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In another half of a second, I had completely remolded my features along with my mind itself. There could be absolutely no hints about the truth in my expression or thoughts. I did not care. I did not love. I did not feel a thing.

“I enjoy a good fuck every now and then, if that’s what you mean.”

My voice eddied into the air, so cold I might have believed it myself.

Mydusia just laughed. A real one this time, slightly throaty and guttural.

“It’s so funny. My sister once told me the same exact thing. And I’m not talking about Dyonisia, General Steeler.” Her laughter ebbed away, replaced with something that scraped like sharpened claws. “I knew Chrysanthia was lying to me back then just the same as you are lying to me now.”

Before us, the arc of serpentine magic exploded into tiny, glittering ashes of magic, and the keening wail in the distance petered out.

I didn’t break. Didn’t let an ounce of anything but a cold, unfeeling male stare Mydusia in the face. “I would never lie to you, Your Majesty.”

She laughed again, this time with a hint of manic sharpness that could have shredded skin. “Chrysanthia told me that too! She was like a butterfly, you know, always slipping right through my fingers time and time again. Every time I tried to find her, she just… fluttered away.”

Mydusia’s fingers spiderwalked through the air. I didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. Didn’t feel. Her fingers wilted, coming to rest on the balcony once more.

“But there was one time Chrysanthia couldn't flutter away quickly enough.” The queen’s fingers snapped closed, forming a tight fist. “The weight of childbirth and motherhood dragged her down, I suppose. Turned her wings into stone.”

Do. Not. Feel. Despite that single command I’d given myself, a miniscule fissure opened up in my mind. My heart.

Because Mydusia knew. Not just that I was romantically involved with someone on the island—but that that someone was Chrysanthia’s daughter. Mydusia’s own niece. A Reeve with royal power simmering, unshaped, in her veins.

Still, I said nothing. Gave nothing.

If I did, Mydusia would devour it whole.

Frowning now, the first touch of anger pinching her mouth at my lack of reaction, the queen of Sorronia said, “I fear this girl you’re seeing might be the reason you’ve taken so long with your first assignment, General Steeler, so I’d like you to get it over with the next time you see her. Understand?”

No. No, I didn’t understand. The tattoo on my back jerked into motion, crawling, skittering, wriggling over my skin. But not settling. Not lodging into place while Mydusia’s new command remained so vague.

I didn’t ask for clarification. Didn’t hesitate.

My arm shot out, hand reaching for her throat. For her windpipe.

To rip it out before she could speak another soul-shredding word.

The split second before my hand would have punched through, the tattoo on my back gave me a violent tug backward, like a chain yanking on my spine.

The next, dozens of different powers poured from Mydusia’s open-mouthed scream, attacking me all at once from inside and out.

My lungs twisted in my chest. Invisible blades raked down my body. My ears rang with all the shrieks and cries I’d ever heard in my life until I was clutching at them, trying to rip them off. Blood pooled in my mouth, gurgling in my throat. White-hot wires of pain shot through my bone marrow.

All at once, the pain stopped. I was left curled up at Mydusia’s feet, certain I was three dying heartbeats away from becoming a corpse.

Then Mydusia crouched down and tucked a finger beneath my chin.

“Now, now, there’s no need to cry.”

I hadn’t even realized the wet streaks running from my eyes were my own tears, not blood. When I swallowed, my mouth was dry. Lungs working just fine. Skin unmarred and just the same as before. Bones intact.

Mydusia had hoarded enough stolen powers over the several centuries that she could have filleted and boiled me alive, but she’d chosen to attack me in ways that wouldn’t scar. To smear away every bit of proof that she was even capable of causing so much pain.

But shock still held me captive, as if my powers had shriveled away in the wake of such brutality. I couldn’t seem to take action. Couldn’t Walk away.

Heaving against the ground, I saw Mydusia move from the corner of my eye: lifting the veil from her face with quivering slowness and staring down at me with eyes that would suck out my Mind Manipulating and Walking powers if I looked up.

Then she repeated her new command over my head, this time with more clarity, Rayna’s name oozing from the vocal cords I’d failed to rip out.