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I snatched the phone out of his hand. “You’re a hard man to get an appointment with,” I told him.

He glowered at me in annoyance. “You don’t have an appointment.”

“Yes, exactly my point.” I set a folder on his desk.

“What’s that?” he asked, licking ketchup off his fingers.

“Aspen’s paperwork to join the Princess Games.” I snatched a pen out of the cup on his desk. “We’d like you to notarize it.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re the notary, and it’s your job to notarize things.”

He waved the pen away. “You’re too late. The candidates for the Princess Games have already been selected.”

“Selected perhaps, but not yet announced,” I said. “Which means there’s still time.”

“Time? Time to do what? To change the Committee’s mind?” He laughed. “Once they make up their minds about something, they don’t change them.”

“You let us worry about that. You just sign the documents.” I set his pen on the folder.

“You’re wasting your time.” He made an impatient noise. “And mine.”

“Look, the documents are all there, ready and prepared.” I tapped the folder. “All we need to make them official is your signature.”

“What’s the point? The Committee isn’t even going to look at them.”

“I don’t know about that,” I countered. “I can beverypersuasive.”

He looked me up and down, assessing me. “You’re an angel.”

“A deity actually. Half goddess. Half demon. And all awesome.”

He didn’t look impressed. “How nice for you, but that’s not going to help you here. Why do you think this kingdom is independent and free? Why do you think we don’t worship either gods or demons?”

“I don’t need you to worship me, Mr. Barrens,” I said with a strained smile. “I just need you to sign a piece of paper.”

He ignored me. “We don’t worship gods or demons because your magic tricks don’t work on us. We are strong.” He pounded his chest.

“Nice try, but I know magic works on you guys.”

“Magic, yes. But notyourmagic.”

Gods and demons didn’t like to admit that there were any other kinds of magic than their own, but I wasn’t like other deities. I’d experienced other kinds of magic firsthand, magic that didn’t fall along the usual spectrum.

“I am not signing this.” The notary slid the folder back across the desk to me.

Of course not. I’d hoped he would see reason and do this the easy way, but no one ever did it the easy way. They always forced me to get mean.

“Thank you for your time, Mr. Barrens.” I set his phone on the table, then bowed to him. “We will be back.”

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” he warned me, grabbing his phone.

I gave him one final smirk, then left his office with Aspen. The high-pitched beeps of whatever game he was playing followed us down the hall. As we passed her desk, the receptionist gave us an angry glower and tried to scream her way out of the duct tape.

“That went well,” Aspen said, deflated.

“It was worth a shot, but your people really do like to make things difficult, don’t they?”