Meera had become obsessed with the snakes since she realized she could control and communicate with them. It waspart of her identity as the Guardian of the Blue Ray, Cassarya. Admittedly, it was a productive pursuit. Her ability had saved our lives. Several times.
As soon as we arrived at our second safe house, a nahashim had appeared. Another the next day. All sent from Devon Hart. He was trying to find us, before Emperor Avery did. I couldn’t decide which man was worse. Luckily, neither had their hands on us—yet.
At first, she sent the snakes away, purposefully confusing them so they’d go back into the wilds and leave Devon’s service. But then she’d realized she might be able to do more than just confuse them. We attempted to send one back to Glemaria. Not for Devon. But for Kenna. And it worked. Since then, messages had been passing back and forth between us regularly.
When Meera had intercepted his latest attempt she’d realized the snake was pregnant. So now we had two newborns. And I was on babysitting duty, while Meera sat with the mother. She’d sent the snake on a mission to find Lyr, again, and it had just returned this morning—with nothing. Fucking nothing.
Was she dead? But if she was—wouldn’t we know? They’d want us to know, whoever killed her.
“Um,” Dario started, then stopped. He’d been like this for weeks. Trying to talk to me, then stopping, when I didn’t answer, or waved him off. I hadn’t meant to be mean to him. I just—I didn’t have the energy most of the time to talk to anyone. It was clearly getting to him, upsetting his confidence. Which was leading to more and more moments like this.
I wish he’d just go away. Leave me alone. I didn’t want anything, or anyone. Just peace.
“Aiden wanted me to tell you,” he started again, “um, he said he could have some more magic lessons with you tonight after dinner, if you want.”
Aiden had become my mage professor, making up for all the time I wasn’t in the Academy. In the Palace, I’d learned only one kind of magic. Visions. How to control my vorakh,how to relax into it, interpret it, even cause visions to come by request. It was a far cry from what Meera had been experiencing. But now that I had my own stave, I was making up for lost time. When I wasn’t being tutored by Aiden, I was helping Meera with the nahashim, learning to communicate with them, too. And teaching Meera how to have her visions without pain.
I turned to Dario, meeting his dark eyes. “Aiden could have told me himself.”
“He could have, but I was here, so I did. Do you want me to te?—”
“No.” I shook my head. “I’ll tell him when I see him.” I trained my eyes back on the trees in the distance. “How much longer is Meera going to be?”
“I don’t know. I think she’s trying to get the nahashim to go back out and search for signs of Lyriana.”
I sighed. When all the searches for Lyr, and … for Lyr’s body, had turned up empty, she’d trained the snake to listen for conversations about her, to record them and report back. The only problem—the conversations were everywhere. Some of the talk had died now. Rhyan’s stripping and the attack in the arena were slowly fading as people began to discuss New Korteria, and the mandatory vorakh testing happening. Lyr was assumed dead.
I shuddered.
“We’ll find her,” Dario said, reading my mind.
“Like she found Rhyan?” I spat.
Dario paled. “Good day, Julianna. Enjoy the balcony.” He bowed formally, and walked back inside.
Fuck. “Wait,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
“No.” His mouth tightened. “No need to apologize. You’re not wrong.”
“But I shouldn’t have said that. Rhyan was my friend, too. And I didn’t mean?—”
“It’s fine. I, uh—don’t know what I was thinking coming out here.”
He walked back in the door.
I threw my hands into my hair, unsettled by the interaction, but I couldn’t move from the spot I was in, couldn’t say anything to change it. So I didn’t.
Meera joined me an hour later, both nahashim infants curled around her wrist.
“He likes you,” she said quietly. “You don’t have to be so cruel to him.”
“I’m not,” I snapped. “I said nothing cruel. I just … don’t say much at all.” My stomach turned, but then I shook my head, angry. “Why should I? What do I owe him anyway?”
“You don’t owe him anything. But, Jules. You can be nice. We’re all in this together. And he is proving time and time again how willing he is to protect us.”
“I protect us. I got us this house, and it’s because of me we got the last two. We’d be in the Palace now, locked in the dungeons or the Godsdamned Yellow Room, if it weren’t for me.”
“Jules.” Meera’s eyes widened. “No one disputes that. And we’re all grateful. But, we also might be locked away in Seathorne if it wasn’t for me.”
