Something passed over Lerek’s eyes and made her step back. Before she could, Lerek bent his head and kissed her roughly. He pressed his forehead to hers, the heat from his words fanning her cheeks. “I love you.”
The ache those words spiked in her heart made her pull away. Tears stung her eyes, and she averted her gaze.
She did not say the words back to him.
Lerek stood there a moment more before striding off with brisk steps until Terena knew they were both gone.
Pressing her hand to her chest, she sighed and closed her eyes.
“Terena.”
Opening her eyes, Terena turned to Cassandra. The seer’s eyes were red-rimmed. “Ren, I think… I think Vassori betrayed us.”
Terena’s hand froze in front of her face as she stared at Cassandra. The moment Vassori had spoken to her in the ballroom flashed in her mind and she recalled what the tracker had said.
“What did you see?” Terena’s voice was quiet as she stared at the blonde.
Cassandra glanced at Migela, who nodded grimly.
“Do you remember my vision? Of Sonah wearing the amulet? The Amulet of Kaïra?”
“Aye. I saw it.”
“You did?”
Terena nodded once. “On a blonde girl. High Cleric Christos found it somehow. And I think the girl wearing it is the real Sonah Yahn.”
“What do we do?” Cassandra wailed, clutching the necklaces at her chest. “We have to get it back somehow! Why was Vassori with her? How?—”
Migela signed with her hands and Terena opened her eyes to watch her.
She shook her head in response. “No. I am not going anywhere. I am going to find Vassori and make her talk. And then I’m getting that fucking necklace.”
“No!” Cassandra’s eyes widened in horror as she shook head. “No, no, Hermes will be up there by now. We have to leave. You cannot go up there!”
“I will not cower,” Terena seethed, her heart beating a painful tattoo within her breast. “I am a god in full now. He can try to hit me again, but this time I swear by the Fates he will regret it. Sonah’s up there and I will not have her at his mercy.”
Terena strode back through the dungeons as Cassandra continued to beg her to stop. She and Migela trailed after her and Terena took the winding steps up to the first floor of the palace.
As soon as they neared the great hall, Terena’s steps faltered, taking in the crowd of warriors standing there.
Hermes’s men.
They hadn’t yet noticed her and she curled her lip as she watched them celebrating by tearing up the palace.
“Ren!”
Terena spun around. Was her mind playing tricks on her? That was Sonah’s voice. Right?
“Ren!”
Terena took off running, following the echoes of Sonah’s shouts, stopping in front of the throne room. Her eyes widened when she spied Sonah.
Cursing, Terena took a few steps forward, hands clenched at her sides. Sonah spotted her and made to run to her when Hermes pulled her back roughly. A man nearby shouted, trying to get to her but froze in place mid-stride. Hermes dropped the hand he’d held up toward the man and turned to Terena, a playful grin on his lips.
Hermes cupped a hand to his mouth and called out, “Look who I found!”
Sonah swallowedas she caught the stricken look on Terena’s face. She didn’t come any closer, standing near the doors to the throne room and looked back at them. Migela, the assassin she’d met at Lethe, stood outside the threshold, uncertain, her hand on the hilt of her dagger.
