A drop in temperature and a prickling of my skin signaled Volusian’s sudden arrival. He materialized in the darkest corner of my room, expression as sullen and malevolent as usual.

“Well, this is a treat,” I said. “I do so love seeing your cheery face in the morning. What’s up?” When I’d left the Otherworld last time, I’d kept Volusian on standing orders to ferry any messages over to me. My joking aside, I wasn’t overly thrilled to see him because I knew it meant there was something I had to deal with.

“The hulking imbecile who commands my mistress’s guards has requested her presence,” said Volusian.

“Do you mean Rurik?”

“Yes, unless my mistress has appointed another hulking imbecile to command her guards.”

“Did he say why?” If it had been more trade business, Shaya would have been the one to ask for me.

“He wished to tell you that one of the missing girls returned.”

“What?”

I sprang out of bed and hastily threw on some clothes. Kiyo returned to the room, astonishingly sexy with wet hair, and gave me a surprised look. “What’s up?”

“I got a lead on one of the girls. You want to come with me?”

He shook his head. He held up his white coat. “Can’t. I’ve got to work.”

I was disappointed. I would have liked to have him with me, but that petty part inside of me felt better about him working than hanging out with Maiwenn again. So, we made our good-byes, parting with a long kiss-a really long kiss. When we finally dragged ourselves away from each other, Volusian looked as though he wouldn’t have minded being smote out of existence.

I sent him on ahead of me and then crossed over shortly thereafter. Nia as usual fell all over herself, but I had to politely dismiss her in my eagerness to find Rurik. He was sitting with Shaya in the parlor adjacent to her room, deep in conversation. Both sprang up when they saw me.

“Your majesty,” intoned Shaya politely.

“Where is she?” I exclaimed. “The girl. I want to talk to her and get this settled.”

Rurik grimaced. “Ah. About that.”

“What’s wrong? Volusian said you found her.”

“Well, we did, in a manner of speaking. It was the girl from Westoria-the one whose parents spoke to you. She surfaced last night in the village, hysterical and going on and on about how she escaped and how horrible it all was.”

“There really was a monster?” I said, surprised. “Or did she escape from the bandits?” I still hadn’t ruled out their involvement.

He shook his head. “Nobody knows. She wasn’t making any sense, and mostly, her parents wanted to calm her down. In the meantime, they sent word to us because they knew you’d want to talk to her, and…well, that’s when the problem started.”

“Like the rest of this isn’t already a problem?”

“When the girl heard you were coming, she became even more hysterical.”

“More hysterical over me than a monster or whatever?”

Rurik shrugged. “As we’ve learned, your reputation is a bit…alarming to some.”

“Good God. Didn’t she hear I got my ass kicked by fire demons?” I sighed. “What happened?”

“She ran away. For real this time.”

I groaned and sank back into a chair.

“We sent out a search party as soon as we heard,” he added somewhat hopefully.

“Well, that’s something, I guess. It’s one girl…she can’t be that hard to find, right?”

Rurik and Shaya exchanged doubtful looks. I groaned again. With the way the land was around here, it was likely anyone who wanted to disappear could. I’d had parties out looking for Jasmine for the last three months and found no clue to her whereabouts.

“We need to start putting faces on milk cartons,” I muttered.

“I beg your pardon?” asked Shaya.

“Never mind. Anything else I should know about? Any word from Leith?” I figured I’d go do my meditation and connection with the land and then head back to Tucson.

“Nothing yet,” said Shaya. “However…we did hear from Dorian.”

Right. Another of my problems. She seemed a little nervous about going on.

“He sent a message wondering why you hadn’t contacted him yet about trade. And…”

I rolled my eyes. “Go on. I expect the worst.”

She looked embarrassed. “He said if you can’t be troubled to come in a timely manner, then he’s going to rescind his offer.”

“That might not be horrible,” I pointed out. “I mean, you’ve told other people, right? We’ve got other kingdoms wanting to buy the copper, don’t we?”

Her look of discomfort grew. “Well, not so many.”

“How many is not so many?”

“Aside from the Rowan Land? None.”

“Son of a bitch.” Honestly? I wouldn’t have put it past Dorian to influence others not to trade with me just so he could play these games. I steeled myself and met Shaya’s pleading gaze. “I don’t suppose he specified what a ‘timely manner’ is?”

“He did, actually,” said Shaya. Rurik was smiling, which I took as a bad sign. “Today.”

I set out to Dorian with a sense of foreboding, made worse by the fact that I wore a skirt with a slit all the way up to my hip. Both Shaya and Nia had wanted me to go see him in a dress, arguing it befitted my station and would endear me to Dorian. I’d argued that I wouldn’t be able to ride in a dress, and this slit thing had been their solution. And like always, I had a handful of guards in tow. Their constant presence still continued to make me feel like a child. In this case, a kind of slutty child.

In keeping with the Otherworld’s bizarre geography, we passed through another village. My visit was brief, just long enough to see how they were doing. Their situation wasn’t too different from Westoria’s, though they had a woman who was pretty adept at finding water sources. Her technique, the way she wove magic, was more skilled than mine, though she didn’t possess my strength. After observing her, I mimicked what she did and managed to find a spot ripe for well-digging. The dress kept me from getting out there and shoveling along with them, but it didn’t matter. I left regarded as a savior yet again.

Reaching Dorian’s took less time than it had taken to get to Maiwenn’s. Unlike that journey, much of our trip today passed primarily through my own land, with no respite in one of the more temperate kingdoms. The heat beat down on us, and I sweated profusely into the violet silk of my dress. I would have given anything for a breeze, anything to stir that stagnant air. My own Tucson was often windy; I didn’t get why the Otherworldly version wasn’t.

My father had been able to control all things connected with storms: water, air, charged particles, temperature, et cetera. So far, I only had a hold of water, but every once in a while I could feel the air with the same senses that could touch and control water. Reaching out now, I had that same experience: I could sense the air. It hummed to me. It called. But when I called back, nothing happened. Over and over I tried, attempting the same technique I used with water, urging it to bend and stir and cool me off. Nothing. I finally gave up when Dorian’s castle came into sight. It was stone like mine and somehow managed to be both imposing and graceful.

Where once I had been greeted with hostility and suspicion, I was now welcomed with respect and a fair amount of groveling. And, yeah, some wariness too. My guards were led away, and Dorian’s servants fell all over me, offering me any refreshment I wanted. I declined. I simply wanted to get these negotiations done with.

A servant led me to an opulently decorated chamber and announced me, titles and all. Dorian sat there, casual in a long-sleeved, cream-colored shirt, leaning over a chess board. An old man with a beard that went all the way to the floor sat opposite him. Dorian’s green-gold eyes lifted at my name, and he broke out into a dazzling smile. Honestly. The man was too good-looking sometimes, and he knew it. A moment later, Dorian turned a disapproving glance toward his chess partner.