Free Twiceborn Endgame (The Proving Book 3) by Marina Finlayson

I’m sorry, Kate. I wish it could be different.” The old warmth was back in her eyes for a moment. “But I can’t risk it, not even for you.”
    Deflated, I looked away, back over the now-clear water of the fountain. I caught a flash of orange as a goldfish slipped under a lily pad. The yellow lily rocked ever so slightly, its beautiful petals turned up to catch the sun.
    I’d have to lock Kasumi away, then. Probably chain her in silver, too. She was dangerous, perhaps the most dangerous shifter I knew, even more so than a dragon. It would be like keeping a time bomb ticking away in the dungeon, always wondering when it was going to explode. But what else could I do? I couldn’t kill her. She’d saved my life more than once. We’d been friends. And two little fox children waited in Japan for her to come home.
    “Where is your family?”
    “Tokyo. At her main estate.”
    “And the other kitsune? They’re in Tokyo too?”
    “At the moment. Daiyu likes to have them all easily accessible when she’s out of the country, just in case.”
    “Good. That will make things easier.”
    Hope blossomed on Kasumi’s broad face, and she drew a deep shuddering breath.
    Ben gave me a suspicious look. An almost identical one had appeared on Luce’s face. “What things?”
    I smiled brightly at him. “I’ve always wanted to go to Japan.”

CHAPTER SIX
    “I hope you know what you’re doing.” Ben stood with his good arm around me as we watched Kasumi’s motorbike roar down the drive. He still favoured the other one, though he refused to wear a sling. “She’s a dangerous woman to leave roaming around. She said herself she wouldn’t stop trying to kill you.”
    “Until the kitsune hostages are freed,” I reminded him. “Then we’ll have a secret weapon.”
    “If you live that long,” said Luce, a sour note in her voice.
    “Have a little faith. I’m not so easy to kill.”
    “Maybe not if you stay here. The security on this place is the best of the best. Let me go to Japan, if you insist on this madness.”
    “Luce, give it up.” She’d been trying to talk me out of it since I’d floated the idea, but her arguments didn’t hold water. The only chance we had of pulling this off required a whole lot of compulsions, and that meant dragon involvement. And I wasn’t exactly getting knocked down in the rush of dragons volunteering to join my cause. I would have to go.
    “Do you think Daiyu will believe Kasumi didn’t get a chance to see you?” Ben still stared out the window. He looked tired and weighed down with worry.
    I slipped an arm round his waist and leaned against him for a moment. He smelled of pine forests and fresh air, with a hint of honest sweat. It was hot outside, and we’d only just come in from the garden.
    “You worry too much. Why shouldn’t she believe it? She already thinks I’m an abomination. It’s hardly a stretch to think that I wouldn’t have the dragon-born manners to personally accept a communication from another queen.”
    “As long as she doesn’t compel the truth from Kasumi.” His frown deepened.
    “Hush.” I stood on tiptoes to kiss him. “She’s not going to compel her. She’s got Kasumi tied up so tight it will take a miracle to untangle her.” A miracle I was determined to provide. “Didn’t Kasumi deliver everything she wanted before? She has no reason to suspect her. Stop dreaming up problems that don’t exist. We have enough real ones to deal with.”
    He looked down at me, that frown still lingering. “Like your new plan to somehow sneak into Tokyo and free a bunch of people you don’t know, and who have no reason to trust you, from the probably unbreakable security of the queen of Japan?”
    “That’s the one. Genius, isn’t it?”
    He and Luce both sighed loudly, and I couldn’t help laughing, though it wasn’t really funny. He was right, it was a crazy thing to attempt, and it wasn’t as if I didn’t already have some major problems to deal