Without the constant shake of our walking, the bioluminescent jars had dimmed. We listened to the waves. The stunted slam of water against rock,the slow creep of the tide as it drifted away and prepared to strike again. Clouds scraped over the half-moon, a shroud crawling across the sky.
“I don’t think your soul is broken, Cebrinne,” Aegir said softly.
“No?” I turned my head to study him over my shoulder. A small smile graced my lips, though my heart didn’t send it there.
“No. And if it is, I think you will someday find a way to collect the broken shards and be at peace with them. You will find a way to savor your own scars.”
My smile quietly dissolved as I gazed at him. The sharpness in his eyes wore away just a little, the hunter in the green suddenly softer and quieter. Even in the gentle pools of them, something lingered, focused and potent enough that I couldn’t hold his gaze. I sent my eyes to linger over the tips of my knees, where silk ruffled under the wind. “Do you think I will find peace once Thaan is dead?”
“I don’t know,” he answered. “Do you think you will?”
I wound a silk layer over a single finger. “I think peace is a myth. I think the harder you look for it, the further it evades you. Like old men searching for their youth. It’s a lie you tell yourself so that you’ll feel better about never having it.”
I felt his silent attention drop to my hands, watching me spin my finger into my silver dress. This close, I could smell his skin. Spicy and warm, like driftwood sitting under the sun. “If peace is a myth,” he said, “then all my dreams are parables. But some things are true without morals or hidden lessons.”
A splash of water made us both turn to look behind us, down into the depths of the cave. We’d found a few fish that had somehow traveled from the ocean floor into the cavern, their source of entry unknown. Still, the sudden noise in the dark made me shift my weight, banishing the chill that lifted hair at the back of my neck.
“Is it true you killed your grandfather?” I asked.
Aegir’s brows rose. Then he relaxed in a way that left him slumped into himself. “He asked me to, so I did.” His voice sank into a murmur, and the sad melody of it coasted along my skin, rousing some haunted part of me.
I wondered what it felt like to be sad.
“Why?”
He merely watched me. My hands had stilled, silk trapped between my fingers. A thick cloud glided overhead, sending a slow shadow across Aegir’s face. He sighed, glancing back over the water. “I guess the fragments of his soul were broken. He couldn’t find peace.”
I pulled my heels close, wrapping my arms around my legs. “Do you think he’s found it now? In Perpetuum?”
Aegir started to answer—then flung an arm over me as he stood. A heartbeat thumped behind us, padded footsteps against stone. Aegir faced the dark, hands ready to cast water and drown whatever climbed out. Beads of liquid crawled toward him, crossing paths over the rock walls and floating through the air, gathering to his palms. Selena hurried to my side. I frowned into the dark tunnel ahead, peering over Aegir’s shoulder.
“What is it?” Selena whispered. “What did you hear?”
Aegir’s eyes narrowed.
A clatter of logs hitting the stone floor echoed in the dark, and a smirk framed with rough-spun rusty hair tilted out of the shadows. “Found the underwater passage.”
18
Selena
“Anything new?” Thaan asked. His arctic gaze hovered over the documents strewn across his desk, most of them branded by the blue wax remnants of King Emilius’s seal. A single red blot stuck partway out from under the haphazard stack. The crest of Oberon in Rivea. My eyes locked onto the emissary’s letter as Thaan shuffled it away.
“I think he’s beginning to enjoy my company,” Cebrinne said.
Thaan scoffed under his breath. “Has he mentioned negotiating for acordaewith your colony?”
Less certain of traditional Naiadcordaerituals and norms, her eyes slid to mine for a proper answer.
“He’s hinted at it,” I quickly supplied.
Thaan stood, shuffling his stack into a neat pile and handing it to me. He tossed a small leather pouch onto the wooden surface. “Good. One more trip and hopefully he’ll concede. Take these missives to the secretaries.” He hadn’t glanced at us once, and he turned away, looking over his shelves at the spines of books that covered his wall. “If you get the chance tocordae, take it. If he enjoys the chase, let him chase you. If he’s attracted to innocence, feign vulnerability. Talk to him late into the night, flirt with his siren guards, get him drunk on Naiad wine, I don’t care. Take your notebook with you, Cebrinne, and the drops.” He motioned to the leather pouch behind him. “I don’t enjoy draining my blood for you. Get it done.”
Jaw hard, Cebrinne snatched the pouch and notebook, stalking from the office. A hooded Pheolix followed her out, and I moved to leave as well.
“Oh,” Thaan said quietly. Already half-turned away, I rotated back to face him. “The Queen’s Starlit Bloom Masquerade is in thirteen days. This assignment of yours and Cebrinne’s is vital, but if you happen to find an opportunity to return for it, your presence wouldn’t go unnoticed. King Emilius has asked me if you intend to be there.”
I’d placed an order for our masquerade dresses months ago, but I’d forgotten it in recent weeks. I offered him a slow, single nod, a hard stitch needling between my shoulder blades.
