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it stood cacti in all shapes and sizes, some of them small and squat and some tall and foreboding like sentries.

Almost all of them were blooming.

A chill ran down my spine as I stared at the flowers on the cacti. They formed a brilliantly colored perimeter, right around where I'd been meditating, the petals in all shapes and sizes. The flowers were beautiful. Exquisite.

And none of them had been there earlier.

Chapter 20

I didn't know what the flowers meant. Nothing like that had ever happened when I'd meditated in the Thorn Land. Over the next few days, I just kept thinking about what Rurik had said, that no other monarch save my father had ruled more than one kingdom in recent history. It had taken great power and magic for me to exert my dominance over the lands.... Were they feeding it back to me in return? I certainly felt stronger with them, but I'd never expected any sort of unconscious physical manifestation. What else was I capable of? What could I make the land do?

I didn't mention the matter to anyone, not even Kiyo. He'd seen the red flowers but brushed them off. If I told him about the Thorn Land, I feared he'd grow upset about the thought of my magic increasing. He grudgingly accepted what I already possessed but still feared it would turn me into my father, no heir needed.

And although I'd felt physically better in the Otherworld, I grew weak again after a day or so back in Tucson. I didn't mention this to Kiyo either, but Jasmine was around enough to pick up on it.

"Are they calling to you again?" she asked over breakfast one day. She was devouring Pop-Tarts, another love we apparently shared. I was too worried to have an appetite and simply watched. "You look like crap."

"I don't know," I said, drumming my fingers against a glass of water. "There's no precedent for this - at least not anymore. No one knows what to expect from me having two kingdoms."

"I bet Dorian would know."

I bet he would too, but I shook my head. "He's not all-knowing no matter how much he wants to be," I countered. "And I'm done with him."

"Okay." She didn't fight it. For a while, she'd kept telling me I'd made a mistake in breaking up with Dorian, but Kiyo had been growing on her. I still wasn't sure if she approved, but at least I didn't have to listen to teen advice about my love life anymore. "But you might just have to go back soon. I mean, think about it. You're bound to two lands in the Otherworld. Aren't the lands and the monarch one? Part of you's there. It makes sense you'd have to be there twice as much."

I winced at the idea, though it had been on my mind too. "If I were there any more, I'd be living there permanently."

She swallowed the last of some crust. "You may not have a choice."

Her flippant tone irritated me. "There's always a choice. I rule them. They don't rule me." I stood up abruptly and briefly became dizzy. It felt like the lands were mocking me. Damn it, I thought. You will not call me back so quickly. I'm staying in this world for a while. I'll come and go when I please. "I just need to stop thinking about it. I'm going to see if Lara's got a job."

"Yeah," said Jasmine dryly. "That'll fix everything."

Lara did have a job for me, several actually. Even though she was all but living with Tim - in my house - she still kept meticulous records and took all my calls. She looked disappointed that I only accepted one from her growing list of jobs, a small one at that: a simple haunting that would probably take about five minutes. She said nothing, but I knew that she worried if I didn't make any money, she wouldn't either. So, remembering Enrique's comment about needing help but not being able to trust anyone, I gave her his card with the suggestion she call about part-time work.

"Are you firing me?" she asked.

I smiled as I gathered up all my weapons. "No, but I want you to have a backup plan in case you get laid off." Her eyes widened in alarm at the joke. Or, I suddenly wondered, was it a joke?

I brought Jasmine with me to the job because I still felt uneasy about leaving her alone. Besides, she was