Aleissande’s brow was stern. “Was she attacking Kakos? They hold the port, do they not?”
Natali’s lips pinched in the corner. “The shipload of dead human prisoners would indicate otherwise.”
Josie’s stomach clenched, her lips parting in horror as she stared at the Saj. “That’s impossible,” she rasped.
“Is it?” The Saj’s amber eyes gleamed. “How many impossible things have already come to pass?”
“Aya wouldnever—”
“Again, you make assumptions,” Natali interjected. “Perhaps there are other powers at play. Other powers we donot understand. But the truth remains: The realm believes a Dark Saint has risen, and that she spells destruction for Eteryium. It is exactly the fuel the Bellare needed to move against your family in light of Aidon’s treason against the gods. Their argument has always been that Visya overstep their bounds, that their original purpose was to serve, as deemed by the gods, and whenever they step outside of such purpose, they are a threat to humans. Now, they have proof.”
Josie’s temper did not need much to ignite these days, not with all she had faced. She felt the heat of it licking against her insides, a flame that burned as hot as Aidon’s Incend fire at Natali’s accusation.
But a dawning realization doused it as quickly as it had come.
“He’ll be in Sitya,” she breathed.
Aleissande’s gaze snapped to hers. “What?” How she still managed to sound so commanding while a step away from death’s door, Josie didn’t know.
“There’s only one reason Aidon wouldn’t return home,” Josie reasoned, her heart hammering as she turned her theory over in her mind. The more she thought on it, the more certain she became.
Only one thing would keep Aidon from returning, and it was not fear or guilt.
“You think he went after Aya,” Cole remarked.
“I do.”
Natali, however, didn’t look convinced.
“I know my brother,” Josie pressed. “He would have heard news of Aya’s disappearance and acted on it.”
Natali cocked their head, their silver hair swinging with the movement as they pursed their lips in contemplation. “No one has seen Will Castell since the Battle of Dunmeaden. Is it possible they’re together?”
It wasn’t just possible, Josie thought. It was a near certainty. She knew without a doubt that Will would have gone insearch of Aya. And if Aidon had not returned home, it was because he had joined Will or gone to look for her himself. Josie knew it as surely as she knew the sky was blue.
“He won’t know what’s happened here,” Josie realized. “Not until news reaches the eastern continent.” She rubbed her pointer finger against the space between her brows in an attempt to ease the tension building there.
Even if Aidonhadheard that the rumors of his power had spread, he would see Aya as far more valuable to the realm’s future than he was.
The realm needed Aya, but her people…they needed their king. They did not stand a chance against Kakos without him. The Bellare might value human life, but they did so at the cost of the Visya. It would take humans and Visya alike to defeat the Decachiré, and Josie knew of only one person who could unite the Trahirian people to do just that.
“We need Aidon,” Josie insisted.
Cole shifted in his seat, his elbows bracing on his knees as he leaned forward. “I’ll go to Sitya,” he offered.
Josie went to argue, but Cole raised a hand. “I know you want to go, but you can’t. Not only are you too recognizable, but you’re needed here.”
For what?Josie wanted to demand. What good had she brought to Trahir thus far? What value did she have to provide now?
“Cole is right,” Aleissande affirmed, grimacing as she pushed herself up into a full sitting position. “You can’t go.”
“Is that an order?” Josie asked.
Aleissande’s jaw tensed in the face of her defiance. “No,” she replied evenly. “But I would have thought you’d prefer to assist here.” She lifted her chin, and despite the blood still marring her clothes, she looked every bit the general Josie knew her to be as she said, “Or do you not wish to help me retake your brother’s throne?”
A huff escaped Natali as they folded their arms. “You’llneed to put on a better showing than you did on the beach if you wish to defeat the Bellare.”
Aleissande snapped some retort, but it was lost to the stirring Josie felt in her stomach—an emotion building that she could not place. Not when her mind was already racing.
