Clasping the railing, both she and Sylvia looked out at the celebration that was well underway in the forest-protected backyard. Glowing orbs decorated the looming line of pines, and flags with the family crest were hoisted into the air, snapping in the wind. Family members milled about, happy for the excuse to eat and drink.
She’d been relieved that no one seemed too fussed about whether she participated or not even if the all-day affair was theoretically in her honor. At least until Emmellin had pounded onher door, shoved her into the bath, and threatened to drag her out naked if she wasn’t ready in fifteen minutes.
So, now she was here. With Sylvia Reyez philosophizing next to her like a damn monk. Elysia’s gaze slid to her before slowly returning to the ecstatic children racing around in the freezing cold, up to their knees in snow with sticks that flung sparks out into the air. She almost smiled at their shrieks.
“And what role would that be?” she asked lightly, going back to Sylvia’s initial question. She could play along.Maybe.
Unamused and uninterested in feigned confusion, Sylvia’s tone was iron. “Answer me—what good does it do to hate the role you have been given?”
Like mother, like son.
“No one likes having their choices taken away,” Elysia answered tonelessly, wishing she could escape to where the food was.
“Then make a different choice.” Shrewd hazel eyes turned on her, expecting her to bend, to comply.
Annoyance stoked somewhere deep inside her that had nothing to do with Sylvia Reyez and everything to do with her past. She gripped the wooden banister tighter. “Thereisn’ta different choice. I either complete the death voyage and become even further bound to your god or destroy any chance at a future for our kingdoms, and as you can see, I amhereand doing my job.” Why was she being lectured again right now? She shifted on her aching feet, the smell of something sweet and spicy calling to her.
Sylvia scoffed, blocking Elysia from passing her on the stairs. “It is the height of hubris to not see what is in front of you simply because you did not choose it.”
Elysia bit down on the inside of her cheeks, willing herself not to insult the matriarch of the Reyez family. “I’m here, aren’t I? Completed my first instructions from the fates.”
The reprimand on her face was eerily familiar to the one Gage often wore. Apparently, it was a family skill to be able to makesomeone feel two inches tall without saying a word. “Yes, you cut the princeling loose. Good riddance. That’s not the same as claiming your divine role.”
She poked Elysia in the chest, her fingers tapping against Elysia’s sternum hard enough that she swatted at the offending hand. “There’s a force right here. And you’re wasting it. Lamenting, pretending you don’t know, all the things people do instead of seeing and acting on the truth. Forget what you thought you knew and embrace what you knownow.”
Frustration loosened Elysia’s tongue. “And what is it I’m supposed to know? That this is all a load of shit, and I’m stuck in the middle of it? If you have any real advice, I’ll take it, but until then—” Her voice cut off as her eyes landed on a muscular, lithe body she’d recognize anywhere.
Flying past Sylvia, a heady rush of relief swept Elysia down the stairs. Her painful feet were forgotten as she threw herself off the last step into the open arms of the only Reyez who was truly family to her. “Gage!”
Arms wrapped around his neck, she clung on hard. She tried to release her tight hold when embarrassment hit, but he held her there, perfectly comfortable and at ease. His woodsy scent covered her as she relaxed, his strong hands squeezing her. Gently, he lowered her to the ground, holding her away from him so he could look at her. “Well done, kid.”
Elysia failed to hide the smile breaking through. The warmth of his pride was a drug, and she couldn’t get enough. She wavered, her hands sliding to hold his wrists. “I thought I failed you. There were all these shifters, and I—I’m useless here, Gage. My magic isn’t made for fighting.”
The skin near his eyes crinkled, and he slung an arm around her shoulders, steering her out the sliding glass door and away from his mother to the deck. Leading her over to a split log bench, he grabbed a blanket out of an ottoman and tossed it on her lap. Coming back over with two steaming mugs of mulled wine, helowered himself onto the bench, staring at the yard and forest that had once been his home.
“That’s the point of our initiations. To see how someone responds when their back is against the wall, and all their normal moves don’t work. Testing whatever might be a weakness or danger to the family.”
Elysia’s head turned slowly, her eyes flashing. “Did youknowshe was going to put them in danger?”
Gage’s full lips stretched, showing off his beautiful smile as he shook his head. “I wasn’t allowed to participate. Something about being biased.”
Elysia relaxed slightly, but kept her eyes narrowed on him. “It was fucked up. Your family is crazy, and coming from me, that’s saying something.”
He took a sip of the steaming wine. “Tell me about it.”
She huffed. “Your mother was just spewing nonsense at me about embracing mydivinerole. What does that evenmean? She basically told me to quit whining and throw myself at the death voyage. Or maybe Aidan. I’m not sure.” Elysia took a gulp of her wine and hissed as her tongue burned.
“Ah, the ‘if you’re a warrior be a warrior, if you’re a scholar be a scholar’ talk.”
Brow lifting, she looked back at him in question.
Gage stretched his legs out and threw a bare arm around the back of the bench, seemingly unbothered by the cold. “She gave me that talk a million times. It might come as a surprise to you, but I wasn’t exactly excited to be shipped off to a magicless kingdom to watch over a little kid when I was the heir to all this.”
Elysia choked, red wine spraying out into the frosty air. Wiping her face, she looked at him in shock. “No.”
His mouth quirked, and he leaned in closer, squeezing her thigh. “Yes.”
“But I thought you were there to establish a foothold in Kava.” She set her mug aside, ready to demand answers.
