“Chloe’s cronies will be gearing up for a warning broadcast throughout the settlement, to tell everyone to take shelter before the nightfolk army arrives. You’re going straight to that broadcast room, supposedly under her orders, and linking to broadcast frequency 45P3C7. Can you handle that?”
Jelza hesitates, then says, “I can. But what then?”
I can’t help but flash a smile. “Then we show everyone who my mother, who theirmonarchreally is. She’ll never deceive anyone again.” I lay a hand on Jelza’s shoulder and squeeze. “And she’ll never hurt your daughter.”
Jelza sets her jaw, staring distantly into space. “What are you going to do?”
Before I can answer, the door to Dawn’s bedroom slams violently open. I whirl, momentarily afraid for Dawn’s safety, only to discover the child clapping and giggling wildly. Beside her, Aspect is wearing a longblond wig, a massive, glittery blue dress, and a similarly sparkly flat shoe on one foot, the peg leg apparently having rejected the attempt.
“KORI—IS NOT—THE ONLY PRINCESS—ANYMORE!” Promptly, Aspect performs a profoundly awkward pirouette.
Dawn shrieks with laughter. “He’s pretty!”
“They,” I say instinctually. “They’re pretty.” But it occurs to me that I was the only one who assigned they/them pronouns to Aspect. A mech is usually anit, and I wanted something more personal;theymade sense insofar as assigning an arbitrary gender to a robot felt silly and performative. “Um, Aspect? Do you … have … preferred pronouns?”
Aspect cocks their head. “Pronouns—for Aspect?”
“Words for Aspect,” I offer. “He is Aspect. She is Aspect. They are—”
“Any of those—for Aspect,” Aspect says, giving their dress another sparkly twirl. “Triple dog—is better—than dog. So triple pronouns—are better—than single pronouns—for Aspect!”
Jelza arches an eyebrow once again. “A dog? An extinct, Earthside dog?”
“Triple dog,” Aspect corrects, like that clears everything up.
From the ground, Ednit moans, “This is the worst sleep cycle of my life.”
“Well, buckle up, Ednit,” I say, kicking him with the toe of my armored shoe, “because it’s about to get even worse for you.” I turn back to the others. “Jelza, get your sitter here with Dawn and then hurry to the broadcast room. Aspect, stay close to me. Ednit … you’re coming with us to the surface.” I sheathe my heatshot pistol at my side. “And if you tryanything, if you give me any excuse at all, I’ll ensure this is yourlastsleep cycle, too.” Aspect toddles eagerly toward me, and I quickly add, “Um, and lose the dress, Aspect.”
If they could frown, it would all be over for me. I would never be able to say no again. But they simply stamp their foot, then toss the dress aside in a cloud of loose glitter, asking, “Aspect—still a princess?”
“Aspect,” I say, taking their hand in mine, “is whoever Aspect wants to be.”
Once upon a time,
the princess of sunlight
turned the tongues of fire on themselves.
CHAPTER
28
ADRIA
Even with the army at my back, a shuddering mass of lunar blue-tinged white against the black sky, I force my eyes to stay forward, locked on my destination.
It gets harder once I’m close enough to properly see the sun for the first time. In Kori’s memory of beholding it, she must’ve been wearing protective eyewear that my own people have never needed. My unguarded eyes well up with water, the whites burning like fire. I have to hold one hand above my gaze to maintain vision at all.
It’s beautiful beyond doubt, waves of gorgeous gold cascading over the sands, glinting the full spectrum of color off the dayfolk settlement’s narrow entry pad, the only section that’s aboveground. But it’s also a relentless source of blazing pain. It’s hard to revel in the wonder of it when I’m squinting to see, sticky sweat quickly drenching me from horns to wings to toes.
Time passes in an uncertain desert haze. A small, squirming part of me desperately fears that my unplanned arrival in the Daylands will be greeted with a wall of heatshot. But when I finally arrive within properviewing distance, what I see is a woman armored just as Kori once was, flanked by two similarly armored enforcers. Her gloved fists hold a pair of scarlet landing flares that she waves rapidly in my direction. A welcome.
Now that’s unexpected. But as compared to a heatshot barrage, I’ll take the blessing.
My wings buffet an unpleasant sputter of sand at my face during landing, but feeling solid ground under my feet again is a relief. Squaring my shoulders, I lock gazes with the armored stranger.
Words tumble out of me in a rush. “My name is Adria. I’m the reigning leader of the Shadowlands. I have no quarrel with the Daylands, but a rogue faction went against my orders and is on their way here to raise hell. I need to speak to someone in charge immediately.”
