“That is his fascination to explain to you. It’s not my place to comment on.” Fenny clasps her hands before her. I study the woman. She glances away.
“You don’t understand it either, do you?”
“My focus has always been here, in the Eversea. If there is a matter His Grace can’t handle, for one reason or another, I take care of it. If there is something he cannot do, I will do it. I am solely focused on and dedicated to our family and our people,” she says, somewhat curt.
I don’t have to, or want to, understand, is what I read between the lines. There’s something more, too.Dedicated. Does she see him as not being fully committed to his role? Everything I’ve seen of Ilryth so far makes him seem far more dedicated than most leaders I’ve ever known. Certainly more than half of the lords of Tenvrath, sitting in their salons with cups full and ambitions thin.
“You think little of your brother, don’t you?”
Fenny goes still, clearly taken aback. “You are too bold.”
“Perhaps,” I admit. Her offense is fair. I was pushing the boundaries with that remark. Testing the limits. Despite my prickling her, she rewards me with information anyway, just as I expected she would. Pushing someone past the point of offense usually prompts them to correct with a truth they might not have otherwise proffered.
“I think the world of my brother. He carries the weight of the duchy on his shoulders.” Her eyes sweep across the room. “There are choices he makes that are different from mine. But my confusion doesn’t mean I think less of him. Judgment is not my place so long as he acts with our best intentions.”
A soft chuckle escapes me.
“What is amusing now?”
She must’ve heard. “I wonder if my little sister would’ve said much the same of me.”Oh, Em…always so optimistic. Hopeful. Pushing the boundaries without overextending herself. She was the better one of us two.
Fenny continues to inspect me, then says softly, “I imagine she probably would. I imagine most siblings do. Now, we shouldn’t keep His Grace waiting.”
“Wait, Fenny, there’s one more thing.” I swim to the half-open clamshell with the wedding band upon it. Such a small thing to haunt me the way it did throughout the night. But, perhaps Ilryth is right; there are some tethers holding me to this world that will be a fight to let go of. Lifting the band from the shell, I glance at the initials I no longer bear one final time and hold it out to her. “Get rid of this, please.”
“You have no right to—”
“It was mine,” I admit. “I have every right to decide its fate and I want it gone.”
“Why not get rid of it yourself?” The question is laced with skepticism.
An excellent question.Why not?Because just holding it causes my hand to tremble? Because the mere thought of it has Charles’s voice relentlessly reprimanding me in the back of my mind for even thinking of getting rid of it? Haunting me. Berating me.
“I hardly have the time. My focus is on the anointing.” I shrug, trying to hide my unease. “And I suspect that your brother would struggle to rid himself of it, as I doubt he readily removes anything from this room.”
Fenny swims over and assesses the ring. With a glance between me and it, she plucks it from my fingers, turning it over in her hands. “What is it?”
“Something that now belongs to a dead woman, nothing more or less. So, can you get rid of it for me? Somewhere Ilryth would never look?” I would keep it on me, but I don’t want to risk it. Moreover…the mere idea of holding on to that wedding band for longer than I want threatens the stability of my stomach.
“Very well.” Fenny pockets it in the wrap around her breasts. “Now, if you’ll come with me.” She starts down the tunnel and I follow. Swimming is a little bit easier knowing that I will never have to lay eyes on that ring ever again.
Fenny leaves me at the entrance to the amphitheater. I swim the rest of the way down to the stage at the bottom, where Duke Ilryth is already waiting. He lounges on the lowest step, straightening away as I near.
“I’ve realized something,” I say.
“And what is that?”
“You lied to me.” My toes land on the edge of the step above him. I seem to be in an antagonistic mood today. Or perhaps I’ve caught my footing enough in this strange world to be my usual, challenging self.
“Excuse me?” He arches his brows.
“You led me to believe that it was hard to cross the Fade. That you didn’t cross regularly, and that when you came to claim me was one of the rare times you had done it.” I fold my arms, perfectly poised. I’ve already grown quite accustomed to the sensations of moving in the water. “But that can’t be true, can it? If it were, you wouldn’t have a whole treasure trove of human items that could only be collected by moving between worlds.”
His lips quirk slightly into a frown but he still says nothing. I push off the step, my body moving of its own accord, unable to take his nonchalance for a second longer. His eyes follow my movements and the water between us grows heavy.
“You know what I can’t stand about men like you?”
“No. But I suspect you’re about to tell me.” He’s goading me. But I let him. I’ll allow him to have the sense of power only because I was going to tell him anyway.
