Quinn finished rinsing his hair and when he rose from the water, he was centaur. The top half of his horse body was above the water, his tail swinging.

“A mistake about what?”

“Beatrix.”

He started laughing again and Gemma couldn’t stand it anymore.

“What is so fucking funny?”

“She stabbed her own sister in the gut! For a crown. And you think you made a mistake about her? So the war monks . . . ? Not big readers . . . or thinkers . . . ? You left that to the priests? Maybe the nuns?”

“I just expected her evil to be more . . . obvious.”

“Can you get more obvious than stabbing your sister? Keep in mind that she wasn’t positive she’d become queen. She was just really hoping.”

“Maybe we need to rethink our whole plan.”

“I didn’t know we had a plan. I mean . . . not a specific plan.”

Gripping her hands together, she faced Quinn. “Maybe we should consider joining forces with Beatrix and Marius so we can challenge Cyrus together.”

“Huh,” he said before he waded through the water toward her. Massive, majestic, all four legs moving easily through the water as he made his way over to her. His arms reached down and he grabbed her, lifted her up, and heaved Gemma several feet into the river.

* * *

“Perhaps we made a mistake. Coming here.”

“It’s not like we had many choices, Balla.” Aubin took several hot rolls from a plate and sat down on a bench. None of them were comfortable in this pub, but they’d had little choice. Making themselves at home in the queen’s castle didn’t seem like a good idea at the moment and they didn’t know where any survivors of their own sects might have settled in the town. If any of their colleagues had made it this far.

The pub just seemed like the safest place.

“I think we should still speak with the queen ourselves,” Tadesse remarked, sipping his ale.

“Of course, you do, Assassin. I’m sure you find nothing wrong with that giant woman.”

“My people would adorn her with our finest jewels and silk and beg her to breed with our strongest men so we could harness the mad strength of her oversized babies.”

Balla threw her food down. “And now we know why I’ve happily remained a virgin.”

* * *

By the time Gemma swam back to the surface, Quinn was swimming beside her. All four legs happily moving along in the water.

“What is wrong with you?” she demanded. As she always demanded. Because she had become convinced that he’d been damaged while still in his mother’s womb!

“Nothing. Why do you ask?”

“Why did you toss me into the water?”

“Because you needed a bath and because you were clearly not thinking rationally.”

“What?”

“If your plan is to join forces with Beatrix, you are not thinking rationally, Gemma. Trust me. And swift-moving river water is good for waking up those that have lost their senses, which you clearly have.”

“I have not lost my—”

“Come on!” he cheered. “Let’s wash your hair!”

Then he dunked her again.

“Gods-dammit, Quinn!” she screamed when he finally let her back up.

* * *

“Is anyone else concerned the witches are not here?” Priska asked in the softest voice, shocking Aubin. He didn’t think she was allowed to speak.

Balla looked around the pub. “Weren’t they with us when we walked in?”

“They were,” Ferdinand said. “But you shouldn’t all be so paranoid! I’m sure they’re just looking around this beautiful town! And I’m sure the queen is quite worthy of our loyalty!”

“Could you keep your voice down?” Balla nearly begged while the rest of them cringed. “We are in her territory.”

“Sorry. Sorry. I just feel you’re all overthinking this.”

“Or perhaps you’re not thinking at all,” Léandre sneered, his tolerance for the truce vicar’s cheery countenance waning with each day.

“I’ll just ask someone,” Ferdinand suggested.

“Ask someone what?” Balla demanded.

“How they feel about their queen.”

“Have you lost your mind?”

“We’ll be smart about it.”

“But you’re not smart,” Aubin reminded the vicar. “You’re, in fact, very dumb.”

“There—” He pointed at someone standing at the bar. “I’ll ask that very large young man there.”

“That’s not a man!” Balla whispered desperately as the vicar walked away. “That’s a very large woman!”

* * *

Her chainmail weighed her down but Gemma still wouldn’t let Quinn help her out of the water. Yes! She was being ridiculous, but she didn’t care. She was too angry to be rational.

“Why can’t you be normal?” she raged at him once she’d made it safely back onto land.

“I am normal,” he said, relaxing casually on the ground. He was back in his kilt, his chainmail shirt tossed over his shoulder, unworn boots leaning against his side. His arms rested against his raised knees, his fingers interlaced. “Half man. Half horse. How much more normal can I be?”

He grinned and she wanted to slap that grin off his face.

“Are we rational now?” he asked in the most annoying tone she’d ever heard from him. “Are we having rational, calm thoughts? Or do we need to be dunked again?”

“I should beat you until there’s nothing left but bone!”

“That would be fine as long as you don’t keep thinking it’s a good idea to join forces with Beatrix.”

“Why?”

“Beatrix may not be running around raping novitiates, but she tried to kill your sister. And all Keeley ever did was love and protect her the way a big sister does. That’s not someone you can ever trust. Ever believe. Ever risk your sister’s queendom by trusting. Don’t you see that?”

“What I see is that we have a real problem.”

He shrugged. “All we have are real problems. Why add to them by trusting Beatrix?”

Gemma dropped down next to Quinn and admitted the truth. “I don’t know what we’re going to do. I don’t know how we’re going to fight Cyrus. How we’re going to stop this war before it all gets out of hand. And right now, I just feel drained.”

“Gemma, you’ve just been through hell. Of course you’re drained. But my question is why do you think this is all on you? It’s not. Right now we’ve got war priests, divine assassins, temple virgins, and the Abbess. You can’t tell me they won’t have ideas to get us through this.”

“But they just saw the queen bash a sorceress’s head in.”

“You can’t tell me that’s the worst they’ve ever seen. Especially that abbess.”

She shrugged. “I guess you have a point.”

“Let’s talk to them. The worst they can do is walk away. And if they do, so what? We still have Laila, Caid, Cadell, and Farlan. Do you know how much damage they’ve done in their lives? Long before we ever got here? They’ll do whatever is necessary to protect your sister and her queendom.”

Quinn suddenly reached out and took Gemma’s hand. Her first instinct was to snatch it back and punch him in the face, but she fought that instinct and waited to see what he’d say and do.

“Just for once,” he went on, gently, “instead of trying to fix this all on your own . . . instead of trying to come up with a plan when you have absolutely no idea what’s going on and you just saw the destruction of your entire brotherhood, maybe you sit back and you just let Keeley lead. Just this once you trust her to do the right thing, not just for herself, but for her people.”

Gemma hated to admit it to herself, but Quinn was right. She’d been through too much. Had seen too much. And she couldn’t keep trying to rule for Keeley. That wasn’t her place or her right. Keeley was queen, not Gemma.

“Or,” Quinn continued, “you can simply burn Keeley as a witch. Whichever you feel more comfortable with.”

Gemma shook her head and tried not to laugh. “Why are you such a bastard?”

“I was giving you options.”

“Bastard.”

“Come on,” he said, chuckling. “Let’s get back. You must be starving.”

“No. You’re starving.”

“I am. I am starving. I need to feed.”

“Fair enough. And if nothing else, I need to get this chainmail off for a bit. I feel like I’m wearing my bag of rocks right now.”

They headed back to town but saw some of Ragna’s monk-knights training. Gemma was in no mood to deal with any of them at the moment.

Quinn motioned behind them. “We’ll cut through the hot springs and loop around.”

“There are hot springs?”

“There were when we were done.”

“You built hot springs?”

He shrugged. “Centaurs love hot springs.”

They silently walked, cutting around big boulders and massive trees. Gemma saw several small hot springs and knew she was going to come back at a later time to indulge, because centaurs weren’t the only ones that loved hot springs. The thought of soaking her sore muscles almost had her moaning out loud, which was why she was surprised when she thought she heard someone moaning.

She stopped and so did Quinn; she realized he’d heard it too. They looked at each other and slowly took several steps backward, past a boulder, not bothering to actually turn around, and looked into the hot spring they’d just passed.

“Gods!” Quinn immediately covered his eyes. “I don’t need to see this!”

“Really, Shona?” Gemma demanded of her battle-cohort. “Everything is falling apart and you take time out for fucking?”