Changing Plans

Thisbe turned to the Revinir, failing to mask how desolate she was feeling. “What have you done to him?”

The Revinir tilted her head. “Are you upset? I thought this would be a much easier way to find out the truth about… things.”

Thisbe narrowed her eyes. “Things? What things?”

“And it’s nice having him as a backup in case the agreement with you doesn’t work out.”

“In his right mind, he’d never agree to what I will do for you,” Thisbe retorted. “And both the dragon and black-eyed ruler have to be of sound mind in order to make an agreement.”

“Oh really?” The Revinir tapped her chin with a talon. “I thought you didn’t know how this worked.”

“You’re the one who told me that,” said Thisbe icily. But she was rattled. And lying. She needed to pull it together if she was going to keep the ruse going.

“Did I?” asked the Revinir lazily. “I don’t recall that.”

Thisbe shrugged like it wasn’t a matter to quibble over. “What shall we ask him?”

“Why don’t you start?”

“Will he listen to me? I thought people under your mind control only listen to you.”

The Revinir preened with power. “The red dragon listened to you, didn’t he? It’s because I commanded him to. But only if you said you wanted to come here.”

“Tricky,” said Thisbe.

“Rohan,” said the Revinir, turning to him, “I command you to listen to Thisbe and answer her questions as truthfully as you would me.”

Rohan blinked. “Yes, Revinir,” he said.

Thisbe felt like vomiting to hear him say that. To speak in that voice. Things had been going so well, but now, with the constant reminder of what she was doing sitting right next to her, she felt like quitting. She shifted in her seat and thought she saw a ghost dragon floating by the window, farther away now. Was Quince still out there? “Okay, um…,” she began. “What, uh, what made you come here, Rohan?”

“I had to talk to you,” said Rohan in a monotone.

Thisbe’s hands started sweating. Was Rohan sold on the plan that she and Fifer and Dev had concocted? Had he somehow gotten the truth out of Fifer or Dev in the past few days? Thisbe didn’t know where he’d been or who he’d been with—anything could have happened between the time he’d sent that message to Thisbe and now. But the Revinir was most certainly testing her, waiting to see if Thisbe would ask real questions. Thisbe plowed forward. “Talk to me about what?”

“I wanted to tell you not to betray the black-eyed people by making a deal with the Revinir. You can still change your mind. It’s not too late.”

Thisbe sucked in a breath. Okay. She looked up at the Revinir. “Your turn?”

The Revinir seemed pleased with the answers so far. “Rohan,” she said, “does Thisbe want to rule the land of the dragons with me?”

Thisbe frowned. “What kind of question is that?” she said. “I thought you wanted information about where everyone is and what he and the others are doing.”

“No, that was a bluff,” said the Revinir. “I want to know if you’re lying to me. If there’s anyone besides Fifer that you’ve confided in, it would be Rohan. So I want the truth.”

“So that’s why you put dragon-bone broth in his tea? Because you want to know more from him about me? That’s disgusting. I’ve told you the truth.”

“I didn’t get to this position by trusting people,” the Revinir said lightly. “Rohan, answer the question. Does Thisbe truly want to rule this land with me?”

Thisbe’s heart flew to her throat. Rohan was emotionless, which was somehow even worse than seeing his face filled with pain.

“I… don’t know for sure,” Rohan said. “I believe she does.”

The Revinir lifted her chin. “Has she recently indicated that she wants to trick me?”

“No,” said Rohan.

“Has she talked about me lately?”

“Yes.”

Thisbe froze. What was coming next?

“Has she ever talked about overthrowing me?”

“Yes.”

Thisbe didn’t know if she should speak. If she jumped in to protest, would that only make her seem guilty? If she stayed silent, would that mean she wasn’t shocked to be accused? She knew that Rohan would tell the truth as he knew it—that’s all he could do under the Revinir’s mind control. She stayed silent and kept her eyes on Rohan’s face.

“When did she talk about that?”

“In the catacombs.”

The Revinir eyed Thisbe and snorted. “Well, who down there didn’t wish that? Am I right?”

Thisbe grinned uneasily. “Pretty much everybody cursed your name regularly.”

“That’s what makes a ruler become great,” said the dragon-woman. She waved the conversation off as if it were beginning to get tiresome. “Look, Thisbe. I expected you to want to overthrow me at some point. You wouldn’t be human if you hadn’t expressed that. And that’s the kind of fire I find so appealing in a partner. I saw it in you long ago.”

“So you keep saying,” Thisbe reminded her. She was sick to death of hearing it, but she didn’t add that part.

“I saw the pain on Rohan’s face when he spoke your name,” the Revinir continued, softer now, sounding almost… compassionate. If that were possible.

Thisbe looked up, surprised at the change in tone, and found the Revinir gazing out through the balcony doors at the night sky.

The dragon-woman continued. “I even dare say I felt some sort of reminiscent pain when he looked at you. He was feeling so betrayed.” She hesitated, then opened her jaws and threw back the contents of her teacup.

“Reminiscent pain?” Thisbe knew immediately what the Revinir was talking about, and she knew she had another chance to play a card right here. “You mean, back when you were Emma?”

The Revinir’s expression flickered, and she turned to give Thisbe a warning look. “I told you to stop calling me that.”

Thisbe conceded with a nod. “Back when Marcus and Justine betrayed you?”

The Revinir closed her eyes and sighed. “So you know about that. I suppose everyone has read my diaries by now—I didn’t hide them. Is that how you found out?”

“Yes. But… I’m the only one who has read them. I’ve kept them private.”

“You have? Why?” The Revinir opened her eyes and studied Thisbe.

“Because,” Thisbe said, scrambling to read the dragon-woman’s intentions so she would know how to answer. “Because as much as I despised you for what you did to me, I begrudgingly respected your game. So I went looking to find out more about you while I was away. And that… respect… helped change my mind.” Thisbe held her breath and looked at the table. Had she said too much? And even more of a chilling question: Was it true?

But the Revinir had gone somewhere far away in her mind and didn’t respond. After a long while, Thisbe nearly nodded off at the table. She pushed her chair back and got up from the table. “I’m going to turn in,” she said quietly. “Good night.” She glanced at Rohan, sitting quietly, staring at nothing. Thinking no thoughts. A shell of a person.

“Wait a moment,” said the Revinir, rousing from her reverie. She put a hand on Rohan’s shoulder, then looked at Thisbe, calculating her next move. “My kitchen staff has been asking for Zel to return. So…” She narrowed her eyes. “I’d like you to have Rohan as your servant. Send Zel back to the kitchen.” A flicker crossed the evil dragon-woman’s face, as if she regretted offering. But Thisbe knew that this was also a test. If asked, Rohan would tell the Revinir everything Thisbe did, just like Zel would. And maybe the Revinir thought Thisbe would try to communicate more with Rohan because he’d been her friend.

Could this get any more painful? The last thing Thisbe wanted was to have Rohan as a servant. It was hard enough having him show up here and seeing him in this state. Thisbe’s worst nightmare had come true. But, thanks to Fifer’s insistence, Rohan knew nothing about the true plan and hadn’t foiled it for them. Thisbe had to hand it to Fifer for being firm about that. It could have been disastrous if Thisbe had told Rohan the truth.

But Thisbe was breaking through the Revinir’s walls, and she needed to keep tying their emotional strings together so she could get what she wanted. So she could keep Artimé safe. And so she could get the Revinir alone in a place where she could destroy her.

“All right,” Thisbe said coolly, giving the Revinir the side eye to convey that she was totally aware of the dragon-woman’s antics. “Thank you.” She turned to Rohan. “Come on.”