THORN QUEEN

I looked at Davros. “Can you guys turn this into a well?” I certainly hoped so because I sure as hell had no idea how to do it. I imagined it involved stones and a bucket, but maybe that was just my naïve fairy-tale images.

His head bobbed eagerly. “Yes, yes, your majesty. Thank you, your majesty.”

After that, it was nearly impossible to leave. I was regarded as a miracle worker. I was no longer the tyrant queen. I was their savior, the generous and wonderful monarch who had brought life to their land. I declined their pleas to stay and celebrate but told them I’d be back with other ways to save their town. Admittedly, I had no idea what that would entail, but mentioning such a minor detail would have seriously brought down everyone’s mood.

When we were finally mounted up and able to head out, I suddenly felt a tug on my shoe. Surprised, I looked down and saw a middle-aged man gazing up at me. A similarly aged woman stood close beside him.

“How dare you touch the queen!” gasped Davros. From his face, it looked like he was seriously afraid I might level the town.

I waved him off. “It’s okay.”

The man who’d pulled my leg regarded me pleadingly. “Please, your majesty. My wife and I have a boon to ask of you!”

“That’s a favor or a request,” said Rurik helpfully.

“I know what a boon is,” I snapped. I looked back down at the couple, unwilling to make any promises yet. “What is it?”

The man put his arm around the woman. “We’ve heard that you’re both a great warrior and a great magic user.”

“And clearly kind and compassionate,” added his wife.

“And?” I asked.

“And very beautiful and-”

“No,” I exclaimed. “I mean, what’s your boon?”

“Our daughter has been taken,” the woman said, eyes filling with tears. “We beg you to help us get her back.”

“Whoa. That might be a little beyond my reach,” I told them. “When you say taken, do you mean, like, kidnapped?”

They both nodded, and I was swept by a strange sense of déjà vu. I’d first stumbled into this Otherworldly mess when I’d been hired in the human world to also find a missing girl. The girl had turned out to be Jasmine, though I’d had no clue at the time that she was half-gentry, let alone my sister. Was my life destined to be filled with missing girls?

Davros stepped forward, looking upset and embarrassed. “Your majesty, please ignore them for troubling you with something so meaningless. Their daughter was not taken by anyone. She ran off to Highmore with her lover from a neighboring village.”

I glanced at Shaya and Rurik. “What’s Highmore?”

“Really?” asked Rurik dryly. “I thought you already knew everything.”

I glared at him.

“It’s a city,” said Shaya. “The largest in this kingdom.”

“Wait, what? I have cities?” I asked, feeling my eyes go wide. The distraught couple interrupted my new revelation.

“Davros is wrong,” the woman said. “Our daughter did not run off. She was taken by the bandits who live in the passes.”

“Everyone knows they’re there,” added the man. He eyed Davros. “Them and their beasts. Even you won’t deny their existence. They’ve been there for years, and she isn’t the first girl to disappear.”

I turned to Davros. “Is that true?”

He shifted uncomfortably under my gaze. “Well, yes, your majesty, but such brigands are nothing you need to concern yourself about, just as King Aeson did not.”

“Wait. Aeson knew there were bandits going after you guys and didn’t do anything?”

“Such petty concerns were beneath him,” said Davros. To my astonishment, he seemed to believe that.

“I don’t know,” I said slowly. “If a monarch doesn’t take care of that kind of thing, I’m not really sure what they’re supposed to do.”

Truthfully, I didn’t want to deal with this any more than I wanted any other Thorn Land responsibilities. But the mention of Aeson had stirred my blood. Aeson had been a self-serving asshole, and it pissed me off that he would have left these people to fend for themselves. The only thing I wanted less than to be a ruler was to be a ruler like him.

Furthermore, the same fury that Jasmine’s abduction had stirred in me flared up. Maybe it was my own experience with always being chased down by aggressive men, but I hated the thought of any girl facing rape or abduction. It didn’t matter that these were gentry girls and not humans. The principle was the same. Brigands and thieves taking advantage of young girls, of preying on those weaker, had to be stopped.

“I’ll send people to take care of these bandits,” I said finally. Behind me, Rurik made a strange sound. “But I can’t make any guarantees about your daughter.”

The couple’s faces lit up, and they fell to the ground in gratitude. “Thank you, your majesty!” the woman cried.

Her husband chimed in. “Truly you are generous and magnanimous and-”

“Yeah, okay, there’s no need for that,” I said hastily. “Or to kneel. You’re going to get all dirty.”

We had just started to ride away when Shaya leaned toward me. “You’ve made a lot of promises today.”

I thought about it. She was right. I’d promised to help them get food, rebuild their infrastructure, and rid themselves of those who preyed upon them. “Yeah. I guess I did.”

She gave me a bemused look. “And how are you going to accomplish all of this?”

I glanced around us, noting that the faces watching us leave town were no longer blank and afraid. They were grateful and adoring. I sighed.

“That,” I told her, “is an excellent question.”

Chapter Five

I fully intended to make good on my promises, and in Tucson the next day, I began acquiring an odd assortment of goods that I hoped might improve the Thorn Land’s situation. Admittedly, they were kind of lame, but I figured I had to start somewhere and was rather proud of my attempts when I finished.

I was sitting down in front of the TV with an early di

“I would have been here sooner,” he said, tossing the coat onto a chair. “But I had an afternoon shift.”

“Hey, I’m just happy to see you at all. I figured you’d still be busy with baby stuff.”

“Nope.” He sat down in a chair opposite me and laid the bouquet down on the coffee table. “You were amazing there, you know.”

“If by amazing, you mean shoddily dressed and leading on gentry princes-then, yes. Yes, I was. What are those for?” I gestured with my fork to the flowers-an arrangement of brightly colored gerbera daisies.

“Do I need a reason? Aside from you being awesome?”

I swallowed the piece of ravioli I’d just chewed. “Of course there’s a reason. There’s always a reason. We’ve talked about this before.”

He gave me a lazy, dangerous smile, propping his head up on his elbow as his dark eyes assessed me. “Right. Standard practices in courtship and mating. Gifts given as subtle suggestions. ‘Here, take these plant sex organs.’ Hint, hint.” It was an old joke between us.

“Fortunately, in your case, you don’t need to be that subtle. I already know you want sex.”

“True, but I wanted to clear up any doubts. Besides, you’ve been so great lately…I don’t know. I just wanted to do something nice. Figured we could have a fun night-although, you’re dashing my dreams of taking you out to di

“Sorry,” I said through a mouthful of food. “I’ve got a job tonight, so I had to eat early.”

His eyebrows rose. “What kind of raw deal is this? I get off work so I can take you out on the town, and you’ve got to go into work now? Why can’t you have Lara schedule you day jobs?”