize Empress Sonya—for she and Evariste had only called on the Kozlovkan royal family a few times—and Angelique hadn’t ever met either of theprinces.
Empress Sonya smiled as she hurried down the steps and threw her arms around herhusband.
Yevgeniy laughed, years falling from his fatigued expression as he embraced Sonya. “What a delightful welcomehome!”
“Don’t get too excited,” Sonya said. “For it has become painfully apparent to me that our sons—while sweet—are, in fact,dunces.”
Her frank words made Angelique freeze mid-step and ponder if she had ever heard a royal mother refer to her children with suchbluntness.
Empress Sonya sighed and dramatically laid a hand over her heart. “It would have been better if they were born girls.Alas!”
Unbothered by the Empress’ musings, Yevgeniy caught sight of Angelique and beckoned her forward. “Sonya, you might remember Lady Enchantress Angelique—she was Lord Enchanter Evariste’sapprentice.”
“Actually, I still am an apprentice,” Angelique repeated the mantra she had said so many times she wondered if she ought to carry copies of the statement on paper for easier distribution. “But please, call meAngelique.”
Empress Sonya curtsied. “It is our pleasure to receive you here in Tsona,Angelique.”
“She’s here to help us with Rothbart,” Yevgeniysaid.
Sonya clapped her hands. “Ahh, perfect. Then she’ll need to speak with both of oursons.”
Yevgeniy seemed perfectly at home with the way Sonya jumped topics and calmly asked. “Why would she need to speak with Yakov andAlexsei?”
“Because they’ve been sneaking out ever since we arrived at Tsona and have been waltzing on the shores of Swan Lake playing hide-and-seek with Rothbart,” Sonya wrylysaid.
Angelique was not at all surprised. Given the mischief all the royal children had gotten into over the past five years, she was more impressed that they hadn’t gotten themselves cursed, transformed, orbespelled.
Yevgeniy did not seem to share heracceptance.
“T-theywhat?” He gawked at hiswife.
