The scalding metal sizzled against bare bone, charring it black as the flesh around it melted. Water hissed as it hit the black iron, sending up a cloud of steam. I cursed and pulled back.

Ellie slapped my hand away from the pan heating on the stove. “Just let me do it already! Who mixes water and hot grease, anyway? Have you ever even cooked before?”

I dipped my fingers into the saucer of water I’d cooled the pan with and flicked several drops into her face as she struggled to flip the slab of meat I’d burned. “This coming from the girl who’s been eating nothing but fish, rats, and mushrooms for the last how many months?”

Regis was sitting in the middle of the table, watching with interest, his nose twitching with every waft of meat-scented air. “You know, that looks pretty much irreparable. Just toss it over to me.”

Ellie dropped a handful of cut-up mushrooms in with the meat and grease, humming with irritation. “I can do more with rat and mushrooms than you can with the whole royal pantry, I bet.”

“I’m not sure that’s something to brag about,” I pointed out, laughing.

Ellie’s leg shot out and thumped against my thigh. I grabbed her ankle and yanked her leg out from under her, holding her upside down with her hair pooling on the tiles beneath her._{Visit ʟɪɢʜᴛɴᴏᴠᴇʟᴘᴜʙ.ᴄᴏᴍ for a better_user experience}

“Hey, not fair!” she shouted, swinging her arms as she tried futilely to land a punch.

…

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