“When we went to the gods… they warned me something would happen if I tried to save her. They told me I’d regret it, and… fuck, I thought maybe my punishment would be you not choosing me in the end… that’s what they showed me, but—” Merrick’s voice broke.
Frelina couldn’t look away as Elessia clumsily shifted her legs over the Death Whisperer’s long ones, moving closer until he pulled her into his lap and she wrapped her arms around his neck.
It seemed like they didn’t care that the room was full of people as Elessia leaned her forehead against his. “There is no choice, Merrick. From the moment I met your eyes, there was only you. As there will only be you in my future.”
So mushy.Raine’s words in her mind were halfhearted, and when she threw a glare his way, he thankfully had the decency to turn a shade darker, his skin nearly mirroring his hair.
“Idiot,” Kerym mumbled, and when Frelina found hiseyes, she realized he’d followed her and Raine’s silent interaction, probably reading his friend too well.
He was right, though. Raine was an idiot. Frelina might be naive—might have fallen too quickly and decided not to get up—but hefeltsomething for her. She knew he did. He was just too stubborn to let himself be happy.
“What did the gods tell you specifically, Merrick?”
Frelina’s head snapped up to the witch sisters, to Pellie, the one with long, beautiful copper hair that shone even in the darkness of the storm, who’d spoken.
Merrick didn’t look away from her sister’s eyes as he responded. “They said there would be consequences. Ones that would harm both me and her.” The muscle in his jaw feathered. “I told them to go fuck themselves.”
“I’m so sorry.” The Death Whisperer’s voice lowered, but the urgency in it was apparent. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise you. I will do anything and everything to keep you safe.”
Elessia placed a hand on his cheek.
“I know,” she whispered before turning toward the sisters. “We… we haven’t had much time to speak since that day, but do you… do you know anything about this? About what is happening? Why… why I can see them?”
“We all can see those fucking souls,” Kerym muttered. “And they are terrifying.”
So do I,Raine said in reply to Frelina’s thought that she agreed with the Siphon Twin.I thought Merrick’s whispers were bad, but actually seeing them? No, thank you.
Frelina huffed a breath while she eyed the two sisters, who whispered something to each other before focusing their eyes on the room again, and Frelinaremembered what they had said that day when they had also dropped to a knee.
And so a soulbinder shall help her rise to take her throne—her right as a veiled queen.
“What is a veiled queen?” she blurted out.
Soulbinderseemed straightforward enough.
Death Whisperer. Soulbinder.
Wasn’t that what Merrick did? Bind those souls to him or wherever he kept them?
The room quieted again, and Frelina fought a blush until Pellie finally responded.
“Please remember that we were taken out of our realm when we were very young. Soria and I…” She glanced at her sister, who nodded for her to go on. “We don’t remember that much, but our mother—our real one—used to tell us these bedtime stories about veiled queens.”
As Pellie hesitated, the tension in the air was so palpable that Frelina wouldn’t have been surprised if it formed thick, dark clouds—like the ones rushing outside their window, dancing and tangling over the wet black cliffs of Korina.
The witch sounded…scaredwasn’t the right word, but her tone was apprehensive.
“What Pellie is trying to say,” Soria interjected when her sister remained quiet, her eyes drawn to Frelina’s before settling on Elessia’s, “is we were warned of the veiled queens… It was a cautionary tale our parents told us so we would never become spellbound by our own powers. I don’t know how much you know about guardians—or witches, as you call us?”
Elessia started to say something, but after her gaze flitted toward her human—or mostly human—friends, she caught herself, instead offering, “Some of us know a little, but let’s pretend we’re all new to this.”
Amalise smiled while Ardow bowed his head in thanks. Frelina wished it didn’t, but the look the friends shared stung her chest.
I’m your friend. I’m here for you.Raine sounded as woeful as she felt.
Her head moved of its own accord, and her brows rose as she stared at Raine from where he appeared to have half risen out of the chair.
Are you?she challenged.It hasn’t felt like it.
