The princess looked at him suspiciously. "Why?"

"To declare you Empress, of course. You are the natural heir." Councilor Tarentia got down on one knee. From behind him, another dignitary handed him a tiara then swiftly knelt, along with everyone else in the corridor. Princess Kabachetka, dumbstruck, accepted the tiara, placing it lightly in her bright blond hair.

"So I'm the new empress?" she asked at last.

"Yes, mighty Empress."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Quite sure."

Kabachetka looked around at the sea of kneeling bodies. She frowned. This was a lot to take in. Her expression brightened after a second or two. She was the new empress after all, and she wasn't about to complain.

"There is much work to be done," declared Empress Kabachetka. "The nation must be revived and healed. I will need-eh-to be made harmonious with the Eternal Volcano."

"It has already been done, Empress. You are now in full control of the power of the volcano."

Empress Kabachetka smiled. After a poor start, the day had really turned out well.

CHAPTER 192.

The enchantress and Dominil arrived in Epping. Susi Surmata lived in a house on the edge of the forest. A quiet location, the sort of place where hunters might gather. They slid out of the car quietly and confidently; a pair of hunting werewolves. The moon was up, and each was prepared to transform in an instant.

"If there's trouble, just kill," said Dominil.

"Don't worry."

They walked towards the front door of the picturesque, though run-down, detached house. The front garden was overgrown with moss and weeds and was surrounded by a hedge that hadn't been trimmed for a long time. Both Dominil and Thrix noted that once in the garden, they couldn't be seen by anyone outside.

"Okay, Miss 'Slay the Wolf,'" muttered Thrix, "time to meet a real werewolf."

She knocked on the door. Their keen senses immediately heard noises from inside. The lock turned, and by the time the door opened, Thrix had transformed into her werewolf shape. She barged her way inside, followed by the werewolf Dominil.

Standing in front of them was a young woman with terror in her eyes and an unusual blue jacket. She opened her mouth, perhaps to scream, but fainted instead. The werewolves paused and sniffed the air.

"No one else at home," Thrix said.

They looked down at the young woman.

"She doesn't look much like a hunter."

"Maybe I should bite her anyway," suggested Thrix, who was still unusually eager to engage in violence.

"Does she look like a fashion writer?"

"Possibly. That's quite a stylish jacket."

"She's coming around."

The young woman opened her eyes, looked up at them, but seemed unable to speak.

Thrix bent down, grasped her, and hauled her upright quite roughly, slamming her against the wall, the violence of the movement sending the long blond hair that hung from Thrix's arms and shoulders whipping around her frame. "Okay, Susi, or whatever your name really is. I know your secret. You're a werewolf hunter, and you've been trying to trap me. Bad mistake." Thrix opened her jaws.

"Oh, God!" cried Susi. "I'm a werewolf too!"

Thrix paused. "No, you're not."

"I am."

"You don't smell like any werewolf I've ever met."

"I am! Really! I thought I was the only one! Don't kill me!"

Dominil put her snout close to the young woman. "Could be a werewolf. Not Scottish though."

Thrix relaxed her grip, though she still held Susi fast. "Explain yourself."

"I'm a werewolf."

"Yes, you said that already," growled Thrix. "But what's the idea of refusing to write about my clothes and then disappearing and not writing your blog anymore?"

The young woman looked anguished and also confused. "Who are you?"

"Thrix MacRinnalch."

The light of partial understanding dawned in Susi's eyes. "Oh. I liked your clothes."

"But you didn't write about them, did you? Do you know how embarrassing that was for me after I told the buyer at Eldridges you were going to? It cost me the contract."

"I'm sorry."

"What's the idea of calling your website 'Slay the Wolf'?" asked Dominil. "In Finnish?"

"Because I wanted to die," wailed Susi and burst into tears. "You don't know how I've suffered. I thought I was the only werewolf. It's been so terrible. I couldn't take it any longer."

"That doesn't explain the Finnish language."

"I come from Finland."

"Oh."

Thrix let go of Susi.

"How did you find me?"

"We tracked you over the Internet. We're smart werewolves. Are you about to cry again?"

"Perhaps we should give her a moment to compose herself," suggested Dominil. "Discovering you're not the only werewolf in the world may perhaps be a shock."

CHAPTER 193.

It was just terrible on that volcano. There was fire everywhere and soldiers and I had to merge my own essence with lava and feed it to Xakthan and then there was more fire and everything and then I got my foot blown off." Agrivex sighed and peered at her foot. "They stuck it back on. It hurts."

Vex was lying on the couch. After returning from the exam, her strength had given out completely. Kalix had helped her upstairs into the living room and onto the couch. Kalix herself lay on the floor, in front of the fire, unable to move. Her hair splayed out around her in a huge semicircle. The cat was sleeping contentedly at her side.

"So what was it like in Scotland?" Vex asked.

"Fighting. Hunters. Killing. That sort of thing." Kalix ached from her exertions. She'd filled herself up with laudanum, but it hadn't taken away her pain. It seemed to her that she ached more than she should, even with the injuries she had, and had done so since returning from Scotland. "I hurt."

"So do I."

"At least we did the exam."

"I thought I'd feel better afterwards."

For some reason, neither of them felt much elation at finishing their college work.

"I expect I failed," admitted Kalix.

"Me too."

They lay in silence for a while.

"Do you think Moonglow will be very angry about the money?" asked Kalix.

"Yes."

"We paid it back."

"She'll still be angry."

The downstairs door opened and closed, rather noisily. Two pairs of footsteps sounded on the stairs. Moonglow came in, followed by a sheepish-looking Daniel. She halted, glared at Kalix and Vex, then slammed her bag onto the table. Not satisfied with the noise, she took some papers from her pocket and slammed them on the table too. "There you are! Do you know the trouble I've had because we didn't have money to pay these bills? I had an arrangement with my bank that would have started clearing all the debts. Except I was supposed to pay money into the bank. Which I couldn't. Because you took it."

Kalix felt herself shriveling up on the floor. She hadn't been looking forward to this and had no idea how to defend herself.

"We paid it back," volunteered Vex. "Kalix put it in your room."

"It's too late! My bank canceled the payments, and now all my debt schedules are messed up. We'll need to pay even more to get it straightened out! I've had to borrow money from my mom! Do you have any idea how humiliating that was? I've never been in debt before! You knew how important that money was! We spent enough time collecting it. And what happened? You just decided to steal it!" Moonglow stood with her hands on her hips, transferring her hostile glare from Kalix to Vex and back again.

"I had my foot blown off," said Vex.

"You probably deserved it," raged Moonglow, displaying a lack of sympathy the young Fire Elemental found quite upsetting. "And it doesn't excuse you stealing money!" She looked at Kalix. "What's your excuse?"

"I needed to get to Scotland."

"Really? More than we needed electricity? More than we didn't need bailiffs from the council coming around and taking away our stuff? Have you ever met bailiffs? They're not pleasant."

"Well," began Daniel, "if we have the money back now, we can work out some new schedules for paying the debts and-"

"Don't you talk to me about new schedules!" roared Moonglow. "You're just as bad as them. If you hadn't spent all your money on CDs and comics, we wouldn't have gotten into such a mess in the first place."

"That's harsh!"

"No, it isn't! Why am I the only one who can be sensible about money? Why are you three all so stupid and irresponsible that we get into this mess every time there's a bill? I'm not your mother, you know. You have absolutely no idea how to behave. Daniel, you think it's fine to spend everything on whatever you like, and look what happens. You can't pay the bills. And you know what else? I'm really sick of your music. If I hear We Slaughtered Them and Laughed one more time, I'm going to throw the CD out the window and then I'll wipe it off your computer too. As for you-" Moonglow whirled towards Vex. "You're as bad. Worse in fact. When you moved in here, you were supposed to be acting like a responsible person, and you've just been a complete disaster from the first day. You buy clothes, makeup, boots, and you never save money even though I've told you time and again you need to. So we end up in a mess. And when I finally get it all sorted out, what happens? You help Kalix steal the money anyway. Probably because you were drunk at the time. You drink too much as well. I'm sick of you."

Vex shrank back on the couch. "My foot hurts," she said, but Moonglow showed no signs of sympathy.

"As for you, Kalix," Moonglow continued. "I'm more than sick of you. I'm just completely fed up with your behavior. You can't join in normal society. No matter how much we try to encourage you, you just spoil everything. You don't save money for bills, probably because you're spending it on alcohol and laudanum. You won't eat, so you get ill; you cut yourself so you get even more ill. You're hostile, unfriendly, you won't let anyone help you, and you spend most of your time sulking in your room anyway. Have you any idea what a terrible flatmate you are? Why should I have to put up with that? We've helped you enough times; we've been understanding about everything, and what happens? You end up stealing from us. I'm sick of you. I'm sick of you all."

Moonglow paused for breath, with every sign of launching into a fresh tirade, but was halted by the sudden arrival of the Fire Queen.

"Forgive me for interrupting," said Malveria. "I hovered nearby for a while, enjoying your verbal assault, which is no doubt entirely justified."

"I think it was unsympathetic," said Vex.

"Silence, dismal niece. Every word of Moonglow's was quite fair. It is a miracle she lasted so long before losing her temper with you. Moonglow, I do apologize for my niece's appalling spendthrift ways and general idiocy. Agrivex. It's time to return to the palace. I must attend to your healing. You should not have left, though I accept that it was spirited to insist on taking your exam."

"Exam?" asked Moonglow. "You did your exam?"

Vex nodded.

"Did you do it too?"

"Yes," muttered Kalix.

"Oh. I didn't realize that. I thought you'd missed it."

"So does that make everything all right?" asked Kalix, hopefully.

"No, it doesn't. It makes it a bit better." Moonglow's anger faded slightly. She'd assumed that Kalix and Vex had missed their exam. She was slightly mollified, though not enough to forgive them for embarrassing her in front of her mother and her bank manager.

"I have just endured the most stressful meeting of my advisory council," announced Malveria. "For some reason, there is a terrifying backlog of official business. Would a cup of tea perhaps be possible?"