“Drown?” Riven asked. “It was hard to swim against the swell. But no, clearly none of us drowned, Princess, or we wouldn’t be standing here.” They both stared at me as though I was broken. I sighed. I had drowned, and since then the voices had never been so loud. The urges so close to the surface.
Something inside me felt awake in a way it never had before. It scared me how natural it felt. I had spent my life fighting it, fearing it. Now it lurked just beneath my skin, patient and volatile.
“What happened to you in the water, Lyra?” Dreya asked with careful wariness, studying as if I were an animal about to lash out. “Didyoudrown?”
“Nothing happened,” I said too quickly. The words tasted wrong even as they left my mouth. I shoved the unease aside as it tightened in my stomach, willing it not to show.
“You can’t be serious, Dreya,” Riven scoffed, his attention flicking to her before returning to me. “You know those myths are just stories.”
“Those myths are all we have left of our Gods! It is our duty to?—”
“To believe every little bedtime story?” Riven cut in. His grin came effortlessly, and he punctuated it with a wink towards me, as though Dreya’s worry meant nothing. Before I could ask what story they were talking about, Captain Bronwyn’s voice boomed from the training pits. “Break’s over, initiates!”
Captain Bronwyn’s boots struck the floor in a steady, merciless rhythm, echoing through the amphitheatre like the pulse of a war drum as she walked down the steps. We were herded from the barracks into a vast hall opposite the dining room, the theory hall. Rows of iron chairs descended towards an empty stage, silent and expectant. I sat in between Riven and Dreya, watching the shadows dance against the stone walls as the flames of the torches flickered. Roman sat next to Riven, he had returned without Hadley. A part of me wanted to ask if she was okay, the other part hoped she wasn’t.
“Forget what you know about our history. About our purpose as Iron Guards,” Captain Bronwyn’s voice echoed as she stopped in front of a large chalkboard.
“Now that the Commander of Death has resurfaced, they will be unpredictable and ruthless.” She paused, the silence as taut as a wire. “We are preparing for bloodshed.”
Riven’s leg brushed mine. Light, accidental even, yet heat bled through the fabric and into my skin. I stared at the place we touched. I told myself to move. To pull away. Not to be curious about the steadiness his touch offered. But I couldn’t. I didn’t want to.
Bronwyn’s cold voice carried across the amphitheatre. “It is because of this that the war games are being brought forwards. They are designed to awaken yourSanctums. The squad with the highest number of victories by year’s end earns leadership within the Iron Guard.” She paused, letting the weight of her words settle. “They will be more brutal than ever to ensure we are as strong as we can be.” A ripple of murmurs spread through the amphitheatre. My pulse quickened, a drumbeat of equal dread and excitement at the thought of more bloodshed, more death. Maybe the Gods will change their minds and take me as a sacrifice after all.
“Now,” she said, turning towards the slate board, “let’s begin. It’s time you learn thetrue purposeof the Iron Guard.”
Captain Bronwyn’s gaze swept over us, sharp as drawn steel. She seemed the sort of person who had forgotten how to smile long ago.
“Before the Gods left us, the Sirens didn’t just rule the sea,” she began. “Their queen ruled over usall,Fae and Mortal alike. Until the Fae slaughtered them.”
She walked along the stage slowly, hands clasped. “Does anyone know why the Sirens were killed?”
Hands shot up around the room, Captain Bronwyn pointed at an initiate in the front.
“Their blood held magical properties, drinking it gave you powers,strength.” My skin prickled. Perhaps I had something in common with the Sirens, they had also been drained of their blood against their will.
“Correct. But what commoners don’t know is that the Sea Goddess herself was their queen. She turned her back on our beloved Gods, because she fell in love with a Mortal. The Gods were furious with her. And because it was a Mortal that she fell for, our Gods turned their back onus. They stole her Mortal lover and turned him into a monster and cursed our lands. As you already know, the Fae led the final battle,” Bronwyn continued. “They slaughtered the Sirens and the Sea Goddess for the Gods, staying in their favour. It is because of her we are cursed.”
She turned towards the slate board, drawing three sharp lines across it with a piece of chalk.
“But before she died, the Sea Goddess shattered her own soul, splitting it into three Relics scattered across the realms. The Soul Relics.”
Bronwyn faced us again, her eyes hard. “Our duty, the true purpose of the Iron Guard, is to find these Relics and destroy them before the prophecy is fulfilled. This is not knowledge shared beyond this island.” Her voice dropped to a near-whisper, though it carried like a threat. “The prophecy says the Sea Goddess will rise again, that she will drown the world for killing her Sirens and kill the Gods themselves for taking her lover. We exist to make certain that never happens, and if we destroy the Relics, the Gods may shine on us again. And that, initiates, is why anyonewho manifests a water Sanctum is deemed too dangerous to live.”
Captain Bronwyn kept talking, but I couldn’t hear her over the pounding of my own heart. My stomach dropped; the air felt too thin. I’d moved the water in Hadley’s body, hadn’t I? No. That couldn’t mean… My hand gripped Riven’s thigh, and I sat rigid on the edge of my seat. I’d done it. I had moved the water in her body. It had sung to me. No. I was confused. I was just angry. Caught up in the moment.
“Uh, Princess?” Riven shifted beneath my touch.
I blinked, pulling my hand away. “Sorry.”
“Oh, it’s more than fine,” he murmured, that stupid, lopsided grin tugging at his mouth. “Just… maybe not in public.”
Heat rushed to my cheeks, and I shuffled away as Dreya leant forward with an irritated sigh.
“Can you two be quiet?” she hissed, snapping her book shut.
Riven only rolled his eyes, slinging his arm across the back of my chair. But the seed of worry had already taken root in my stomach. I’d felt my Sanctum awaken, and it was something forbidden.
Eight
