“Our orders were to propose an alliance, but when we arrived and made our request, their soldiers laughed, called us demon savages. Said we deserved everything Heliconia did to us for running them out of Vorinthia. Our captain hit him. He hit back. It ended with a body in the water and the rest of us escorted out with spears in our backs.”
“Gods,” I breathed.
A knock came so suddenly that I jolted.
Amanti poked her head in. “Am I interrupting?”
I noted Keres’ hand retracted from where she’d gone for her hidden blade.
“No, come in,” I said.
Amanti stepped into the room, and I noted the flowing cape and pantsuit she wore. It was the color of stormwater, churned and spit out again, beautiful but destructive. The shade perfectly complemented her gray eyes.
“You look gorgeous,” I told her, noting the fabric even had a sleeve sewn like a sling for her injured arm. Nali had outdone herself.
“As do both of you,” Amanti said. “You’ve clearly made a friend in Nali.”
“I hope she still sees me that way after tonight,” I murmured.
A soft two-tone chime rang from the corridor—music that meant the hour turned.
Our summoning.
My questions about Amanti’s life debt would have to wait.
We checked each other like soldiers before parade—laces, seams, hidden blades. Amanti reached for my hand the way she used to when I was small and afraid.
“We go together,” she said.
“We come back together,” Keres added.
“And we find a way to make them like us,” I put in.
Keres’s mouth quirked. “That’s quite the strategic plan.”
We stepped into the hall. Two naiad waited there in livery the deep blue of Naliadne’s hair. They dipped their heads and led the way without a word.
As we followed, I thought of what Nali had called Rydian. The words kept catching at the edges of my breath. I hadn’t let myself think on it before, but now it was an alarm ringing in my head.
An heir.
A shadow prince.
It fit Rydian in a way that made too much sense. Not because of the power. Because of how he carried it. How he carried himself. Not like a bastard-born second son. Like an heir to a kingdom all his own.
A Midnight prince.
He’d kept it from me. Even with Patamoi staring him down, king to future king, he’d let me think he was nothing more than a soldier fighting for his people. A lie that might cost me this alliance.
I set my jaw, fury clawing through me.
He didn’t get to keep secrets from me. Not anymore.
The corridor opened. Music drifted toward me, richer than it had any right to be this far under the surface. The smell of salt and citrus and something sweet I couldn’t place washed over us. Bubbles floated by, each holding a pocket of air and a set of lights that bobbed like captured stars. Naiad laughed and moved and shimmered on two legs through the dry hall.
I felt the urgency rise under my ribs again—Lesha’s face, her pure and joyful heart, the way she’d held my world together with her laughter all those years. I didn’t know how long we had until Heliconia snuffed those things out. I just knew it wasn’t enough.
Chapter Eighteen
