She is their queen. Their star. Their savior.
Once, that would have terrified me, but now I know that just as Willa is meant for me, she is also meant for this kingdom.
My joints ache fiercely as I follow her up the steps, and by the time I step into the cool entryway, my fingers have begun to tremor at my sides. I clutch them into fists with a curse, releasing my death from my grip with a breath of relief. There is no need to keep it so close in the confines of my home anymore—no need to contain it when its wants are so entangled with my own.
The moment I cross the threshold, she whirls on me. But I am ready for her, as I always am.
“What happened with the Aeternalis?” she demands.
“Nothing,” I answer honestly, shoving my spasming hands into my pockets. “I wasn’t even halfway to the beach when I realized there was no way I was letting you out of my sight, even if it meant he burned down the Lunaedon. I turned around to come find you almost immediately.”
“Because you didn’t trust me? Didn’t trust I’d be strong enough to save everyone on my own?” Something soft lies beneath the anger prickling at her surface. A vulnerability.
“Because my place is beside you, and leaving it feltwrong.I spent so much of our time together last year ignoring what I felt, and it led me so far astray. I have vowed to trust it now. Wholly.”
She bites her lip, and begins to pace like the repetitive movement will serve to calm her racing thoughts. “What are wegoing to do, Niko? We can’t kill Peter and if I use any more magic, I’m going to be lost forever to the whims of the shadow. How are we ever going to win?”
My answering smile is not hopeful, nor good-humored. It is the grin of death, of endings, and Willa shivers in response. “Who do you think is the most imaginative?”
Her brow crinkles uncertainly.
“Heroes who must adhere to every rule? Who exist between the hard cut lines of morality...or us? You have the heart of a villain, Willa, same as mine. If we don’t like the rules of the game, we must change them.”
I close the space between us. “Do not let that shadow scare you away from wielding your darkness as you were meant to. Yours is not empty, but as full as the space carved between the stars. Without it, we would not see their shine.”
I kiss the sob from her lips, and soothe the fear still prickling over my own skin with her touch. And I thank the star above for the fear, for it is borne of a love I never thought I’d deserve.
Chapter forty-six
Afew days later, Tiernan and I stand barefoot on the beach. The sun hangs high in the sky, its rays casting an orange glow over the still waters of the lagoon.
I take a deep breath. “Please don’t let her drown me.”
It is a worrying prospect to accidentally wade into the seas of a siren, but it is far more terrifying to have beencalledto them. Tiernan and I had been out walking in an effort to clear my head when the siren’s song had drifted over the water to snare around my ribs. Melodic and impossibly insistent.
“Drowning is probably the least of your worries when it comes to Lisian,” Tiernan remarks. At my incredulous look, he lets out a light laugh. “I’m kidding! Well— I’m kind of kidding…On second thought, maybe you should take a few weapons with you.”
“I can’t swim while carrying swords!”
He gives me a wink that should settle my worry, but it only beckons memories of the last time I nearly drowned in this lagoon. At the time, the sirens were the most terrible monsterI could imagine—if only I’d known there were far more terrible ones wearing human skin.
“Just be nice. And if you’re not, I promise I’m a strong swimmer.”
I roll my eyes and wade into the chilly surf. I expect waves to rise the moment I submerge, but the water remains as still as glass. The swim is so easy that by the time I reach the siren draped lazily over one of the cragged rocks, I half-expect a sea serpent or some other similar horror to leap from the lagoon.
Nothing ever comes this easily in Letum, and I’ve learned well enough not to trust the things that do. So, when Lisian bares her teeth in a hiss, it is almost soothing, as violence is expected. Comforting, even.
I raise my hands in peace the best I can while treading water, but the siren is not assuaged. She narrows her brilliant sapphire eyes, and flips onto her belly to crouch on her hands like she’s ready to pounce. Her tail flaps angrily against the rock, the iridescent shimmer of the scales blinding in the sunlight.
When she hisses again, it takes everything in me not to flinch back. She is beautiful in a terrible sort of way, her skin somehow the same shade as the surface of the lagoon—a clear blue beneath a shimmering tangerine. The bangles at her wrists and throat jangle menacingly with each of her movements, and I swear, a few of them are stained with the copper of dried blood.
I swallow roughly, considering whether or not I can swim fast enough to retreat back to Tiernan, when the siren inclines her head just a fraction and says, “Long live the Queen of Dreams.”
I nearly drown, forgetting to tread water in my surprise. My cheeks heat, and I somehow manage to resume the motion of my legs before I sink to the depths.
“I—hi.” It isn’t the most eloquent of greetings, sputtered as it is and muffled by seawater.
Lisian’s snarl is replaced by a vague frown as she runs her eyes over me in assessment. She must find whatever she sees to be lacking, as she sniffs in vague disapproval before relaxing her stance. Her long tail drapes over the edge of her rock, flapping at the water in an annoyed manner, as she turns her attention back to the examination of her own talons.
