“You’ll need to tell the Fae Queen about this; that way, the governments can coordinate to clean it up before humans discover it.”
“I informed my sister first thing this morning,” Liam nodded. “She was in the process of reaching out to the other governments when I came back.”
“How the hell did you travel there and back so fast?” I asked.
Liam lifted a massive shoulder. “I lyskifted.”
Teleported. He teleported there and back. Because of course he did. Jesus Christ.
Hush stopped her pacing and stared at Audrey intensely, a stare that Audrey immediately felt and addressed with a glare. Hush raised a blonde eyebrow in a clear, silent challenge. A challenge that Audrey groaned at, throwing her hands up in exasperation, before declaring, “I’m not?—”
“Youare,” Hush interrupted her. “You can’t possibly still be in denial of it.”
I picked up on what they were arguing about and inserted my own two cents, “Doesn’t the Siren King thinkhe’sthe Chosen One? Why would it be Audrey?”
“King Ilia was deemed the prophesied one fifty years ago, when he single-handedly defeated the first solvyrn to emerge from the oceans and touch Hyvenmere soil in hundreds of years,” Hush interrupted me with a withering glare in my direction.
I slid my gaze over to Audrey as I asked, “How many, uh, solvyrn’s have shown up since?”
“One.” The three of them replied.
Well, shit.
“Does the prophecy talk about killing solvyrn, specifically?”
“The language of the prophecy has been translated and rewritten dozens of times over thousands of years,” Liam explained. “The original language and meaning are probablylost, leaving a lot of Hyvenmere to guess the interpretation. Two pieces of it have remained consistent, though. One piece is that the person will have several powerful gifts, whereas Hyvenmerians generally only have one, if any. Audrey hastwo. The second is the prediction that the prophesied hero will ‘slay an ancient beast’.”
I scrunched my nose. “Okay, but, like—” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Why does it matter?”
Hush tilted her head at me, her eyes the only part of her face that allowed me to interpret her quizzical expression. “What do you mean?”
“Why does it matter if Audrey or Ilia is the prophesied Chosen One?” Perhaps if I understood the significance of this role more, I would be more helpful.
Hush sighed as she crossed the room to lean against my shelf of trinkets.
“Things are already tense in Lyndoruun,” Hush explained. She flicked her eyes over to Liam and Audrey, who nodded in agreement. “Ilia is a dangerous ruler who has become more aggressive with age and the loss of his queen. He takes pride in his role as King of the Sirens, protector of the Fjellenheim Mountains, and as the Chosen One the prophecy foretold. Hyvenmerian governments have been able to keep peaceful trades under his and Queen Astrid’s rule—before she passed, that is.”
“Before his bastard son—” Liam started, before Audrey interrupted him.
“Being the Chosen One gave Ilia all his success,” Audrey explained, looking to Hush for her nod of confirmation. “He killed the solvyrn that directly endangered Astrid, the former Siren Queen. That accomplishment is what allowed Astrid’s parents to bless their union, so he could take the throne next toher. Who better to guard the Fjellenheim Mountains than the Chosen One from a prophecy designed to unite all the lands?”
“So basically, if he’s not actually the Chosen One…” I pointed toward Audrey. “Andyouare, his seat on the throne will have been because of a misunderstanding.”
“Imagine the distrust his people will have toward him,” Hush added with a nod. “Especially when he’s already losing his grip on them.”
I glanced around the room, waiting for an explanation.
Everyone just stared silently in thought, so I rolled my eyes and groaned before saying, “I’m new to literally all of this; stop speaking in vague cliffhangers.”
“It’s just so much.” Audrey sighed with a pinch on the bridge of her nose. “Where do I start with this?”
Hush rolled her golden eyes. “If you must know, human, Lyndoruun has its own mess to deal with, on top of our king possiblynotbeing the prophesied peacekeeper we were all raised to believe he was.” Hush crossed her arms over her chest and danced her fingertips on her bicep. “We also have a very significant problem where siren mothers and children are continuing to go missing.”
My heart ached. “Oh.”
“Yes,oh.” Hush shook her head as she stared at something on the wall behind me, a divot formed between her brows. “It’s gotten worse over the last couple of years. Even more so this year. Every week, a new siren female and her child are reported missing. Every time Ilia’s guard is close to finding answers, the trail goes dry.” Hush shook her head once. “My people are scared. We don’t know who is hunting us or why. If they’re even alive or not. Sometimes we manage to find a blood trail, but then…nothing. All we know is that it’s getting increasingly unsafe for siren females to wander the realm alone.”
I huffed and dropped my eyes, understanding all too well how dangerous it was for women to travel alone. But Hush was speaking as if this were anewphenomenon. Was that not a common threat in Hyvenmere? Were Hyvenmerian women not raised to hold their car keys in between their knuckles when walking in a parking lot at night?
