don’t care if I’m sarcastic or don’t act like the perfect, genteel enchantress. I’m done with this farce, and after all of the chaos of the past few years, I know the Conclave isn’t going to do anything to reprimand me anyway.
“Oh, dear.” Angelique slapped a hand to her cheek and spoke in the deadest of tones she could muster. “Whatever will I do?”
Rein leaned back in his saddle and glanced at Blanche. The way he hunched his shoulders spoke just how uncomfortable he felt—which Angelique took more than a little glee in.
Blanche, however, was gawking at Angelique. Not like one who was frightened, more as a person who’d just received a great shock. “You…what?” She shook her head as if she couldn’t understand. “You’ve changed.”
“I do feel freer,” Angelique said. “Thank you for noticing.”
“That wasn’t a compliment,” Blanche snapped.
Angelique clicked her tongue. “Now that hurt my feelings,” she said in a tone so sorrowful it was an obvious farce.
Blanche stopped trembling and instead mashed her lips together—as if Angelique’s careless attitude sparked something more similar to irritation in her rather than the fear she’d previously displayed.
“You’re going to become a menace,” Rein said.
“What, because I don’t use pretty smiles and say pretty things to cover up ugly truths?” Angelique asked.
“You’ve lost your mind—and your pride as a magic user. We’re called to be better than this! To act with respect and good manners.”
“Nah.” Angelique casually rested a hand on Pegasus’ shoulder. “It’s merely that I don’t care what you think, so I have no incentive to use respect and good manners.”
It surprised Angelique when she felt the truth of the statement in her core.
I really don’t care anymore.
Not about the Conclave, not about how other mages perceive me. It doesn’t matter.
“Why should you act respectful when they’re being downright shameful, anyway?” Odette asked—surprising the mage pair.
“Indeed.” Quinn rested her hand on her belt quiver, and Fluffy’s eyes seemed to glow in the morning sunlight as he stomped a hoof. “Mages always seemed courteous—to the public, anyway. It’s a pity to see what they’re really like.”
Rein narrowed his eyes. “And who are you?”
“I’d choose your tone a bit more carefully,” Odette called out in a sing-song voice. “That’s Quinn of Midnight Lake, the future queen of the elves, you’re scowling at.”
“She’s—what?” Rein squinted at Quinn, then whipped his gaze back to Angelique. “Then why is she traveling with you?”
“Because we’re close friends.” Quinn nudged Fluffy closer to Pegasus, and together the two magical mounts loomed over Rein and Blanche. “And this is Odette, Head of the Black Swan Smugglers and soon-to-be princess of Kozlovka.”
Rein’s mouth slid open, like a barn door flapping in the breeze. Blanche’s face looked like it was carved from stone.
Hmm. They are genuinely shocked. Did they really think the rest of the continent held me in the same contempt mages did? It doesn’t matter. Odette is leaving today, and I’m not going to waste our remaining time subjecting us to their vitriol.
“Seeing how you have nothing useful to say, you should run along now,” Angelique said.
“You’re dismissing us?” Blanche said—the octave of her voice going higher.
“Your arrogance knows no end,” Rein snarled.
Feeling more than a little like Clovicus, Angelique flapped her hand at them. “How cute you both are. But I’m tiring of your charms. Now run along, shoo.”
The two mages didn’t move—they appeared to be too startled to do anything but continue to stare.
Angelique sighed. “Fine. Then it shall be us who take our leave from you.”
Pegasus started walking before Angelique had even finished speaking, and Fluffy stayed shoulder-to-shoulder with him.
Together—with their long strides and fast pace—the two magical mounts left the weather mages behind, rapidly putting distance between them.
Quinn twisted at the torso to hook her bow back on Fluffy’s rump—Angelique hadn’t noticed the soldier had even gotten it freed until then. She watched behind them for several steps before untwisting. “They’re not following us.”
“They have no reason to,” Angelique said. “They don’t like me—they legitimately fear me.”
“I’m not so sure,” Odette said. “At least, I don’t think they fear you quite the way they’ve led you to believe.”
“What do you mean?” Angelique asked.
Odette settled both of her arms around Angelique’s waist as she thought. “I think they treat you so poorly because it’s a way to control you. Rothbart tried to intimidate us Black Swan Smugglers every once in a while—I thought he just liked making us scared. But I think it’s more that he wanted to make sure we’d dislike him and