Vespera turned back toward the inn.

  Her hands were tight around what was left of her rings—two circles again, but not whole.

  One sat repaired enough to wear.

  The other was still shattered, edges jagged where power had torn through it.

  She didn’t let anyone see the shake in her fingers.

  “I need time,” Vespera said.

  The words were for Seraphine.

  For the room.

  For the board.

  But the promise under them was only for one person.

  Then, under her breath—so low it barely counted as sound—

  “I’m coming for you, Derpy.”

  She swallowed.

  A dragon always knew where her contract was.

  Even if the contract was simple.

  Even if it was stupid.

  Even if it hurt.

  The corridor outside the war room was colder than the main hall.

  Not from winter.

  From tension.

  Vespera followed it like a thread.

  At the far end, a door sat half-closed.

  Light leaked out in thin strips.

  And inside—

  Seraphine.

  The fan in her hand moved in a steady rhythm.

  Open.

  Close.

  Open.

  Close.

  Like she was counting seconds.

  Like she was keeping herself from doing something worse.

  Vespera paused at the threshold.

  Seraphine didn’t look up.

  She didn’t need to.

  “This world is full of wonders,” Seraphine said, voice smooth as polished steel.

  The fan snapped shut.

  Then opened again.

  “And one of them is how long you think you can keep spying on me, dragon girl.”

  A beat.

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  Seraphine’s gaze shifted—sharp, direct.

  “And how long you plan to pretend you’re asleep.”

  The bed in the corner wasn’t empty.

  A figure sat up slowly, hair spilling forward.

  A wing—torn, ragged at the edge—shifted with her movement.

  Queen.

  Not a title.

  A codename.

  Vespera felt the room change around it.

  Queen’s eyes tracked Seraphine first.

  Then drifted to Vespera.

  Queen exhaled.

  “I was hoping long enough,” Queen said, voice dry, “that I wouldn’t have to see her.”

  Seraphine’s fan stilled for half a second.

  Then resumed.

  “Miss Seraphine,” Queen added, like the honorific was a blade she refused to pick up.

  Vespera stepped in, careful.

  “I’m sorry to intrude, Your Majesty,” Vespera said, formal out of habit. “I was going to check on my sister.”

  Seraphine’s gaze flicked between them.

  Then narrowed.

  “I didn’t know there was a third sister,” Seraphine said.

  Her tone wasn’t surprise.

  It was calculation.

  “I thought there were only two.”

  The fan snapped shut.

  “Ace and Queen.”

  Seraphine’s eyes sharpened.

  “And you expect me to believe they kept that from me.”

  She tilted her head, the performance of injury sliding into place.

  “My own Sinister Seven keeping secrets from their Queen.”

  Queen’s posture tightened.

  Not fear.

  Something older.

  Vespera didn’t let Seraphine pull the room into her orbit.

  She crossed to the bed and wrapped her arms around Queen.

  Queen froze.

  Then, slowly, her shoulders loosened.

  Vespera held her anyway.

  “You left with our sister,” Vespera said into her hair. “You worried half the dragons in the valley.”

  Queen’s breath hitched.

  “They waited,” Vespera continued. “They waited for you and Ace to come home. And you never did.”

  Queen’s hands clenched in the blanket.

  Vespera pulled back just enough to look at her.

  “Finally,” Vespera said, “Kempy and Penny asked me to come looking for you. To bring you home.”

  Queen’s eyes lowered.

  Vespera’s throat tightened.

  “But I made a contract with a human,” she admitted. “Derpy.”

  Seraphine’s fan stopped.

  Vespera forced the words out anyway.

  “Because he holds our calamity dragon book. Celica’s Embers.”

  A pause.

  Then, quieter.

  “I guess I’m stupid.”

  Seraphine leaned against the doorframe like she had all night.

  “Oh,” she said. “So you’re bound to him.”

  Her eyes cut sideways.

  “And he’s bound to you.”

  Vespera didn’t correct her.

  Because it was worse.

  “It’s not equal,” Vespera said.

  Seraphine’s fan opened again.

  “Of course it isn’t.”

  Queen’s gaze lifted.

  “What were the terms?” Queen asked.

  Vespera swallowed.

  “First,” she said, “I have to teach him magic. Actual control.”

  Queen didn’t interrupt.

  Vespera continued.

  “Second—everything the party does is a group choice. Everything comes to a vote.”

  Seraphine’s eyes narrowed slightly.

  Vespera kept going.

  “Unless someone goes off alone. Then it doesn’t apply. If you break off alone, you choose your own consequences.”

  Queen’s expression shifted—subtle, unreadable.

  Vespera’s jaw tightened.

  “Third,” she said, “I have to wear normal clothing.”

  A beat.

  “And he wanted to see me in a maid dress.”

  Queen’s eyes widened.

  Seraphine’s fan paused.

  Then resumed, faster.

  Vespera didn’t stop.

  “And the one that made me falter against both of you—”

  Her fingers tightened around the shattered ring.

  “I’m not allowed to use my full power in cities or nearby. Only seventy-five percent.”

  Queen’s eyes brightened.

  Not kindness.

  Interest.

  “The great Vespera,” Queen said, voice edged with something that almost sounded like relief, “following orders from a human.”

  “And wearing a maid outfit.”

  Seraphine’s mouth pulled slightly.

  “A sight,” she said.

  Queen’s shoulders shook once.

  A sound escaped her—raw, brief.

  Then it cracked into pain as she reached for her torn wing.

  “Ah—”

  Vespera moved instantly.

  “You did a number, sis,” Vespera murmured.

  Queen’s voice came out tight.

  “I’m not sure I can fly for a while.”

  “Not quite,” Vespera said.

  She reached toward the torn wing.

  Her magic didn’t flare.

  It didn’t announce itself.

  It threaded.

  Careful.

  Precise.

  The tear sealed down to a thin, stubborn line.

  Not perfect.

  But closed.

  Queen flexed slowly.

  Then looked at Vespera like she didn’t know what to do with gratitude.

  She leaned forward and held her sister.

  Vespera let her.

  “I don’t know how to thank you,” Queen said.

  “You don’t,” Vespera answered. “You just come home.”

  Queen didn’t respond.

  Vespera pulled back.

  “Have you and Ace come visit the valley,” she said. “They miss you.”

  Queen’s gaze drifted away.

  “I’ll think about it,” she said.

  Seraphine’s fan snapped shut.

  “Thinking is a luxury,” she said.

  Vespera didn’t look at her.

  Not yet.

  Because the promise was still sitting in her chest like a weight.

  Derpy.

  Contract.

  Debt.

  The room held for one more breath.

  Then the scene broke.

  Thread pulled tight.

  And somewhere else—

  Derpy.

  And Mk.3.

  A conversation beginning in a place that didn’t want witnesses.

  And the chapter ended.