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My breath was quickening. IfIdidn’t do it, someone else would have to do it. And leaving it to the Crimson Court tochoose the next High Lord or Lady from their midst was a guarantee for trouble, the easiest way to have another war on our doorsteps before the end of the century – which meant I’d have to choose someone myself. Someone I trusted, preferably.

But there weren’t that many fae who answered that description, and somehow I suspected my mother would be unhappy if I were to send Agenor back to the court she’d so narrowly escaped.

Gods help me. It was too bloody powerful, the empire, that was half the trouble; a single nymph isle or alf house, no matter how inept their rulers, could never cause a fraction of the havoc the Mother had caused over the last few centuries. But for some reason, the fae had to be united in that massive block of power at the south of the archipelago, and—

Wait.

Imade the rules now.

So if I didn’t like the empire in its current state and shape …

‘What if we split it up?’ I blurted.

Only once I noticed Creon’s blank stare did I realise he had not necessarily been witness to the past three seconds of my whirling mind.

‘The empire,’ I added, suddenly breathless. Insanity, and yet … spoken out loud, it didn’t sound like insanity at all. It sounded like brilliance. ‘The courts. What if we separated them – turned them into three independent kingdoms rather than the decorative entities they are now?’

He blinked at me. ‘I suppose you could, but—'

‘No, listen.Listen.’ It seemed my lips did the thinking now; I barely knew my thoughts myself until I heard them, in a voice that was my own and a stranger’s at once. ‘There were three fae peoples originally, yes? There’s no bloody reason there needs to be one empire at all – it’s far too dangerous, far too much ofa threat to everyone else. So what if we divide the whole thing again, appoint a different ruler to each court …’

His eyes had narrowed, the first sparks of interest sharpening the lines of his face. ‘You’d have to find three people you’re willing to trust, though.’

I shrugged. ‘Agenor could get the Golden Court.’

‘Ah.’ He seemed a fraction annoyed he hadn’t thought of it himself. ‘Of course. Still, the—'

‘And then,’ I continued, too absorbed in my own thoughts to listen as the next idea appeared, uncoiled, and settled in my mind within the time it took to draw a breath, ‘we could take the Cobalt Court for ourselves.’

He went quiet.

Acutely, utterly quiet.

‘I know it’s not much of a court right now.’ The words hurried over my lips like an anxious crowd – desperate to explain, to plead my case, before he could cut in and tell me I’d lost my mind. ‘But it’s a very pretty place and you don’t have terrible memories of it – you’d never even been there until a few weeks ago, yes? So we could spend the next few centuries rebuilding it exactly the way we like. With an icehouse. And a library. And … and we could build you an observatory and adopt an army of cats, and our friends could come visit us whenever they liked and—’

‘Yes,’ he said quietly.

Nothing else.

Just that one word, earnest and breathless, and all of a sudden I’d run out of things to say – of things tothink.

‘Yes?’ I managed, and it felt like a sacred vow on my tongue.

‘Yes.’ A smile tugged at his lips this time – a smile that made my knees feel wobbly even as I sat firmly in the grass. ‘How many times are you planning to say it back to me before you believe me?’

My laugh slipped out like the idea itself had done, there and out in the world before I’d had a chance to look at it twice. ‘It’s just that it’s a little … sudden, isn’t it? You might want to think about it for more than half a second before you agree to anything.’

He shrugged. ‘I once decided in the span of roughly three seconds I was going to drag you home with me, if you recall. I’m not going to be the one to object here.’

Right.

That dazzlingly quick fae mind again.

‘A bout of improvised kidnapping that could admittedly have turned out worse,’ I said, aiming for lightness and reaching none of it through the landslides of my thoughts.

‘Best decision of my life,’ he corrected softly. ‘So I’m not too worried about rushed choices here, to tell you the truth. We just need to work out …’

‘What in the world we should do with the Crimson Court?’