“We already have all the intelligence they had to off—”
“I really am too tired to be repeating myself,” Yemi interrupted with a pointed look.
Cutter exhaled through his nose. Whatever humbling he’d suspected she’d experienced, it had worn off. “As you wish, My Light.”
He saluted and tucked his fresh cigar into the corner of his mouth. The room was silent until the door clicked closed behind him. She glanced at Nova, who returned a raised eyebrow and a look that suggested she knew Yemi was up to something. Selah seemed to linger, standing rather anxiously in the middle of the room.
“Thank you, Selah. Your continued service is appreciated,” Yemi assured her.
She collected her things with a palpable reluctance and slowed her steps just before she reached the door. “Helene and I were in love once,” she said in a low voice, her chin raised in a gesture of wounded pride. “Lifetimes ago. Not unlike the two of you, only for a hundred years and not a paltry dozen. So, understand that when you tell me the love of all of my lives is sick in a place I can’t tread to care for her, and you do it with thatface, that smug irreverence,child, the only reason you aren’t a smattering of dust on that rug is a promise.”
“Ipromise I’ve endeared myself more to your mother than you did the last time you spoke, so maybe tonight’s not the night to traffic in idle threats,” Yemi retorted. “Good night, Selah.”
Selah chewed her bottom lip long enough for it to appear a swollen, bloody red as she visibly restrained herself. She finally gave a curt nod and backed out of the room.
“Alright, what was that?” Nova asked after a beat.
“Our Selah has not been entirely honest with us,” Yemi said, taking a few unsteady steps to collapse onto the bed. She tipped backward and closed her eyes to the ceiling, grateful for the sensation of dry warmth. “She’s Ursla’s daughter.”
“She’sWHAT?”
“Shh. That fertility stone is an artifact stolen from Ursla. Rather than stick around and face the consequences, she absconded to shore and abandoned Helene, her beloved, to whatever fate awaited her. So she’s a liar, a thief, and disloyal, and I don’t think we can trust her beyond her own goals.” Yemi said nothing of the revelation that her family’s misery had been Selah’s doing. She was in no mood to be talked down.
“But what does she want?”
“I don’t know. But with the apple not falling far from the tree, I’d like to keep our reliance on her to a minimum.”
In the ensuing silence, Yemi assumed Nova was still wrapping her mind around this new information. “Alright. Other than that, how was the trip?”
“Hostile. Things sort of… fell apart for the Mer when my grandmother left.”
“Shit.”
“Very. The city’s a relic already. Whatever magic the place had once, it’s gone.”
“Sad.” Nova shook her head. “So, what assistance did they offer?”
Yemi yawned again. “I need my family’s stone. With it, I get command of the sea’s forces for a day, which is much longer than we’ll even need if we play this right.”
“You just said the stone was Ursla’s.”
Shit.Yemi cursed herself for the slipup, then Nova for paying so much damned attention.
“It is,” she admitted.
“Is this Helene’s help or hers?” Nova asked, though her tone suggested she knew the answer.
Yemi sighed and struggled to sit back up. “Helene has no power—”
“Comeon, Yemi!” Nova shouted, incredulous.
“There is no Mer army!” Yemi insisted. “Helene commands only the loyalty of her house. Everyone else has abandoned her for new sea kingdoms elsewhere.”
“This is thesea witch. There are centuries of stories, none of which ever go the way anyone intends except for her. You were well aware of this until two weeks ago.”
“This betrayal is a large part of the reason she’s the way she is. I set it right for her, she sets this right for me. That’s our exchange. No tricks, no loopholes.”
Nova flexed her hands in a strangling gesture and roared her frustration.
