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“If you could borrow my regular fire, then you could also use my truth-seeking flames, couldn’tyou?”
She considered me. “Yes.”
“Then use them on me like I did on you, before.” The corner of my mouth curled up in a slight smile. “It’s only fair,right?”
For the second time in this meeting, she stared at me as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. Then she collected herself. “You’ll need to shift back into your human form for me to questionyou.”
“Of course. Are youready?”
She moved back a couple steps. I tugged off my dress, my pulse racing now. I was giving her the opportunity to ask me anything, and I’d have to answer honestly. Who knew what vulnerabilities I had that she might exploit, that I wasn’t preparedfor?
But I was asking a lot from her people. I had to give in return. And this was the best I couldoffer.
I was dragon shifter of the shifter kin, and I would not beafraid.
I shifted as quickly as I comfortably could. As always, the flames of my twin fires tickled the back of my dragon throat. I reached toward the violet ones and let them flow down mythroat.
I didn’t blast them at the monarch the way I had when she’d been trying to march away from me last time. Instead I let them drift down toward her gently. She’d already raised her hands as if to catch them. And that’s what she did. As the violet haze reached her hands, she seemed to ball it between her palms, collectingit.
After a moment, she nodded. I closed my mouth and shifted back, bracing myself for theinterrogation.
The monarch’s shimmer flared brighter. She pushed her hands toward me, and the violet flames streamed from hergrasp.
They shot up over me from foot to head with a tight, prickling pressure. Okay, this wasn’t being burned alive, but it was pretty far from pleasant. Something to keep in mind when I decided who to apply these flames to in thefuture.
I couldn’t move out of them, couldn’t convince my body to do anything except stand there, pinned. And to answer her questions as she askedthem.
“Why have you come to me today?” shesaid.
My mouth opened automatically. The words spilled out, beyond my control. That was fine. I didn’t fight theprocess.
“Because I’m afraid the vampires will destroy my people, and I think working with the fae is our best chance of survival. And because I would like to form a new alliance, with more trust and friendship between us, if that’spossible.”
“What will you do if we join you in fighting thevampires?”
“Offer whatever power I can for you to use where I can’t be myself. And any other support you need to helpus.”
“And after the fighting is over, if we’ve defeated thevampires?”
“I want to talk about how we can move forward. How to heal the damage we’ve done to each other in the past. How to adapt to the ways our world has changedtogetherinstead of clashing with each other somuch.”
She paused. “Do you want revenge for your mother’sdeath?”
My eyes heated at the thought of Mom’s death, but the answer came immediately. “No.”
“Whynot?”
“Because you already punished the fae who murdered her. And I understand why you felt threatened by us, enough that you hadn’t punished them before. And I know my kin have looked the other way when your kin have been killed by our carelessness. I’d rather find a way to move forward from all that. I think that’s what my mother would have wantedtoo.”
I hadn’t even realized that last part, but it was true. I might not have known Mom as a dragon shifter for very long, but she’d always taught me to see all sides of a problem, to remember that my perspective wasn’t the only one. To find ways to make something good out of anysituation.
The monarch dropped her hands. The flames sputtered away into the air. I stumbled forward before catching my balance. A sweat had broken out on myforehead.
“Does that satisfy you?” Iasked.
Her expression had gone unreadable again. “I asked everything I wantedto.”
“And what you did there, you could do the same with my burning flames, aiming them at thevampires.”
