“Just now.”
The caves. I’m too stunned to comprehend what this could mean. Was Amelie running away?Trulyrunning away? She would have to be terrified out of her wits to do something as reckless as that. To leave me behind. My rage returns hotter than ever. “What did you do to her?”
Aspen ignores me. “Send guards after her.”
The guard nods. “I’ve already dispatched some, Your Majesty, but the tide is already coming in. She won’t make it long in there, nor will the guards.”
He gives the fae a withering look, and his voice comes out cold. “Send guards to search every cave. I want the water up to their chins before a single one tries to return. And after that, I want guards stationed on the beach. If you don’t find her alive, I want her body retrieved when it washes ashore.”
The guard salutes and leaves my room, while I bristle at the carelessness of his words. “You’re a monster.”
He rounds on me. “I’m not the fool who ran into the caves. And if I find out you have anything to do with this, I’ll throw you in the ocean after her.” With that, he storms out of my room. I race after him, but before I reach my door, he shouts at the other guards who had remained in the hall. “Don’t let her leave her room.”
I halt as the fae guards bar my path. One reaches forward to slam my door shut. I’m left gaping, heart racing. What in the blazing iron is happening? All I can think of is my sister, running for the caves. Running from terror. From Aspen.
I channel my rage into beating my door with my fist, begging the guards to let me out. It doesn’t matter that the action is fruitless. I must do something—anything—with my body to keep myself angry. Because if I’m not angry, I’ll be anxious. Terrified. I’ll lose my mind.
Hours pass, the light of dawn breaking through my windows, yet I continue to shout and throw my weight at the door. My voice is raw, shoulders and hands throbbing, by the time the handle begins to turn. I’m so shocked, I barely have time to move out of the way before the door swings open. Cobalt’s eyes lock on mine, and before I realize what’s happening, he pulls me into his arms. I hardly register the fact that I’m crying into his chest, my entire body racked with sobs.
He brushes a hand along my back, smoothing my hair. “Let’s get you out of here,” he whispers.
“Here’s her cloak,” says a voice behind me. Lorelei. She drapes the heavy fabric over my shoulders, and I pull it tight around me. That’s when I remember I’m in nothing more than my nightdress. Cobalt rests his hand on my lower back and guides me out of the room. When we reach the hall, the guards are nowhere to be seen.
“I sent them on a false errand,” he says. “I can’t believe my brother locked you in your room when your sister is missing. That was cruel, and I’m sorry.”
“He was only being cautious,” Lorelei says from the other side of me, “but I agree. It wasn’t the right thing to do in this situation.”
I’m lost in a daze as we move through the halls of the palace. “Where are we going?”
“I don’t know,” Cobalt admits. “I just wanted to get you out of your room. I knew you’d be worried sick. I can take you to my room, if that makes you feel more comfortable.”
Someone rounds a corner at the end of the hall, then begins racing toward us. As the figure closes the distance, I realize it’s Foxglove. “They found someone,” he says breathlessly.
The words make me alert, clearing the fog from my brain. “Where? Is it my sister? Is she all right?”
Foxglove wrings his hands. “They’re bringing her from the caves now.”
“Take me to the shore,” I demand.
“My brother has the lower part of the palace heavily guarded,” Cobalt says.
I face him. “I need to see her.”
He holds my gaze. “You might not like what you see.”
I don’t want to consider what he means by that. Instead, I grit my teeth. “I don’t care.”
“The dining room,” Lorelei says. She takes off down the hall, and I follow. Up the stairs we climb until we reach our destination. I rush to the other side of the dining room to the rail at the edge of the open expanse. There, beneath the dim light of the rising sun, I see the narrow sliver of beach, crawling with guards. The rest is hidden by the tide, revealing only the slightest hint of a cave as the crashing waves recede.
I hardly blink as I watch every movement of every guard, seeking any sign of my sister.
Foxglove gasps, then points toward the beach. “The cave. Look.”
I watch as the rolling waves pull away from the shore, revealing movement at the mouth of the only visible cave. A guard pulls himself from the opening just as another wave crashes into him. He holds his ground until the water pulls away, then he reaches into the opening. His arms wrap around something that he hoists forward, a blur of white and blue. Another figure emerges from the entrance, pushing the bulk of their burden to the shore. Once the two guards are free from the cave, several more follow, all dripping seawater.
The first two guards reach for the bundle they’d pulled ashore. One lifts a set of pale arms. The other hoists up her legs. A third spreads a thin, blue fabric—what remains of a tattered dress—over her body like a shroud, covering even her face. What I can see of her hair looks nothing more than a mass of dark tangles, heavy with water and kelp. Still, I know it’s her.
It’s my sister.
