Ruby stood frozen, quivering with fury. The guards standing between her and the thrones had their shoulders hunched, a kind of shame sketched in the shape of their wings. But she wasn’t glaring at them or even at Scarlet. The full force of her anger was directed at Peril, who stood a step behind the prince.

“If you touch him —” Ruby choked out. “If you dare —”

“She won’t unless I tell her to,” said the queen imperiously. “But believe me, she will, the moment I give the order.”

Huh, Peril thought. Would I? If I still had firescales … and Scarlet ordered me to burn the prince … what would I do?

He’s so little.

And I don’t kill dragons anymore, rang a different kind of note inside Peril’s mind, familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

She blinked. Don’t I? Why not?

“I knew it,” Ruby spat. “I knew you couldn’t be trusted, you firescales monster.”

“I’m just following orders,” Peril protested. “She was queen first, you know. And she didn’t banish me or wish me dead, unlike some dragons. I don’t know why you’d expect me to be loyal to you instead.”

“I don’t want your loyalty!” Ruby shouted. “But this — threatening innocent dragonets? Helping her, after everything? That’s not exactly the great peaceful new dragon you were claiming to be, is it? I knew you were lying. You have always been the reason for everything that’s wrong with the Sky Kingdom.”

“Me?” Peril cried, astonished. Ruby really did hate her more than anyone else; Peril wasn’t just being paranoid. But why? “I just do what I’m told! Like everyone else! I kill Queen Scarlet’s enemies, that’s all! What did I ever do to you?”

“Excuse me,” said Queen Scarlet from the top of her throne. “I feel like we’re getting off topic. I’m the one who’s here to take back the kingdom.”

“Those eggs on the brightest night,” Ruby said, clutching the floor. Behind her, Peril saw several of her guards nodding, frowning, remembering something awful and hating Peril for it when Peril couldn’t even remember it herself … or could she? She saw a flash of white eggshells turning to black between her talons, here in this very room.

What did I do? What did Scarlet make me do?

“And my sister,” Ruby hissed. “Do you even remember her, among the hundreds of dragons you’ve killed?”

Peril stared at her for a long moment, wracking her brain. “No,” she said finally. “Who?”

Ruby shrieked a long scream of rage, so apparently that was the wrong thing to say.

But high up on her cloud throne, Queen Scarlet was laughing.

“Oh, Ruby,” she said, shaking her head. “Ruby, you empty-headed princess. Is that what you’ve thought all these years? Have you been hating my poor little champion for the one terrible thing she actually didn’t do?”

A blistering hush swept over the throne room. Ruby was looking at her mother now, confusion starting to ebb between the lines of fury in her expression.

“What?” she said finally.

“Peril didn’t kill Tourmaline,” Queen Scarlet said airily. “She’s not even dead, actually.”

“She’s not?” said Ruby. “Where is she?”

“Let’s try to focus, shall we?” said the queen. “I’m here for my throne. Thank you for keeping it warm for me, but it’s time to give it back.”

“Mommy,” Cliff called. “Mommy, I have to tell you something. Mommy! Grandma is kind of mean.”

“I know, sweetheart, don’t worry,” Ruby said. She clenched her jaw, fixing her eyes on her mother again. “You can’t have the throne back. You can’t just saunter in here and claim it after being gone for months. A queen who abandons her throne has abdicated it forever.”

“Oh, really?” Scarlet said. “I don’t believe this question has ever come up in the Sky Kingdom before. So where did that convenient rule come from?”

Ruby lifted her chin, her eyes burning. “I decreed it. As queen.”

“Aha. I sssee,” said Scarlet. She leaned over the edge of her throne, arching her neck as a little burst of flames curled from her nose. “Then as queen, I undecree it. What are you going to do about that?”

“I am the queen,” Ruby said firmly. “And you can’t challenge me for it. Only sisters, daughters —”

“Yes yes yes blah blah blah,” Scarlet said, waving one talon in the air. “But my dear, you can quote rules at me all day long and it won’t change one particular important fact. I have your son.”

Ruby looked down at Prince Cliff again. He waved timidly, and she made a little gesture with her shoulders, which seemed to be a quiet signal to sit up and look brave, because that was what he did next.

Peril felt a brief, wild impulse to pick up the dragonet and throw him to the safety of his mother’s arms. I can’t do that. That would really ruin everything for my queen.

But is it the right thing to do? came that strange whisper again, as though her mind was haunted by some other version of herself. She poked one claw into her ear, scratching as if she could drag it out and examine it.

“So really there’s only one question,” said Queen Scarlet with all the self-important glee that had ever been mustered in Pyrrhia. “Which would you rather have — the throne or your dragonet?”

“Your Majesty,” said one of the dragons behind Ruby, and it took Peril a moment to realize he was talking to Ruby and not Scarlet. “We can fight. We will fight for you. Your supporters outnumber hers and we’re more loyal.”

“I know,” said Ruby. “But a hundred thousand SkyWings still couldn’t save Cliff in the next minute, if my mother sets her creature on him.” Peril felt the sting of Ruby’s bitterness from across the room, the confirmation that once again, Peril had ruined everything for her.

I’m just being who I am, Peril thought.

Although I’m not a creature anymore, actually. I’m only pretending to be dangerous for Queen Scarlet. So I’m not really being my new self at all.

But I promised to be loyal to her. Isn’t that an important part of me?

So why haven’t I been?

Something was shaking at the corners of Peril’s brain, shaking and tugging and pulling and trying to come loose, but she couldn’t sink her teeth into it … she couldn’t remember …

“All right,” Ruby said to Queen Scarlet. “You win. If you promise me that Cliff will be safe — I’ll give up my kingdom.”

“No!” exploded one of Ruby’s soldiers, stumbling forward. To Peril’s surprise, he was not a SkyWing — he was a MudWing, skinny and tired-looking and spattered with dirt.

“Peril,” he said, holding out his talons beseechingly. “What are you doing? You don’t want this. Nobody wants this. What would Clay think?”

Peril tilted her head at him. The thing in her mind was really flapping now, but it still didn’t have a shape or anything useful that she could pin down.

“Clay?” she echoed. “Who’s that?”