“The princess of Madros?” The Regent scoffed at Javi. “I’m a hermit, not an idiot. She looks exactly like her father.”
Javi fluttered his eyelashes at his great-aunt, giving her a proper pout that was so embarrassing, Risa was sure there was no way it would work. “Then you know I can’t stay here. I’ve given Amina my word that I’ll help her get to Madros and reclaim her throne.”
The Regent shook her head, a well of tears gathering in her eyes. “You are being ridiculous. You’ll stay here, where it’s safe.”
“I can’t,” Javi said. “We’ve been hounded by bad luck. I thinkI’ve only managed to survive this long because of Risa. She even breaks curses.”
He flashed Risa a glance again. The look in his eyes was the same as when he’d given her the witchtrap back in Monpira. Gentle, trusting,real. It was Javi—not the prince, not the charmer, not the flirt—holding her gaze. Telling her that he was grateful she was keeping him alive, when really she was the reason he was in this mess in the first place. Then Javi turned back to his great-aunt.
Guilt moved in and threatened to close over her, the tightness returning to her chest.
“I see,” the Regent said before heaving a great sigh. “You believe some teenage girl’s good luck is the reason you’re still breathing.”
“Amina helped,” Javi said, petulant as he crossed his arms. “She can fight. But we could use your assistance, too. There is a very large desert to cross…”
“Great.Twoteenage girls. I suppose I should help get you to Madros if I want you to return mostly intact. Though I don’t know what you expect me to do. Airships are prohibited from entering.”
“What does that matter?” No longer considering the Regent a threat, Amina sat back on the floor, legs crossed beneath her. “You’re a witch. The general started the Anti-Airship Federation to bring you down. Whynotinvade?”
The Regent did not answer right away. She returned to her cherrywood desk, arranging herself in her throne-like chair. Fingers steepled, she regarded them coolly, green-gold eyes settling briefly on each of them before she finally spoke again.
“I will not run the risk of losing an airship to the general.” She leveled the princess with an intense, unblinking stare. “Your nationwas always first in science, technology, engineering. It would be easy for him to find a way to reverse engineer my airship, and with a witch working with him…” She trailed off, letting the underlying threat resonate in the silence.
Amina gulped. It seemed she was running through her own mental deductions. “Does he mean to start a war?”
The Regent nodded. “He does not need any further ammunition from my airships.”
“He already has Madros,” Amina spat. “What need does he have for more violence?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” The Regent gave a humorless laugh. In this light, with the sky ablaze in orange, she looked more like a witch than ever before. For the first time, Risa sensed her power, a simmering fire below the surface of the mask she wore. “He is driven by greed. The insatiable need for domination, more money, more land. Men like him just wantmorefor the sake of having it. Javi will be a jewel in his crown. He would use airships to help him get everything he wants.”
General Sur had killed a king for power. Murdered a family to keep that power secure. Placed a curse on his kingdom and the king-doms surrounding it to continue the lie. Coveted a thing he could not have so terribly that he wanted it destroyed. All that remained was…
“He wants to rule the world,” Risa realized aloud.
“And airships would get him the world,” Amina finished.
“You must understand,” the Regent said, her voice edged with razor-sharp blades, “that the world requires balance. It finds a way to keep it. Five years ago, the general decided to tip the scales when he murdered the king and stole the throne, and I will do what I can to tip it back.”
“Then help us.” Risa gestured at Javi and Amina. Both looked forlorn at the prospects of their futures. “From what you say, it sounds like General Sur will find a way to start a war regardless. Whether it’s by forcing the Anti-Airship Federation to finally move against you, marrying Javi to his daughter, or forcing more nations to fall under the curse. YouknowAmina taking her throne is the only solution, and she cannot do it alone. Put us on an airship, drop us off, and fly away before they can find a way to bring it down. Either we die in the attempt and you’ll be at war anyway, or we win and you can keep your airship secret until the next crazed despot.”
Javi grinned at the Regent. “I didn’t know she cared so much she’d be willing to go to the ends of the earth for me.”
“I don’t,” Risa spat at him, her heart flip-flopping in her chest like a struggling fish out of water. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to wrap her hands around his neck to force him to actually look at her, or to wring it. “Avoiding all-out war seems to be in my best interests, considering I’d like to live past seventeen.”
The Regent swept her eyes down Risa’s body. Then, turning to her nephew: “You know, betrothals come and go. If you’re feeling particularly compelled to do your job as a prince, you could arrange a new one with the princess once she’s queen.”
Javi chuckled nervously. “Let’s not get me a second engagement before I’ve even ended my first one.”
“Besides,” Amina added quickly. For some reason, she gave Risa a nervous shake of her head. “Recouping an entire kingdom will take more than just planting me back on the throne. I can’t be distracted with a marriage. I’m sixteen!”
The Regent hummed in thought, then picked up a strange bell-shaped contraption that she held to her mouth.
“Get me the pilot captain! We’ve got a princess to help, a general to dethrone, and a kingdom to save!”
Though the wedding was upon the horizon, the Regent insisted that the three (plus Brunie) stay the night. Rooms were to be prepared, new clothes were to be procured, and a quiet dinner was to be served. Javi was whisked away on a tour of the Flying Palace, replete with guards, and Amina requested a jaunt to a library, where she could read whatever books had been collected before the curse had been placed on Madros. That left Risa alone in the Regent’s study, face pressed against the glass window where she could stare out at all the things magic could make and build and create, wondering what it was that kept the thorns of her curse so embedded.
Night had fully engulfed the sky but that only magnified San Cirilo’s beauty. Lights sparked to life throughout the airships: in portholes, lamps, orbs that floated below the airships like lighthouses onshore. If she stared through her eyelashes, vision slightly blurred, it almost looked as if she were staring out into a blanket of bright stars.
