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I’ve now visited all the kingdoms and seen all the palaces. This looks like none of them.

“Are you a king?” I ask.

“A king?” he scoffs. “Come now, enchantress, let’s think bigger than kings.”

This dude is such a megalomaniac.

“What is your real name?”

The Thief of Souls cocks his head. “And if I tell you, what then? Will you come storming my castle, seeking to batter down my doors as my soldiers did yours?”

Yes.

He glances away from me, his muscles tensing as he looks off in the distance. The corner of his mouth curls up in amusement.

The Thief relaxes and faces me once more.

“One day I’ll tell you my name,” he says. “When it’s too late.”

Again the Thief’s attention is drawn away. His fingers resume tapping on his armrest. “Someone’s trying to get in,” the Thief says idly. “Why don’t we invite them inside?”

For a moment I see him, like a mirage on the horizon.

“Malaki?”

The general’s form wavers as his gaze moves in my direction. He stares blindly about.

“Callypso? Are you alright?” he asks.

“She was, until now.”

One instant the Thief is sitting on his throne, and in the next he’s in front of me, lifting me by the throat.

“Callypso!” I hear the slide of steel as Malaki unsheathes his sword.

I kick out at the Thief, my claws extending. I don’t bother trying to shred apart the hand choking me; instead I swipe at the Thief’s eyes, ready to gouge them out. My nails sink into soft skin, and warm,blackblood begins to pour out.

Cursing, the Thief tosses me aside.

I laugh, and I’m not ashamed to admit that it sounds creepy as fuck with my glamour riding it.

“The Thief’s hurting worse than I am,” I call out to Malaki, who seems blind to us both.

“You’re going to pay for that,” the Thief says, and the surety in his voice should scare me witless.

Whatever wits I had, they’re long gone now.

I get up, my skin aglow. The siren is riding me hard, and God how we’ve wanted this moment.

Sword brandished, Malaki moves towards me, his eyes still unseeing. “You’ll have to go through me to get to Callypso,” he says to the room.

I get up as the Thief begins to approach Malaki.

“Dreamweaver,” the Thief says, “this is no place for you. Your sentiments might be sweet, but you cannot possibly protect your precious queen. You don’t even know where sheis.”

My wings come out and my golden scales ripple to life across my forearms. I’m as Otherworldly as I ever get.

With a powerful beat of my wings, I leap into the sky, and when I land, it’s in front of the general.