More cheering. More clapping. More tiny white bubbles lifting to the surface from the chaotic delight of the sirens below us as my heart seizes in my chest. Lyre’s arm brushes against my own as she claps. I can’t move, can hardly hear my own thoughts above the discordant celebration. She does it again, roughly enough to draw my attention.
“Clap,” she whispers from the corner of her mouth. I immediately begin doing so, scanning the throne room in a haze. It isn’t that I am necessarily surprised; Allegra has been pregnant many times before. Her pregnancy has the opposite effect on me that Lyre’s does. In the same way that Lyre is now bound to the palace, so too is our eldest sister.
My mother addresses the crowd with the rest of her announcements, cryptically citing the dawning of a new era, which causes even more excitement than the pregnancy reveals did. I stay tucked into the possibilities of my mind, wondering if I’vefinallybeen given reprieve from the constant dread that has settled into its corners. If Allegra can no longer lead the hunts I’m forced to go on, willanyoneelse watch me as closely as she did?
When the address is over and I attempt to leave, my mother’s smooth voice halts my retreat. “We have more matters to discuss, Daughter.”Jaw and shoulders relaxed, lips flat, spine straight, and attitude vicious.I silently repeat my mantra as I turn around and force my gaze to hers. “We must prepare to leave and meet with the king of the Mortal Realm.”
“Why?” Allegra hisses from her place at the queen’s side.
“Has your pregnancy turned you into an imbecile, or are you simply choosing to not understand?” My mother’s brashness makes something flash in Allegra’s eyes before she bows her head and drops her gaze.
“What do we need to know before we go to the surface?” Sade cuts in, her conch shell helmet held against the orange scales at her side. She wears no other armor and clutches the smaller trident that mirrors our mother’s in her other hand. Her façade is steady, calm, a lethal brutality lingering beneath it.
“Sade, Aria, and Dyanna, you will accompany me to speak to King Dolian. The mortal king is in my debt, and I want to ensure my plans do not falter. We cannot give him the opportunity to do something foolish, as his kind is prone to.” Queen Amari lifts her hand up in front of her, her dark eyes studying the pearl ring that adorns her finger. Softly, as if the words are only meant for her, she adds, “I will not make the same mistakes as before the war.”
“And what about me?” Allegra asks.
My mother drops her hand back to her lap. “You and Lyre are to remain here, both to enforce my rule with me gone and to stay protected.”
Allegra’s blue eyes widen, her lips lifting into a snarl. “You want me tostay here? I am one of your fiercest warriors—”
“You are not,” she cuts in smoothly, sliding a talon down one of the diamond-inlaid prongs of her trident. “Sade, as the commander of the legion, is.”
Allegra snarls in response but doesn’t speak another word.
“Was the king on that ship?” Sade asks, earning our mother’s nod.
“And who was the mage we handed over to them?” The question slips unbidden from me, from the place it has rattled since that night.
My mother’s attention falls to me, her full lips twisting with something too ghastly to be called a grin. “She may just be the key to finally gettingeverythingwe are owed. In due time, we will show the beings of Olymazi what happens when they try to contain us. We will show the males of these lands the reckoning that has been brewing beneath their shores. Until then, you will continue to serve me as I command and without question.” She looks around at my sisters as she leans back on her throne. “Tell me what progress you’ve made in finding the traitors of the seamounts?”
The question locks my shoulders and careens my heart against my ribcage. “I—I don’t know where to start looking for them.”
Tilting her head, her eyelids lower in displeasure. “Disappointing, but unsurprising. Sade will aid you in your search for them once we return from our visit with the king.”
What? I look to Sade, surprised to find the same confusion hinted at in her sunset eyes. “Your Majesty, you know I am but aservant to your will, but working with Aria will be a waste of my valuable time.”
“You will help her form a plan to find the traitors and then report the progress she has made to me. I hardly think that will interfere with your normal duties, Daughter.”
“And if she has nothing to report?” Sade questions, her eyes snapping to mine.
“The next few months will be crucial in solidifying our plans and reclaiming what isours. I cannot have a group of traitors plotting against the queendom while I try to raise us from the sea. Theywillbe taken care of, or I shall show our people just how little I care for blood when it comes to extending my mercy.”
Sade’s talons scrape against her helmet as she curls her fingers inward. “As you wish, Your Majesty.”
Satisfied, my mother tilts her head back and closes her eyes. “Prepare what is needed for our departure. I would like to leave within the hour.”
It isn’t until I’m finished packing my own small woven eelgrass satchel that I realize that traveling with my mother to the Mortal Kingdom means I’m going to miss my first meeting with the fae female.
Shit.
Chapter Eight: Myla
Thedragonfieldssmellof sulfur and death. Piles of charred remains litter the lush emerald-green grass, and I have no idea if they are animals unlucky enough to be caught in a dragons’ quarrel or the remnants of fae ordered to their deaths by my father. Some of those fae undoubtedly deserved their fiery end—there is no shortage of vile beings in this kingdom. Yet some I knew had committed the most minor of infractions, stealing food to feed their families or medicine to rid a persistent sickness. Because those things took money from vendors whichin turn took money from the king, all who were caught received the maximum punishment: death by dragon fire.
Scorched earth surrounds the bundles of singed bones, some of them still lit with lingering embers. I keep to the outskirts of the fields, hidden within the treeline as I dart around the evergreens and pines. I’m under no illusion that I’m invisible to the dragons, my scent is one they can smell on the wind. Still, walking out into the open field is not only the equivalent of asking a dragon to burn me to ash but also stupid, as a dragon rider might spot me from above. Bonding a dragon is essential to my plan, and it would be a real fucking shame to die before that happens.
My palms slide against the rough bark of a pine tree, dirt from traversing the mountain tunnels to get here caked over them along with the dried blood of the male Ivisitedprior. Looking to the east, I blow out a startled breath at the small sliver of sun already rising over the horizon. I swear it hadn’t taken long for Dagan, my poor subject of the evening, to drunkenly stumble from the tavern he loved to frequent. He was as most of the males of this city are—power hungry, angry, and stupid. Instead of channeling that energy into anything productive, he took his aggressions out on his wife. Nightly, and often to the point of knocking her unconscious. Or so my informant told me.
