Has it really been one year already?

One year ago to the day I released my break-out novel. It was a wild ride full of ups, downs, and sideways that I couldn’t possibly predict. But if you’re receiving this message as one of my subscribers then you very well might be wondering: where am I now?

Excellent question. I wish I knew!

Time and again we hear that comparison is the death of happiness, and its true. This horrible habit especially rears its ugly head when we don’t have a well-founded expectation of what is normal, what is bad, and what is good. And when we only hear about the success stories (as we often do over the internet) it becomes absurdly easy to think, “I must be failing.”

Within the past year I’ve received 60+ rejections from literary agents while attempting to get representation for traditional publishing, and have only sold about 100 copies of The Dance Between in total. Not very impressive, right? Its enough to really take the wind out of someone’s sails. But as fate would have it, I received some perspective this past week .

I had the lovely pleasure of meeting a professional author by the name of Jen (@Goldenangelromance) who told me that, no, what I’ve accomplished is actually very good. And the reason, she explained, is that not only have my friends and family bought my book, but entire strangers have, too. According to her, even friends and family purchasing a novel can be rare. Plus on top of that my book has earned a couple of medallions, so I shouldn’t feel disheartened at all. When we parted she encouraged me to keep pursuing visibility for my novel and to not give up on writing my second book.

So I’ve chosen to try again.

Not only have I started querying agents again but I’ve created a tiktok account. According to Jen, a lot of people use that to find books nowadays. It doesn’t make much sense to me why, and I have no idea what to even post on a platform dedicated to short videos, but I’m willing to give it a shot. You can find me there at @ChrisWritesNow

Updates on the audiobook: we’re still moving along. My narrator unfortunately pushed herself so hard recently that she had to take several weeks off without speaking at all, so she’ll pick up again once she’s feeling ready for it.

Finally, as a treat to celebrate my novel’s one year anniversary, I thought I might give you all a sneak peek at my sequel novella’s first chapter. It’s still a work in progress but I am moving along with it.

And for those of you who have for some reason subscribed to me and still haven’t read my story, you had a year. If you see spoilers then that’s on you!

The Briar Abiding

Chapter 1

The full moon’s silver essence washed over Lily, infusing her with the potency of ancient magic. She took a deep breath, wobbling on the draft as she leaned into the wind. Her wings still felt awkward to manage one month into their regrowth, but she would keep stretching them until they felt right again. 

Stained glass and dozens of swaying torches twinkled far below her, adorning the harsh facade of Ilondia’s magnificent castle. It stood stark against the surrounding landscape even in the dark–a beautiful and terrible master of the valley, capable of meting out protection or destruction on a whim. The towers that guarded it, zealous in their duty, reached up as though grasping for Lily’s feet, eager to drag her back into their stony prisons. She kicked at one of them, imagining she could stomp it down into the mountain that birthed it. “You can’t have me,” she murmured.

Beyond the castle’s walls and creeping around the mountain’s ridge, a separate trail of torches bobbed on a slow march up to the plateau. The sight had become a common one in recent weeks, and Lily was in no mood to dwell on what it represented. She beat her wings again, rising higher, and cast her gaze out across the world. The mountain range, so tall and imposing next to her, became a line on the horizon so thin she felt as though she could snap its end off like a twig. 

“I’ve missed this,” she said. “Did you ever miss me, too?”

The sound of the wind was her only answer. 

She tilted her head up. Niurna the Watcher, moon goddess, and last remaining progenitor of all Fae, stoically regarded her from an immeasurable distance away. Lily spread her arms, basking in her grandmother’s light, and closed her eyes. In this quiet space between stone and sky, caught in the middle of the created and the yet-to-be, she felt unmade.

No Elders to subjugate her. No humans to hate her. No sins to guilt her.

Just her.

“Are you listening?” she asked, opening her eyes. “Have you ever listened? Or are you still sleeping?” She tilted her head in thought. “I wonder if this is how Alyda felt whenever she spoke, chiming notes and signing in the hopes we’d understand. She was a good listener, even better than you. She might not have had your talent for keeping secrets but at least I knew when she was giving her attention.”  

Niurna’s many nighttime children twinkled around, like thousands of little, quiet fairies. Lily felt a pang of loss for her departed friend and rolled her shoulders, working her new back muscles. “I have my wings again, see? Maybe one day I’ll use them to fly away. No one will miss me… almost no one. Even though he shouldn’t.” 

She eyed the back of her hand, almost able to make out the faintest veins of lucent silver glowing beneath her skin. Concentrating on it, she could just barely feel the thrum of an unknown energy coursing up her arm and through her body–an echo to her heartbeat. She reached above her head and spread her fingers, allowing moonbeams to flow between the gaps. “Did you see everything that happened to us? To me? Your quicksilver is part of me now. Does that mean you can hear me better? Or does that mean you’ll never talk to me now that I’m ‘tainted?’” More silence. Lily brought her hands to her chest  in obeisance. “What am I, Grandmother? Am I still the monster my siblings turned me into, or a new one the humans made?” 

She closed her eyes again, listening for anything that might pass for an answer. As though waiting for this moment of weakness, her most terrible memories rushed to the forefront of her thoughts with visions of her past. The Astraedan royal family falling beneath her sword. Redwood’s condescending smile as he ordered her to betray her friend. The Argennium’s quicksilver beam searing her body. Alyda’s sacrifice to stop it. Sevi’s horrified face as he fell helplessly into the open sky. 

Lily flicked her eyes open and wrapped her arms around herself at a sudden chill. “Do you still dream of coming down?” she murmured, lowering her head. “I know it's lonely, but you should stay up there where you can’t hurt anyone. It’ll be safer for you, too.”

She caught movement in the corner of her eye and turned. A small pack of Empyrean scar owls flew in formation, outlined against a large moonlit cloud, searching for others like herself. She eyed their path, and when they angled themselves in her direction she straightened. “I need to get going. Apparently, I’ve got to clean up a mess I caused. It's all so stupid,” she grumbled. “But I’ll be back. Goodnight, Grandmother. I hope you’re still sleeping well.” 

She closed her wings and dropped. The world blurred with motion as the ground rushed up to meet her. Snapping her wings back open after several moments of freefall, she steered herself in a controlled spiral toward the castle, aiming for a lantern-lit terrace. She remembered to blow into her signal whistle as she got close–the last time she had forgotten some jumpy Fae-hating soldier had taken a shot at her.

One still might, she thought wryly as she touched down. Folding her wings neatly against her back, she peered around the balcony and found it blessedly empty of late-night moongazers. Sparing one last glance at her grandmother, Lily took a deep breath and entered the twisting corridors of the castle, heading on the quickest path to the royal chambers.

 Her footsteps echoed absurdly loud on the stone, announcing her presence with every footfall. What guards she passed each gave her a dirty look–one even spit in her wake. She took their hostility and used it to shape a skin of marble about herself, preparing for what lay waiting at her destination. 

When she arrived she found four Embers standing guard at the parlor doors, one of which she recognized. Choosing caution, she took out her whistle and blew the pattern for ‘friendly.’ Each soldier still jumped as she approached, readying their guns as a man wearing an officer’s uniform called out, “A Fae!” 

Lily stopped before them and threw a mock salute. “Evening. How’s the watch? Spot anything dangerous?”

The soldiers relaxed, but only slightly–though they at least had the decency to lower their guns. The officer eyed her for a few long moments before snorting. “Just you,” he said.

Lily smirked at him. I love it when they take the bait. “Why sir, I’m flattered. You mean to say that weak, little me could overpower four strong, iron-clad Embers like you? Have some faith in yourselves. I won’t allow spinelessness in Sevi’s guards.”

“What a marvelous point you bring up,” the man said conversationally. “The character of the castle’s occupants. It is indeed rather incredible the kind of trash we allow around here these days, isn’t it?”

Lily raised one amused eyebrow. We have a contender tonight. “Did you just call your friends trash?” 

The officer half-sneered. “There are far worse things I could say.”

“Then they’re either terrible friends or you’re an asshole. Either way you have my pity.”

A vein at the officer’s temple throbbed but his expression remained unchanged. “As do you, Squire Lily. Far from home. Alone. Surrounded by people who would love to see you hang, especially after what you did to the commander.” He gave a forced smile. “The Parents only know why you don’t use those wings of yours to fly somewhere you’re actually wanted, far, far from here.”

“Stupidity, mostly,” Lily said.

The officer narrowed his eyes. “Clearly.”

“Mhm,” Lily said hopelessly. “If I left Sevi with the brainless halfwits that make up his army they might try to tear another hole in the World Gate and let the Watcher in, just like their commander tried to do. Sevi would be dead before anyone could say–” She screamed. Every single soldier flinched. Lily threw her head back and laughed. 

The officer’s face turned red. “You impudent, disrespectful child!” he yelled.

“Oh, please.” Lily rolled her eyes. “You know what, I’ll give you this: you’re right to suspect me. I know what my family is like and can imagine exactly how the war treated you. But you said it yourself, staying here as a lone Fae is pretty damn stupid. Why, in all Iaela, would I do that unless I was helping Sevi, just as I’ve been saying for weeks?”

The officer leveled his finger at her. “To use him. You kept him hidden for years, slowly turning him into your puppet so you and your kind could rule Elkra from the inside. Who better to spy on a country than a Fae at the shoulder of its prince?”

Lily dropped her smirk. His accusation was a little too close to certain crimes she had actually committed. “I… really can’t find the words to describe how utterly wrong that is. But you clearly don’t believe a word Sevi or I have already said, so why should I bother?”

“Finally we’re in agreement.” The officer took a step toward her. “Why should you bother? You’re a blight, you and all your kind. And if you don’t take your chance to disappear while you can then someday someone might make you.” 

Lily closed the space between her and the man, angling her head up at him with a blank stare. “That a threat?”

“I wouldn’t dare threaten the prince’s savior,” the officer said lowly. “But I would certainly warn her.”

“Oh good.” Lily raised her hand to his chest. “Because if that was a threat” –she flicked him, and the power behind it was enough to force the officer off-balance– “I would have to do something about it.”

His eyes widened in shock. The woman to his right steadied him, shooting a fierce look at Lily. “Touch him again and you’ll find yourself back in chains, greenblood!”

“I can think of someone who would be very, very unhappy about that,” Lily fired back. 

The woman stiffened. “You might have bewitched the prince but we know exactly what you are. The moment you give us any reason to think you’re about to hurt any–”

“You know what a thought is?” Lily asked.

“You nightdamned, tar-tongued–”

“Private Joli,” the officer barked. Joli bored holes into Lily with her glare. “Keep taunting us, fairy,” the officer said. “It’ll make it that much sweeter when the nobles take your head.”

Lily inspected her fingernails. “Looking to borrow a brain, are they? I know they’re in short supply around here. Unfortunately I’m still using mine, so they can’t have it. But they can have this.” She made a crass gesture. One of the two remaining guards, silent until now, stifled a chortle. The officer shot a hard look at him until he quieted. Lily pressed her advantage. “Going to open the door for me, Vass?”

Vass, the last guard, jumped, flicking her gaze between her three comrades. She swallowed nervously. “I–”

“No, no, you’re right, I shouldn’t distract you. What if a Fae slipped past you? Just stand over there.” Lily impatiently waved her hands at Vass and the soldier next to her until they had cleared a way to the doors. 

The officer sneered at her as she crossed the threshold. “Watch yourself, goblin. I certainly will be.”

Lily glanced at him. “What was your name again?”

He lifted his chin. “Lieutenant–”

She shut the door in his face. 

Crossing the royal chambers’ parlor, she walked through the far doorway and into the bedroom, closing the door behind her and leaning against it with a sigh. She wiped a tired hand across her face. “Damned muckeaters,” she breathed.

“Oh good, you’re back! I was starting to think you forgot,” said a voice. 

Lily pushed down the familiar wave of instinctive guilt that rose upon hearing it. “How could I forget after being so kindly reminded of it every day for a week?”

The voice sighed. “I know. Thank you for looking into it.” There was a pause. “I heard shouting out there. Were you fighting with the guards again?” 

 “They started it,” she grumbled, pushing off the door.

“Would you please stop? We’re out of volunteers.”

“Then order them to do it. That’s what a prince is good for, isn’t it?” Lily strode to the sofa at the fireplace, unceremoniously falling onto it and wincing as her wings pinched beneath her. Still not used to that, she thought. 

An adolescent man a few years younger than her sat in the armchair beside her feet, having strategically placed himself near a lit wall sconce with a book in his lap. He was dressed in modest clothing that clashed with the golden circlet around his head, and bore a scar that swept down his brow and across his cheek. He fixed her with a serious, hazel-eyed stare.“We need them to want to do it, according to Promina,” Sevi said.

Lily turned her gaze to the ceiling. “Nobody wants to do guard duty, Sevi. Least of all when I’m the one they’re guarding.”

“But we can change that.”

“Catching a ghost isn’t going to change public opinion of me, especially when most of the castle thinks I unleashed the thing.”

“Maybe not. It’s a start, though.” He gave her a small smile. “And maybe it’ll be fun.”

Lily snorted. “Fun? You used to be terrified of these things.”

He shrugged. “That was a long time ago.”

“Not really,” she muttered.

Sevi closed his book. “The cooks have readied the kitchen for you just like you asked, and a squad from River’s company were given bags of flour. They should be gathering in the throne room soon.” Lily grunted in acknowledgement. Sevi continued. “How are you going to do this?”

“Bait it, trap it, then cut its head off,” Lily said.

Sevi frowned. “Please don’t kill it.”

“They want me to kill a ghost, so I’m going to kill a ghost.” Sevi quieted. As the silence stretched she groaned and looked critically at him. “Are you serious?”

“Please, Lily,” he implored. “It's probably just scared and desperate, and it might be the only survivor from the Embers’ attack.”

She slowly shook her head. “We’re doing this to get the nobles to shut up about me summoning this thing. Killing it is the surest way to prove that to them.”

“I know, but maybe we can prove it isn’t dangerous.”

Lily arched an eyebrow. “Like me?”

He reluctantly nodded. “Yes.”

She laughed. “Another dog to muzzle. How fitting.”

“So will you?”

Lily sighed. “Fine. I won’t hurt it as long as it doesn’t try to hurt anyone else.”

Sevi broke into a smile. “Thanks, Lil.”

“Mhm.”

“Is there anything else you need from me?”

She tilted her head. “Could you lend me Shy?”

Sevi furrowed his brow. “What for?”

“To make it an even fight with this ‘ghost.’”

“Can’t you just use your magic?”

“No.”

He frowned at her. “How come?”

“My magic can’t do what Shy does.”

“But you made them.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t mean to make them like” –she waved at Sevi’s feet– “that.”

Sevi studied her knowingly. “Is the magic still hurting you?”

She looked away. “That’s not the point.”

“Lily.”

“Gods save me.” She jerked upright and met his stare. “No, it’s not hurting me. Not much,” she added at his skeptical expression. “I don’t know, it’s just… different now. A month ago, fresh out of the Argennium, I made a whole verdant barrier appear in this very room. Now I… It’s like…” She trailed off, looking to the side.

“Like what?” Sevi asked.

“Like I’m still being changed,” she said at last, turning back. “Like I’m being hollowed out and replaced with something else. Like I took some of the Argennium with me and it's growing inside me, still trying to break me apart. It’s doing something to my magic and I can’t make it stop.” She kneaded her head with one hand. “If I start throwing spells around then who knows what will happen. A runaway enchantment is the last thing we need right now.”

Silence dominated the space between them for a long time. Sevi crossed his arms and tapped his finger, contemplating her in a way that was disturbingly like his aunt. “Let’s try it,” he said.

Lily blew out sharply. “Sevi–”

“I mean it.” He leaned forward with a determined expression. “Try casting a spell right now, and if it doesn’t work I’ll convince Shy to go with you.”

“Didn’t you hear me? I can’t.” 

 “You’ve always made a point to learn as much as you can about everything for the sake of protecting us,” Sevi said. “When my visions first started you immediately searched for a way to get them under control. Why are you hesitating now?”

She frowned. “That was different.”

“No it wasn’t. Now let me help you figure this out.” He lifted his chin, daring her to argue further. 

Lily blinked with surprise. For a moment it was like her best friend of four years had been replaced by a complete stranger; one with confidence and–dare she say it–a princely bearing. He had been showing himself more regularly in recent weeks, but no matter how many times she saw him he always made her pause. Where had he come from? What had he done to the shivering, fearful boy she knew?

The Argennium changed him, too, she thought. Sevi had even gotten better at making serious faces; the kind that made arguments difficult. The one he gave her now held every lie she had ever told him, every harsh word she had thrown his way, and the ever-present memory of her killing his family. But the promises Lily had made, as well as the trust she needed to earn back, were there, too, engraved in every line of Sevi’s frown.

Lily dipped her head. “Fine.”

Sevi nodded. “Good.”

She stood up and walked to the empty space before the unlit fireplace. “Just keep back, alright?”

“I won’t move from here,” Sevi promised.

Taking a deep breath, Lily closed her eyes, raised her hands, and reached for her magic. It took longer to find now that she was out of the full moon’s light, but it was there, shifting beneath the surface of her being like a living creature. The scent of flowers and petrichor filled her nose, and the muscles along her body rippled as she connected with her affinities, preparing to bend her surroundings to her will. 

She tightened her focus, concentrating on the precise outcome she wanted, and pushed the magic out of her in the shape of a bubble that encompassed her body. It met resistance as it always did, fighting against the laws of the world, until the world at last broke beneath the weight of her determination. She smiled with satisfaction as the threads that held reality together rearranged themselves, shifting what “was” into “what could be.”

A ripple of foreign energy abruptly manifested within her, piercing her concentration with a stabbing pain. The bubble faltered. Her smile dropped and she pushed harder, fighting to repair the spell, but the ripple only intensified into a wave. 

Lily retched under the mounting pressure, feeling as though cracks had burst along her body, splitting her apart. She hurriedly reigned in her power before it could run away from her, using the aether-rich atmosphere from the night’s full moon to help guide the spell to a controlled end. 

She opened her eyes and looked down at her arms, searching for any fissures in her skin. They looked no different. She sighed with relief, but it turned into a groan of frustration when her gaze fell upon the undersized rosebush sprouting from the floor. Its leaves were a sickly yellow, its thorns brittle-looking, and it bore three meager, undersized flowers barely bigger than buds. 

“Did it work?” Sevi asked.

Lily scowled. “No.” 

“What were you trying to do?”

She crossed her arms. “It was supposed to be an aroma spell to change my scent.”

Sevi sniffed loudly. “I don’t smell anything different.”

“Something went wrong. I had to ground it, so it turned into–” She angrily waved her hand at the bush.

He eyed the bush. “What is an aroma spell even supposed to look like?”

Lily sighed, trying to fight her growing annoyance.“A gust of wind. At least for me.”

“For you?” Sevi pursed his lips. “I think it would help if I understood how your magic worked.”

“We don’t have time to debate magical theory.” She turned her back on him and strode to the hearth. Taking the rake lying next to it and pulling ash toward her, she piled a heap into a bucket left explicitly for such a purpose. “We have a job to do. Just lend me Shy and we’ll discuss this later.”

“Lily–”

“What?” she snapped, whipping her head around. Sevi flinched. A fresh wave of guilt immediately swept through her, smothering her irritation. There’s the boy I remember. “Sorry,” she said uneasily. “That was… Sorry.”

Sevi nodded at her apology. “We’ll figure this out. I don’t think a soul alive knows anything about what you’re going through, not even other Silvakin. But–”

“Don’t say it,” Lily said with a small smile. “I know.”

Sevi smiled back. “Anyway. I don’t know if Shy can hide anyone when they’re not attached to me. Or if…” He trailed off.

“Or if they would still rather watch me die a slow death?” Lily finished for him. “Let’s find out.”

Sevi chuckled. “Alright.” Standing from his chair, he put his hands behind his back and looked down at his feet. “Shy? Would you please come out?” His shadow, ever present even in the dark, did nothing. “Please, Shy. This is important. We need you,” he urged.

His shadow wiggled at its edges, then sprung from the floor. Two glowing white eyes blinked into existence from within Shy’s darkness as it shaped itself into the form of an androgynous child. Shy tilted their head from side to side, regarding Sevi with their perpetually curious countenance.

“Did you hear everything?” Sevi asked. 

The shadow nodded.

“Will you help us?”

Shy shook their head vigorously.

Sevi got to one knee and placed a hand on the shadow’s shoulder. “Please. Lily and I are in trouble, and it’s getting worse every day. She has a task she needs to accomplish tonight and she needs your help. She also promises to be good to you, doesn’t she?” He shot a look at her.

Lily jumped as Shy’s saucer-wide, hollow eyes blinked into existence on the back of their head. “Moon above,” she cursed.  

“You promise, right Lily?” Sevi repeated.

Lily steadied herself with a deep breath. “I promise.” 

“There. She promises. So will you please follow her and do as she says, just for tonight?” Sevi asked. “It would mean a lot to me.”

Lily swore she saw the shadow creature expand and deflate, almost like it had just made a suffering sigh that said, must I really? Her? But they melted back into the floor after several moments and haltingly slid across the ground to attach themself to Lily’s feet. She shifted awkwardly, expecting to feel something at the moment of connection, but felt no different. “Um. Thanks, Shy,” she said. The shadow gave no response.

Sevi shared a resigned look with her. “I guess we better go, shouldn’t we?”

Lily retrieved her sword and belt, clasped it around her, then picked up her ash-filled bucket. “Let’s get this over with.”

Leaving the royal chambers, Lily pointedly ignored the guards as Sevi greeted each of them by name. They struck up a polite conversation that continued throughout their march to the throne room while Lily strode ahead, feigning indifference to the glares on her back. Each soldier they passed on the way, having scowled at Lily mere moments ago, saluted Sevi as he went by. 

Lily descended the stairwell that led to the great hall a little more quickly than usual. When she got to the base of the steps she crossed the threshold into the throne room, only to immediately stop and roll her eyes. 

“What is it?” Sevi asked, coming up behind her.

“We have an audience.” Lily moved aside for him, revealing their unexpected guests. At least a dozen formally-dressed nobles stood in small groups around the base of the thrones’ platform, idly chatting with each other, while Captain River and his mustered company stood at attention a distance away. Each of his soldiers carried small paper parcels in both hands, save for the few who carried nets. Every light in the room had been lit, from the sconces around the columns to the chandeliers dangling from the ceiling, bathing the hall in a warm, inviting glow.

“Did you set this up?” Lily asked Sevi.

“No,” Sevi said with a frown. “I didn’t.” 

“I wonder what they could be here for,” she said testily. “Either a late night stroll or to keep an eye on a certain evil Fae while she fixes a problem she didn’t make. I think the odds are evenly split, personally.”

“Just what we needed,” Sevi muttered. “I should have expected this.”

“Want to scratch tonight and try tomorrow?”

Sevi thought for a moment, but shook his head. “No. Let’s use this.” Lifting his chin, he affixed a pleasant smile on his face as he walked ahead, waving to the nobles at large. They all quieted once they caught sight of him.

“You’re sure? We could let the ‘ghost’ run around a little longer,” Lily grumbled, a step behind him.

“Lord Harrard! Lady Phylid! Hello, everyone! What an unexpected surprise!” Sevi said in a practiced, cheerful tone. He nodded once to Captain River before continuing. “What brings you here so late at night?”

A lady stepped out from the group wearing an outfit so sparkly it hurt to look at. Her assorted jewelry and accessories clinked at her slightest motion, and when she bowed to Sevi Lily half-expected her to collapse under the weight. “Good evening Your Luminance,” the woman said. “I hope you are having a delightful night.”

“To you as well, Lady Iren.” Sevi replied smoothly. “And to you all. Why have you all gathered like this? Are you here to observe the hunt, or is something the matter?”

“Nothing more than usual, Your Excellence,” Lady Iren said, glancing at Lily. “Some of us were indeed here to observe this ‘ghost hunt.’ It isn’t every day one occurs–if it's ever occurred– and we were looking forward to seeing an end to this harassment. But…” She shot another concerned look at Lily.

“What is it?” Sevi asked.

“Word has reached us that the Arathean delegation will be arriving sooner than expected,” the lady said. “Perhaps even tonight.”

Sevi furrowed his brow with confusion. “The Aratheans? They weren’t supposed to arrive for another month.”

The lady nodded. “It would appear that something has hastened their arrival, my prince.”

Sevi crossed his arms. “Why did no one inform me of this?”

“Many of us only heard the news within the hour ourselves,” Lady Iren said.

“River?” Sevi turned to the captain.

Captain River bowed his head. “This is my first time hearing of this. I have been busy coordinating my soldiers for tonight.”

Sevi tapped his finger against his arm. “Not one of you thought to send a messenger to my quarters?”

The lady dipped her head again. “We did not wish to disturb His Excellency’s rest.”

“You should have,” Sevi said, glaring now. “For guests as important as them?”

“An oversight to be sure, Your Luminance.”

“One which does not look good for you, my lady,” Sevi said, running a disapproving gaze over the nobles. “Any of you.”

Lily observed Sevi from the corner of her eye. That was downright regal, she thought.

A man behind Lady Iren spoke up. “Forgive us, Your Highness. As you’ve said, they are important guests, and we did not wish to risk offending them during such a tumultuous time.”

“Did you just suggest I would offend them, Lord Harrard?” Sevi said steelily. 

“Not you, Your Luminance,” Lady Iren said, standing up and staring pointedly at Lily.

Lily raised an eyebrow at the lady. Sevi straightened, radiating anger. “Return to your rooms,” he ordered loudly.

“Let them stay,” Lily said.

Sevi jerked his head toward her, incredulous. Even the nobles paused with surprise. Lily smiled broadly. “The ritual needed to banish the castle’s ghost requires several willing sac–I mean, volunteers, bathed in eskwater and fed three sprigs of akkerin. Why don’t we allow the good lords and ladies the chance to make up for their slight, in service to their prince?”

Sevi’s incredulity turned to horror. He stepped in front of her with his hands raised at the shocked Lady Iren. “Return to your rooms. We will discuss your lack of consideration later.”

Lily continued to smile as the lords and ladies moved away, whispering to themselves. Slimey, oozing, two-faced toadstools, all of you, she thought. Eying the thrones, she fantasized about walking up the steps and throwing herself over one in front of everyone. The horror! The impertinence! How dare a greenblood defile those chairs with her villainous butt!

A firm grip on her wrist wrenched her away from her thoughts. “That,” Sevi whispered sharply, “was not alright.”

“The prince’s head guard is not about to be publicly insulted to her face in front of her prince,” Lily said, watching the nobles’ retreating backs. 

Sevi glared. “I was handling it.”

“And I was helping.”

“Helping? I asked you to help me make allies. What you just did wasn’t that.” The energy abruptly drained from Sevi’s face and he took a tired step back from her. 

“There’s a time and place for sweetness,” Lily said. “Establishing ties between foreign dignitaries themselves and keeping that information from you? Those nobles are working against us and I want them to think about what that means.”

“It means they’ll be less likely to support me,” Sevi said. “It means their accusations about you have proof to them. It means I can’t punish them as harshly as they deserve.” He grew more animated. “Did you think I couldn’t see everything myself? What do you think I’ve been doing all this time with Promina? Learning how to use this–” he jabbed at the circlet on his head “–and I am barely managing.” He shook his head at her. “Helping? You didn’t help one bit.”

“Risho?” Captain River interrupted, stepping behind Sevi. 

Sevi deflated. Rubbing his forehead, he said, “What is it?”

Captain River looked between him and Lily. “My soldiers are ready to set the trap but we must move quickly before the creature arrives. Will you give the order?”

“Fine. Yes. Thank you.” Sevi leveled a torn expression at Lily. “We’re going to talk about this later. You should get into position. Do you have any more packets, River?” 

“Of course.” Captain River fished inside of his coat pocket and pulled one out, leaking trace amounts of white powder. He handed it to Sevi, who handed it to Lily.

 “Good luck,” Sevi said. He and River walked away.

Lily watched them for several moments, squeezing the parcel tightly, before stuffing it into her pocket and briskly turning to the kitchen’s corridor. She wiped her eyes. “Whatever you want, Your Luminance,” she said to herself.

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Christopher

The Dance Between is out now! Buy your copy here! You may also find me on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok at @ChrisWritesNow

A new word that found me: Vardo: the traditional horse-drawn wagon used by the Romani