“Only four times,” Risa corrected.
The Regent ignored her. “Why are you traveling with a witch and a child?”
“I’m sixteen,” Amina mumbled, stuffing her daggers in their sheaths.
Javi glanced at Risa for the briefest moment before looking away. Oh, so they were back to avoiding each other.
“The witch is supposed to be my good luck charm, I think? I don’t know, our royal witch told me she was lucky.”
“Now.” The Regent threaded an arm through Javi’s, directing him toward an armchair by the fire, where she forced him to sit. He fixed his attention on the shelves of books behind Risa, though occasionally his gaze slipped onto her face before he realized she was staring back.
The Regent arranged herself beside him, reaching over briefly to rub at a dark smudge on his cheek, the royal signet ring on her pinky catching the light. “This witch said she had information for me. I suppose now that she sees you are here, whole and hale, she will be more inclined to speak?”
“Risa wasworriedabout me?”
“Actually, I told her to keep you two locked up.” Risa slid down the arm of the tufted couch to settle into the corner of the furniture,arms crossed defiantly now that it seemed Brunhilda’s spell no longer intended to kill her. Which was rather disappointing, since she wanted to disappear straight through the floor if it meant avoiding Javi’s smug face.
“She looked positively sick with concern,” the Regent noted.
“That might be the nicest thing she’s never said about me.”
“Gods, I need a drink,” Amina said, working the rest of the way into the room to sprawl beside Brunie on the rug.
Javi turned to his great-aunt, seemingly finished teasing Risa. “We’re here because the Sanguines are on San Cirilo attempting to stealsomething. We thought it was your blueprints, but perhaps they were trying to kidnapyou.”
“Or,” Risa interrupted, snapping her wrist at the Regent, “she’s the witch who put the curse on Madros and Kheadon.”
Amina sat up in a blur. Javi’s mouth dropped open. Brunie purred loudly and rolled onto his back, all four paws in the air.
The Regent stared at Risa, lips pursed in a thin, straight line.
“Tia?”
Amina began to reach for the daggers strapped to her belt.
The Regent dismissed the action with a wave of her bejeweled hand. “Don’t bother. Unlike the general, I’m not in the habit of offing royalty.” She paused and considered Amina. “Shouldn’t you be dead?”
Risa held her breath and waited for the telltale chill that meant magic was at work and was how the Regent had divined the truth, but nothing happened. She was racked instead with a rush of adrenaline as she waited for the Regent to reveal herself as the villain.
“Tia,” Javi warned, beseeching. “Please tell me you’re not secretly colluding with the general.”
The Regent rolled her eyes. “Of course not.”
“Are you openly colluding?” Amina asked.
The Regent glared at the princess. “I am not doing that, either.”
“But you’re a witch?” Javi asked with a trembling voice.
“Yes, I’m a witch,” the Regent confirmed. She ignored Javi’s answering splutter. “How do you think I made all of this?” She waved her hands around her. “Magic? Oh, wait. Ha!”
Yes, Risa saw the family resemblance very much.
“So you didn’t place a super-powerful spell on Madros and its neighboring kingdoms?” Risa couldn’t help but want explicit confirmation.
“No. My specialty is air magic. Hence the airship.” She looked back at Amina. “Again, I have nothing to do with General Sur. I did not assist him in murdering your family”—she turned to Risa—“and I have not cursed anyone. My concern was getting my sweet, perfectangelnephew”—and at this, she gave Javi’s cheek a squeeze with her thumb and forefinger—“out of that sham of a political marriage, which is why I put out a bounty on hislivinghead. But now you’re here and safe!”
“You know this is Amina—?”
