“I know your birthday’s tomorrow, Cordelia Wildheart,” I said, extending my arm towards her. “But happy birthday.”
She took it from my hand and assessed it with focused eyes.
“Whoa. It’s the most beautiful arrow I have ever seen in my entire life.”
“Do you know what’s special about this one?” She shook her head. “Red, for blood, silver, for the moon, blue, for the ocean. We call it thecry-for-war. We aim it at the ground before our enemy, and we roar at the sky above us,We’re Ice, children of Boreas the tempest, and we come for bloodshed.”
“We’re Ice, children of Boreas the tempest, and we come for bloodshed,” she slowly repeated as if trying to memorise the words.
“Now, what I’ve just shared with you is top-secret Vanguard information, so you’d better not tell anyone about this.”
“I won’t,” she promised.
I was heading to my room when I was forced off course, pulled and dragged by the smell of her scent, like pollen does to a wandering bee.
The dining hall was absurdly decorated with a variety of plate-sized flowers, to-scale stuffed creatures, candelabras, drapes, and other things I couldn’t quite name.
An eight-tier cake that almost had me gaping occupied one corner of the room. Then my eyes widened as I beheld an aquarium—or rather a series of aquariums—lining the whole length of the eastern wall. Each compartment, I noticed, held some sort of rare underwater species—sea dragons of various colours, jellyfish, eels, stingrays, purple-ringed octopuses, lionfish, angler fish, and anything that fell within the category of adorable-but-deadly.She must have caught them for her.
What I was witnessing and her overwhelming scent, told me that she was trying too hard. And her intentions, I could tell, sprouted from roots made of fear and desperation—she wantedto give her as much as she could, for she knew the clock was ticking.
I had trailed the whole length of the aquarium, and she didn’t even notice my presence.
I cut the silence. “My Queen, you’re still awake.”
She jerked, then quickly wiped her face. The gesture made it seem like she tried to rub away the look of concern and transform it into one that says,I’m fine.
As if I couldn’t fucking sense it.
“Yes, I was making sure everything was perfect for tomorrow.” I hated how long she took to meet my gaze.
“Will you tell me what’s wrong?”
She dodged my question by saying, “I heard my daughter say and I quote, ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake,’when she couldn’t get her hair braids right this morning. You’re going to have to stop swearing in front of her if you want me to keep letting this warrior training thing go on.”
Shit. I told her not to repeat any of the bad words,especiallyin front of her mother.
I also tried to dodge that one. “We’ve actually moved on to self-defence and archery.”
“Oh, have you now?”
I moved closer, propped myself on the tabletop, filling the space where her chair would have been if it had remained tucked under the table.
“Oh, and as of today, your daughter is officially listed as a member of the Water Vanguard.” Her chuckle brought joy to my heart, so I continued. “We actually came up with an alias, to trick you into signing the ledger.” Then she laughed, eyes glassy. “Cordelia Wildheart,” I emphasised.
“I feel like you two are always scheming behind my back.”
I smiled at that. “Nah, not always. You’ll keep our little secret, right?”
“CordeliaWildheart. I quite like that.” She smiled. “And you know that I will keep your little secret, otherwise you wouldn’t have told me. Thank you, though, for telling me.”
My own smile faltered. “I worry about you.”
“You don’t have to worry about me.”
“How could I not?” I almost pleaded. “You’re constantly worrying, it’s—it’s eating you alive.”
“Well, howcould Inot? Tomorrow’s her tenth birthday, Galen. Ayla told me that Elara seemed three or so years older in her vision. And that was three years ago.I’msoafraid. I always try not to show her this fear I’m always carrying. I smile at her—like a hypocrite—as if nothing bad will ever happen to her, and yet I know that there is no future for us, no future for her. Sometimes I think she knows it, too. She’s too smart for her own good. When the time comes—”
