“Ah,” Cora says, slipping free from Jarek’s grip. “We got word a few weeks ago that Jarek was still alive, so we sailed the next morning. Would have come a hell of a lot sooner if it hadn’t beenfor the Mother-damned sea. It’s been raging for years, we’ve barely made it off the island before now and even so, we hardly made it this time.”
“But it was calm?” I ask, hope lining my voice. “The sea, I mean. It was calm?”
She tilts her head, the long, loose braids she wears slipping over her shoulder.
If the sea has calmed, I could join Jarek so much sooner… Or he could visit me and?—
“Not really.” She shrugs, dousing my hope. “Lost an entire ship, but still calmer than it’s been since I watched this big lug sail away without me four years ago.” She pinches his arm. “Figured it was worth the risk to see if the word was true.”
Jarek smiles before grabbing his sister again.
“I could kill you for disobeying me and leaving,” he says, playfulness lining his voice. “But damn if I’m not happy to see you.”
Cora smirks, squaring her shoulders.
“Who sent you word?” I bite my tongue, promising myself it’s my last question.
Cora fixes her gaze on Jarek, then on me. Maybe he thinks I miss the shake of his head, but I don’t and now even more questions begin to arise. Cora picks at her nails.“Calix something. I can’t remember.”
Calix Winterborne, Lord of the Onyx.
I recall him and Jarek meeting for the first time. Their odd interaction, the way Calix had clasped his hands together as if in prayer.
“Enough chatter,” Cora says. “Nasty wound you got there.” She points to my neck. “Let’s get you cleaned up along with the rest of this shitehole.”
Fifty-One
Sorin
Roman strugglesagainst me as I hold his back to my chest. The blade’s on the ground, just out of reach.
I squeeze him tighter. “Would you stop it?”
“No.” He bites my hand.
I drop my hold, pushing him off me. “Did you just bite me?”
“You wouldn’t let me go.”
Sighing, I run a hand down my face and push past him, making a conscious effort not to look at the bed while I head for the door.
I’m two steps away, when I hesitate. Turning, I locate my blade on the ground but don’t bother trying for it. If Roman really wished to hurt himself, he’d find a way. “Call off your guard.”
He licks his lips, before glancing at the window. “And what makes you think they’ll listen to me?”
I step toward him again, my peripherals catching on a lock of blonde to my left, making my stomach twist. “You are the King of Teravie,” I say, “so fucking act like it.”
He flinches before something passes over his face. As if he has forgotten who he is the whole time. Forgotten what powercomes from such a title. What privilege. Forgotten that, despite what he’s done, he has the control to reshape the future.
He smooths his dark hair back, straightens his shirt. “I’ll go now.”
A horn sounds from outside, loud enough to have Roman and I both flinching.
What the fuck was that?
We both dart to the window, and when I see Elora and Sam in shackles, my heart stops.
“Fuck,” I mutter, pulling an arrow from my quiver.
