After that, I felt like I’d run a marathon. Every part of me ached and was wearied. Yet, as bad as I was, Jasmine was worse. “I guess blood really is thicker than water,” she whispered in a very bad attempt at a joke. She swayed on her feet, eyes rolling back in her head, and then she collapsed. I barely managed to catch her in my own weakened state, but then stronger arms took hold. Kiyo.

He barely had a scratch, and relief poured through me. “Thanks.”

He lifted her easily into his arms. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” I said, looking down at my sister-who hadn’t betrayed me after all. “She’s bad, though. Get her to a healer.”

Kiyo hesitated, not wanting to leave me. Then, he gave a quick nod and loped off in that way that was half-human and half-wild animal. Looking around, I saw that the others were rounding up the remaining rabble. My losses looked light. Rurik was leading a man who seemed to be in the same shape as Jasmine. The demon summoner. Dorian was with Rurik and gave me a quick glance. I knew what was in the look. Kill the summoner or not? I gave a sharp shake of my head. Dorian grimaced and then turned back to help Rurik with his prisoner.

No one seemed to notice or need me, and I sank gratefully to the ground, waiting for my strength to return. I wondered if I’d be able to call up the magic again that I had used with Jasmine. Trying to piece it together seemed like too much work now, and I contented myself with watching my people work.

Then, out of my peripheral vision, I saw movement. I stood up and looked far to my side, toward a stony bluff covered in cacti. A face peered out at me and then ducked back. I knew the face. It was the scarred gentry who’d come to my house the other night. With no further thought, I started to hurry after him. Then, to my astonishment, I paused and did what Rurik would have wanted. A couple of my soldiers were lingering nearby. “Hey, come here,” I called, gesturing. They immediately followed as I set off at a brisk pace, moving as fast as I could to reach the bluff. When I turned around the side of it, I saw no sign of the gentry warrior I sought.

The ground rose sharply here, beginning to turn into foothills reminiscent of the ones near my house in Tucson. The vegetation was thicker, though still a far cry from a true forest. It was mostly cacti, shrubs, and scraggly trees. Going up the small hill was a narrow path, and on impulse, I headed up it in search of my prey. The footsteps of my soldiers sounded behind me, their boots crunching in the gravel.

Who was that guy? And why was he here now? Was he one of the bandits? I hadn’t seen him in the fight. Was he some sort of spy, perhaps, which was why he’d come to my house and-

Snick. Snick. Two arrows came out of nowhere as we reached the crest of a hill. Each one hit one of my soldiers in the chest, dropping them to the ground. I came to a screeching halt, waiting for my arrow, peering around the trees for the mystery gentry to reveal himself.

But he didn’t.

Art did.

He smiled, stepping forward. “Eugenie, nice to see you again. You’ve been very busy around here, I hear.” He waved vaguely toward where I’d come from, though my people were nowhere in sight. Eugenie, I thought, you are a fucking moron. Beyond Art, I saw the gentry I’d chased emerge from the cover, along with two others-all wearing leather armor like Jasmine had described. They carried bows and wore red shirts under the armor.

“Roland called me last night and nearly bit my head off about getting you involved in gentry politics.” Art shook his head, amused. “I wonder what he’d say if he only knew just how involved you were-your majesty.”

I was exhausted as hell and devoid of magic. But-I was still human and not without human implements. The gun was still in my hand, and I jerked it up toward him. I needed to distract him until some of my own people came. Fuck. I shouldn’t have come rushing up this hill, even if I had had the sense to bring some backup. The question now was, would the rest of my people notice I was gone? Usually, I could hardly step outside the castle’s door without a dozen people in tow.

Art tsked me. “Would you really do it? Would you really kill one of your own kind? Or are we even your own kind?”

Magic suddenly filled the air-familiar magic. Shamanic magic. It encircled me like fog, thick and heavy. Forgetting Art, I turned abruptly around, toward the sound of words being chanted-words I knew by heart. Abigail was standing there, wand in hand.

And so help me, she was banishing me.

I felt her will shove up against mine, just as I’d grappled with the demons. The world around me began to tear open as a vortex started to pull my essence apart. I fought it, fought it with every ounce of strength I had-but there was just none left to give.

When it came to traveling the worlds, crossroads and gateways were the way to go. They made for a smooth transition. Or, one could travel like I often did, journeying to some item imbued with your essence, an item that couldn’t help but draw your soul to it.

And rarely, if you had the strength, you could tear open a gateway by force and shove your way into another world. That wasn’t recommended. It hurt like hell. And essentially, that’s what a banishing was-only it wasn’t your choice. It was someone ripping you out of the world and shoving you into another.

I felt the fabric of this world open up, felt the unstoppable pull of another. I couldn’t fight it. I tried. I kicked, I screamed, but I was too weak. I felt like I was shattering into a million pieces, sucked into a whirlwind…

…and then, I was gone.

I woke up with a headache even worse than the one I’d gotten shooting tequila on the night of Luisa’s birth. Pain thudded to a steady drumbeat in my head, though at the same time, my senses felt foggy as a boring plaster ceiling slowly came into focus above me. Nausea welled up in my stomach, and I worried I was going to get sick. It had happened the last time I’d come crashing through the worlds.

And speaking of the worlds…where was I? Easy enough to figure out, my groggy brain quickly realized. I’d been pulled out from the Otherworld, which meant I could either have been sent to the Underworld or the human world. The fact that I was still alive indicated I’d gone onto the latter. Why on earth would Abigail summon me to-fuck. There it was: the nausea again. I bit my lip and tried to sit up, not wanting to choke on my own vomit.

Only, when I tried to rise, I didn’t get very far. My hands were stretched above my head, tied to the headboard of the bed I lay on. No, not tied-cuffed. Cuffed with heavy steel, industrial-strength handcuffs. Bound or no, I did manage some semblance of sitting, just as my stomach betrayed me. A bowl got shoved under my face right at that moment, and I was grateful to spare the bedding and my clothes. I threw up twice before my benefactor gently asked, “Any more?”

“I don’t think so.”

I squinted up and found myself looking into the face of a young girl, heavily freckled and brown-haired, with a nose a bit too small for the rest of her facial features. She was still cute enough, though, and-she was a gentry. For a moment, I wondered if I’d gotten confused about the banishment. Was I still in the Otherworld? No. This was definitely the human world. I could sense it. There was a way that magic hung in the air-or, rather, didn’t hang in the air around here.

The girl took the bowl away and returned with a damp cloth. She wiped my face with it and then my mouth. A moment later, she returned with a glass of water, which I drank gratefully. All of her movements were gentle and graceful.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Cariena.”

“That’s really pretty. Where am I, Cariena?” I asked, tugging at the handcuffs. Those things weren’t going to budge.