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Aha. “So you haven’t warned them what you’re up to.” He cocked a single eyebrow in rebuke. “I would have thought you owed them more loyalty than to leave them wrong-footed when the Empire responds—with force—to this direct attack upon its highest military leader. Both of your allies were witnessed at your side only yesterday by a multitude of reporters as well as my own troops. They will both share in the blame, and Emperor Otto’s response to all three nations, when he hears the news of my abduction at your hands—”

“Why do you think I bothered to steal you in the first place, darling?” Her voice was light, but her eyes glittered with rare temper—another victory for him to mark on their personal battlefield. “You may have a terribly pretty face, but I hardly need to kidnap my playthings. They offer themselves to me on a regular basis without any effort on my part.”

That, he did not doubt—and there was no good reason for hot irritation to flare through him at the reminder. So he ignored his own irrational reaction to focus on the unlikely clue she’d tossed him. “You actually want the Empire to attack? You can’t possibly think Balravia would survive that invasion—not with both of its allies busy repelling simultaneous attacks on their own lands.” If she had any idea just how hard he’d been fighting to temper the Emperor’s increasingly disturbing ambitions in that direction …

“Not yet.” Her eyelashes lowered as a wicked smile played at her lips. “Don’t worry, darling, I’m not quite so careless as you seem to imagine. I can glamour your handwriting, you know—and set a very convincing scene. According to the note you left behind, you’re trusting your closest officers to maintain your privacy and allow no one else into your tent while you pursue a secret, urgent quest elsewhere for the sake of the Empire. By the time little Otto finally realizes you’re gone—much less who was bold enough to take you—it’ll be far too late.”

“Too late?” A wave of foreboding rolled through Gerard’s bound body as he looked up at that wicked grin. “For what, exactly?”

“Seven years ago,” said the fae queen, “you set me a challenge. By the end of our visit, General de Moireul, I plan to finally win it.”

3

In the Queen of Balravia’s private hunting lodge, hidden deep within the darkest and most ancient woods in the heart of Balravia

Lorelei had always excelled at the dramatic art of timing her entrances and exits. Even as she spoke those final, taunting words, she was silently summoning a portal; she had the satisfaction of seeing the Golden Beacon’s mask of indifference crack with a single twitch of one eyelid as she offered him a jaunty wave and stepped away the victor in their conversation, leaving only sparkles behind to remind him exactly who was in control.

Then she landed in her pink-and-white morning room, on the other side of the lodge, and released the shriek of frustration that had been building within her all throughout their encounter. “Argh!”

“So the two of you had a pleasant catch-up?” Her cousin Katrin was practicing sword-play on the far side of the room, having pushed all of the couches out of the way and rolled up the long sleeves of her gown. She rose smoothly from a flowing lunge to aim a wry glance over one strong shoulder.

Lorelei said, “That man is the most hardheaded, arrogant, maddening—”

“He is rumored to be unstoppable,” Ilse mused. She sat curled up on a couch by the tall windows, reading the first of a pile of novels propped on the plush golden cushions beside her. “He is rather yummy looking, though, isn’t he? I wonder if the stories are true and he’s still a virgin. Is that even possible?”

“Don’t even think about it.” Lorelei’s eyes narrowed. “He certainly won’t be seducing anyone here to escape!”

“Oh, no,” Ilse said with perfect innocence, turning another page in her book. “I wasn’t saying that out of any interest for myself. I was only thinking of you, Your Majesty!”

At that, Katrin gave a muffled snort of disloyal laughter—but she was, at least, sensible enough to hide it in a cough and immediately resume her exercises. Lorelei swept a dangerously narrowed gaze from her cousin’s tall back to her second lady-in-waiting’s perfectly oblivious face.

She was glad that they had learned to get along so well over the years. She even wished them well in the promising new flirtation they’d been engaging in for the past few months when they thought she wasn’t paying attention.

Every so often, though, there was a downside to their new amity. Surely none of the other Queens of Villainy’s attendants felt so free to mercilessly tease their own queens.

“That eventuality,” she promised them both, “will never happen.” Once, a long time ago, Lorelei had allowed more than one handsome man to soften her wits, gain her trust, and then humiliate her—but she’d risen like a phoenix from the ashes of those all-too-public early lessons and taken control of the narrative forced upon her. Physical lovers, she took happily and often, but she would never again make the mistake of allowing any man, no matter how attractive, into her heart.

Seven years ago, when she’d chosen to proposition the Golden Beacon, she hadn’t known how dangerous he truly was; now that she knew him better, she would never dream of taking that risk.

… Even if he had looked like a fantasy plucked from her most decadent imaginings just now, spread out on that bed for her personal perusal. How in Sylvana’s name had he managed to lie there, helplessly bound by chains of her making, and still somehow project the impression of a patient host in full control of the room and their conversation?

“Queen Ailana’s been trying to get hold of you, by the way,” Katrin reported as she made a complicated, spinning move. “Her latest message said that it was extremely urgent.”

“Ugh.” Grimacing, Lorelei threw herself across an empty sofa. “She must have worked out he’s missing.” That was the problem with making friends and allies with the most successful spy-mistress on the continent: Ailana knew almost everything. Her official magic lay in the powers of ice and snow that came from her aelfar heritage, but as far as Lorelei was concerned, Ailana’s most terrifying power was her ability to coolly, calmly ferret out private information—and then turn her icy logic upon Lorelei’s wildest schemes like the most disappointed older sister in the world.

Lorelei had never believed in wasting time on regrets. If she had sat around weeping about her own mistakes ten years ago, she would have been dead within days! Still, her most recent brilliant plan—to unite all three independent queens on the continent against the threat of Imperial expansion—had come with side effects she had not anticipated.

Somehow, both of her fellow queens, different though they were, had chipped their ways into her guarded heart. Clever, strategic Ailana of Nornne and grumpy, blunt Saskia of Kitvaria had earned her respect and affection as well as her loyalty … so the regret that Lorelei had felt this past week after mistakenly harming Saskia’s lover had burned too badly to endure.

Felix, the softspoken Archduke of Estarion, was head over heels in love with Lorelei’s friend, not a sneaking threat to Saskia after all. Lorelei had seen for herself how he’d stood for all three queens on that battlefield yesterday when he’d ordered the Golden Beacon to remove all Imperial troops from Estarian land and call off the planned joint invasion of Saskia’s nation.

Even the Empire’s high general couldn’t refuse to follow that archducal order, with no higher authority present on the field to contradict it. However, the moment the Golden Beacon returned to Fiora to report that interaction to the Emperor, Otto II would react with murderous fury to the ruination of his plans. Whether he sent hired assassins, made up an act of Imperial treason to call for Felix’s public execution, or simply broke the constitution of the Empire to have his way on that longed-for expansion, his response would be immediate, punishing, and brutal.

Obviously, Lorelei had needed to do something to help and make up for the harm she’d already done to Saskia’s beloved …

But she knew exactly how Ailana would react to the path she’d chosen.

“Ugh,” she repeated and closed her eyes, drawing up chains of ivy from the ground beneath the floor to cover, surround, and shield her in a softly rustling, green cocoon of peace. “I need a nap before I can even think about that conversation.”