Chapter 26
ARIEL
“ Y ou mother was born of god-blood,” my father continued when I just stared at him, too dumbfounded to even speak. “Ariel, I know this is hard to comprehend, but you must believe me; Siora was the daughter of a god.”
“Who else knows this?” Hemming asked. Somehow, he’d managed to find his tongue.
“Very few. Myself…Lord Kaplyn…perhaps my brother Kade, though I cannot be certain that even he did. It was a well-kept secret for a reason.”
“Her lineage endangered her.” Hemming’s observation made me shudder, and my father nodding in agreement did little to help.
“Generally speaking, the gods are jealous and powerful beings who despise change. Siora’s existence alone would have made her a target. As for Vesstan, I do not know his specific reasons for his singular interest in her, but I’m sure they were ominous at best. That was why she fled Anemosia—to try to keep the Minyades safe from him.”
“So Kaplyn really did try to protect her.”
“He did. And it was because of Kade’s alliance with him that I met her.”
Truth and fiction swam together in my mind, stirring up a mess of questions that I wasn’t sure I even wanted the answers to. But there was one I could not help but ask. “Who was her father? My grandfather ?”
“A war god,” he said softly. “That is all I know. Siora never spoke of him.”
“Bastard children rarely wish to discuss their fathers.” Hemming’s harsh tone was impossible to ignore.
“No,” my father said, his gaze lingering on the points of Hemming’s ears, “I don’t imagine they do.”
“And my grandmother?” I asked. “What do you know of her?”
“Just that she was Minyade; nothing more. Now,” he said as he moved toward the door, “I would like that moment alone with my daughter.” He looked back at Hemming, whose hesitation was plain.
“I’ll be fine. Go get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Everything he wished he could say flared in his grey eyes before he turned to leave. “Sleep well.” Without so much as a look back, he slipped out of my room and closed the door behind him.
“He does his Nychteride blood proud,” my father said, looking at the exit. “I am glad you have him to protect you.”
“As am I.” I let out a breath and made my way over to the edge of the bed. My father followed me there, and together, we sat down on the edge. “Baba…what you’ve told me…I feel like everything I’ve ever known to be true is unraveling around me.”
“It may very well be.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and hugged me into his side. “Your history—the history of Archigi in general—has been bastardized over time, lies mixing with truths until one is indiscernible from the other. I learned this in my time with your mother.”
“Tell me,” I said, sadness rimming my voice. “Tell me what she told you.”
“Siora didn’t like to discuss her life before meeting me, but she did shed light on details she thought it imperative I know?—”
“Like being the daughter of a god.”
“Yes,” he said, squeezing me lightly, “that, as well as others. She was still young, by god standards, when she went into hiding, but even still, she knew her existence put her in danger.”
“And, to be clear, she was never Kaplyn’s prisoner,” I said as grief and regret swam in my gut. He really had told us the truth.
“Never. How did you get such a perverse idea?” The offense my father took at my words made me think better of naming Eldrien as the teller of such a tale.
“Rumors I heard in Anemosia. Nothing more.”
“Kaplyn did all he could to hide her away—and you, once you came along. Though she never said as much, I think abandoning the Minyades pained her deeply.”
“But she was happy in the Midlands?”
“She was when I met her,” he said with a faint smile. “I was there on business with your uncle. She happened to be with Kaplyn when we arrived, and I fell for her that instant.”
“Much to Kade’s dismay, I’m sure.”
“I’m afraid so.” He cast a sideward glance at me. “But you said you were raised in the encampment, which means he must have taken you in.”
I nodded. “He found me the night Mama died,” I explained as tears welled in my eyes. “He raised me as his daughter.”
“ Clever ,” he mused. “No one searching for you would have suspected you’d be there. The alliance between him and Kaplyn was very discreet. Few knew of it.”
“I think that’s why he did it, though it was no small feat, given how much the Nychterides hate anyone with Minyade blood.”
“And he raised you as a warrior?”
“He did, though I had the luxury of being the general’s daughter to stave off the ire of any who wished me harm. It worked—until it didn’t—but that’s a story for another time.” Explaining that would necessitate giving up Hemming’s secrets, and his story was his own to tell. One day, when we were back home and safe, he could tell my father if he wished to.
My father would surely accept the true male who’d kept his daughter safe all the years when he could not.
“Baba,” I said as I leaned my head against his shoulder, “what happened the night Mama died?”
He took a deep breath and exhaled long and slow—not a good sign, as far as stories went. “I wish I knew, Ariel.” I pulled away to better look at him. “Vesstan took me a few days before she was attacked. He wanted information I wouldn’t give him, so he kept me prisoner. I thought he planned to use me to leverage Siora somehow. Thankfully, at the time, he knew nothing about you, but not long after your mother’s death, that changed. I overheard Vesstan talking to someone about using the Minyades to find the girl. I can only imagine that the curse is intertwined with that mission somehow; that it is the reason the curse didn’t end with her death.”
“It sounded as though the curse worsened over the past few years, so I think you’re right. The timing makes sense, but why use the Minyades at all? Why not just return to hunt for me himself?”
“Because Vesstan was bound to this island after the night he killed your mother, and I imagine that was his desperate attempt to force his quarry here.”
“Bound to the island? By whom?”
“I don’t know, but it would take the power of another god to accomplish such a feat. They’re wicked and cruel, and their games only make sense to themselves.”
An ominous silence fell upon us until I broke it with a question that had niggled at the back of my mind since the memories of my mother’s death had resurfaced. “Baba?” I asked softly.
“Yes?”
“There’s something about the night Mama died that doesn't make sense to me.” His dark eyes searched mine as he listened intently. “When I recall what happened, every image that plays in my mind is drowned in ash and fire. I assume that’s why Kade and Kaplyn suspected the Minyades were behind it; that they had turned on Mama for leaving them. And that would all have made sense, knowing what they knew then, except for one thing.”
“What’s that, my sweet girl?”
I swallowed back my emotions. “Mama was badly burned— charred . Was she not like me? With scales that could withstand fire?”
His body tensed as he hesitated a moment. “She was.”
Tears rolled down my cheeks at the vision of her blackened and broken body. “Then how did she burn, Baba? Does Vesstan have some sort of fire magic we can’t withstand?”
“I cannot be certain,” he said, “which is why he needs to be dealt with before you find out the hard way. And quickly. He cannot learn who you are before then, Ariel. It will mean your end?—”
“I have faced death before,” I said, lifting my chin a notch higher.
“But not against a being that could truly kill you,” he added.
An oddly comforting yet sobering sentiment, to be sure.
If I had known during those near-death encounters that those trying to kill me couldn't have succeeded, things would have played out so differently—and Hemming would never have had to sacrifice his wings. Yet another sobering sentiment I didn’t have time to think about. “Tell me what I need to do.”
Pride sparkled in his dark eyes as a tiny smile tugged at his lips. That small change in expression changed everything about his face, and I could see in an instant why my mother had loved him as she did.
“Vesstan is a creature of habit, which means he will most likely suggest hosting a ball in your honor—an opulent, indulgent affair to impress and, more importantly, seduce you. But despite what I told you earlier,it is you who must seduce him . You must lull him into complacency before you make your move. But this is also where things could take a dangerous turn, Ariel, because Vesstan is no fool. He cannot be easily tricked, so it must feel real. Use whatever means you have to get him somewhere private—away from his guards and those loyal to him.”
“I’ve already convinced him that I’m demure and meek,” I said, hope rising deep within me, “and that I need him. He’s aroused by it.”
My father’s smile fell away. “Then you should continue to use this weakness against him until the time is right. His parties aren’t known for their discretion, so you must play up your need for privacy to get him to lead you away from the ball. Once you’re alone, you must draw him close, then kill him.”
“How?” I asked, thinking it couldn’t be that simple. “Is there something specific I must do? Some particular weapon I must use or place I must strike?”
“It is neither of those things, but rather the blood that runs through your veins that makes him vulnerable to you.” No sooner had those enigmatic words left his mouth than he shot to his feet and stared at the door, his expression strained. “Vesstan is coming.” He pulled me up by my shoulders and leveled worried eyes on mine. “Remember everything I’ve told you here tonight, Ariel, and promise me that you will play along with him until you have your chance to take him out.”
“But Baba?—”
“Promise me, Ariel!”
“I promise?—”
“Good.” He hugged me tightly, then hurried toward the door. Opening it slowly, he peeked around the corner, then looked back at me. “I will try to return to you soon.” He disappeared into the hall without another word and closed the door behind him without a sound.
I ran to the door, his warning still running through my mind. But when I dared a glance down the hall, he was already gone.
And Vesstan was nowhere to be seen.
Dark thoughts eclipsed my father’s warning: visions of all the things Vesstan might do to him if he figured out what was going on. Who he was to me. Who I really am…
And it was with that noose tightening around my neck that I slipped out of the white gown, climbed into bed, and lay awake until the sun rose again.