Chapter 27
ARIEL
W hen the sun did indeed rise, I awoke to find a different maid fussing about my room. “You must get dressed,” she said, flinging my comforter off me. “The master will not be made to wait.”
“Yes,” I said with a smile, “I’m beginning to understand his love of punctuality.”
She looked over her shoulder at me, exposing a cheek marred with a ghastly scar. She stood there still as stone, willing me to take in the warning she must not have heeded in the past, then placed a new dress on the chair.
“I can dress myself,” I insisted.
She nodded once before heading to the door. “Be in the dining room in ten minutes.” The door clicked shut behind her.
Though I wanted to chase after her and ask a million questions, I hurried about the room, opting to prepare for my meeting with Vesstan. He may or may not have been able to burn me, but I wasn’t at all interested in finding out—or learning what other types of wounds he could inflict.
After managing to secure the dress around my wings, I rushed from my room. I cast a glance at Hemming’s door, desperately wanting to see him and tell him what my father had told me. But when I looked down the lengthy hallway to the room I’d dined in the previous evening, I saw Vesstan standing in the arched entryway, staring.
“Good morning,” I called as I hurried toward him. “I hope you haven’t been waiting long. I couldn’t seem to get this fastener to behave.” I stopped before him, pretending to fiddle with the hook at the small of my back. “Ah! Got it.” I smiled at him in mock victory while his eerie deep blue eyes raked over me.
“I thought this dress would suit you better,” he said in a flat, unimpressed tone.
“Oh.” I tried to act disappointed by his words when they secretly gave me joy. “Shall I go put on the white one from last night? I think the maid left it?—”
“No, this will suffice for now. Come,” he said, offering his arm, “let me show you the grounds. You’ll love them.”
With hidden trepidation, I linked my arm with his, and he guided me out into the blinding sunrise. It took my eyes a moment to adjust, but once they did, I gasped. Floral gardens stretched out before us as far as the eye could see in a kaleidoscope of color and texture. Kaplyn’s estate was a beautiful landscape filled with touches of such grandeur, but this was something else entirely. And the longer words seemed to fail me, the more entertained Vesstan became.
“As I said...” I looked up to find him smiling at me, but it lacked even a hint of warmth. He was a spider spinning a web around what he presumed to be an unsuspecting victim, and his satisfaction with himself was plain. I wondered if he’d look so pleased when I buried a blade in his heart.
“It’s exquisite.”
“Let us get a closer look, then.” He led the way down the stone steps until we reached a pebbled path that wound through the maze of gardens. “Did you sleep well?”
No .
“I did, thank you.”
“Good. Breakfast will be ready for when we return, but this really is the most glorious time of day to walk through here. Food can wait.” As can my vengeance—for now. “I want to tell you something, Ariel.”
I let my fingertips trail along a pale yellow petal and pretended he wasn’t watching me like a hawk as I stroked the stem. “Tell me what?”
“I intend to throw a party in your honor tonight. It will be a grand affair befitting someone of your beauty.” He hooked his finger under my chin and lifted it until I faced his intense stare. “I plan to use the evening to get to know you better.”
“How enchanting. I’ve always wanted to attend a party,” I said, allowing my gaze to fall away, “but my circumstances didn’t allow for that.” I waited for a moment, then took a breath and steadied myself in a show of mock resilience. “Tell me, will there be music and dancing?”
The way he looked at me as he drank in my wounded animal fa?ade was shameful, but I didn’t care. If it got me closer to cutting down my mother’s killer so we could free my father and save Anemosia, there were no lows I wouldn’t stoop to.
“There will be anything you desire, my sweet Ariel—and more.” The way he said that final word made me shudder. Luckily, my reaction fueled by disgust was interpreted as a shiver of anticipation, and he leaned in closer until his lips brushed my ear. “So, so much more…” He pulled my body tighter to his, and I forced myself to relax into his hold. “Is there anything you wish to have there this evening?” he asked, his question leading me to the answer I knew he needed to hear.
“Other than music and dancing…just you .” His fingertips bit into my skin. “And if you’d be generous enough to allow it, my companions.”
His grip on me loosened as he pulled away. “What is your obsession with those three?” he asked, doing nothing to hide his irritation. I’d pushed him too far with that request, but with what I knew needed to happen that night—that I would have to isolate and kill Vesstan—having them close by was imperative in case something should go awry. He glared at me, awaiting an answer I struggled to find.
“I only wish for them to enjoy an event such as this after all they’ve done, especially given that they’ll never encounter something so grand again.” His expression remained unchanged, and I knew I’d have to do more to reset the game between us. “I also hope that they might find someone special to celebrate with this evening,” I looked up at him through my lashes, “just as I have.”
His anger gave way to desire once more, and I quietly let out a nervous breath.
“Consider their attendance a gift—one for which I’ll expect something in return.”
I shied away from his heavy gaze to look upon the flowers surrounding us. “Will you tell me how you created such a stunning garden? I must admit, I’ve never seen such splendor in my life.”
“I’m a god,” he said, watching for my reaction. I did my best to look astonished by this information. “That should be explanation enough, should it not?”
“I suppose it should be,” I said, recovering from my fake shock, “but I confess, I know very little about the gods. Just the bits of history I’ve picked up over time.”
I dared a glance his way and found him staring through narrowed eyes. “History is a funny thing, Ariel. It can be shaped over time by those who tell it.”
“I’m sure that’s true of some things, but not all.”
“And I’m sure you’d be surprised to learn just how untrue that sentiment is.”
“But why would someone try to change it? To what end?”
“To present a narrative that suits their own purposes.”
For a moment, I dropped my well-crafted act and leaned in with genuine curiosity. I already knew that I’d been fed some half-truths throughout my life, but I’d never once considered that the very history I’d been taught could have been so heavily biased that it might be altogether false. And there, in the lush gardens filled with the amber glow of the morning sun, I looked upon a god and wondered if this cruel being could be the one to shed unbiased light on a sea of murky truths.
Or if his version was equally corrupted.
Seeing the childlike confusion on my face, he cupped it in his hands and smiled in a patronizing way. “Ask me something you wish to know the absolute truth about—something you thought you already did.”
I considered his question for a moment. “How did the three lands come to be? The three races…”
His smile widened. “How do you think that story goes?”
I took a breath, then told him the tale depicted in the tapestry that hung above my bed. About the stolen women and the god who had taken pity on them. About the demand for their children and the curse that had befallen those who would not comply. As I spoke, he listened with rapt attention until he was certain I was finished.
“My, my, Ariel…what a fantastical tale that was. Very entertaining indeed.”
“But it’s not true?” Even though I tried, there was no disguising the disbelief I felt in that moment.
“There are elements of truth amid the rubbish, but very few.” Laughter filled the air as his amusement at my account of everything I’d ever known to be true spilled over. “It’s fascinating to me that anyone would believe such a story! I mean…to suspend disbelief enough to believe that a god would ever be selfless enough to help a mortal is one thing, but to think that the gods have only ever fucked three mortals in all of time? That’s simply madness.” His laughter only continued the more he considered what I’d said, and the more he laughed, the more I realized just how ridiculous the concept was—especially given that my own grandmother had apparently been with a god herself. “Oh, Ariel, how you amuse me. I could spend our whole morning this way—you giving me a mortal account of history.”
Anger ripped through my veins, but I stifled it before it shot from my mouth. Vesstan would pay, but later. For now, the ruse must continue. “I’m afraid my ignorance will only make you think less of me, and I don’t wish for that.”
“Never. It’s darling.”
I shook my head and turned away. “I just can’t believe that the Minyades—and the Nychterides and Neráides—were not created from that event. That curse.”
“Now, I didn’t say that, exactly. I fear your black-and-white thinking is in desperate need of some shades of grey, Ariel.”
I forced a smile. “Next you’ll tell me that the Great War never happened.”
“No,” he said tightly, “it did.” Everything about his tone warned me not to press that issue further.
“So…if the gods do indulge themselves with mortal beings, what becomes of their progeny?”
Vesstan stopped cold and looked down at me. “Nothing good.” He placed his hand just above the swell of my ass and ushered me forward while I struggled with his ominous reply. Was that why he’d killed my mother? Was it really just her existence that had sealed her fate? If so, I could only imagine that my fate would be similar if he were to figure out who I was.
I needed to change the subject, and quickly.
“Can I ask you something else? Something not history-related?” I asked as he guided me past a row of vibrant purple flowers that climbed high above my head.
“If you wish.”
“Is it just you and those who serve you on this island—excluding your most recent arrivals, of course?”
“There are others as well. Those that have proven themselves loyal to me. You will meet them this evening at the ball.”
“Do they live in the castle too?” I asked, looking back at the monstrously large palace glistening in the morning sun.
“Why wouldn’t they?” He turned a curious expression to me. “What being in its right mind would forgo the chance to reside with a god?”
The kind never given the opportunity to leave…
“An excellent point. And who would ever want to leave this amazing island? I’m so enamored with its beauty. What a gift it must have been to find such a place.” I felt him tense ever so slightly at my words, and I couldn’t help but wonder who had exiled him here. If perhaps it had been my grandfather, punishing Vesstan for killing his daughter. Maybe ‘nothing good’ happened to the children born of gods because of jealous ones like the one at my side. If it was possible that my grandfather could be an ally, having Vesstan admit who had banished him to the island would be a start to finding out who he was. “How is it you came to be here?”
My question was met with silence, and I looked up to find Vesstan staring off into the distance, a sour expression twisting his features. “You look a touch pale and peckish, Ariel,” he said, not even pretending to look my way as he spoke. “We should head back now.”
“Oh…all right.” He guided me through a narrow pass off the main path that joined up with another leading back to his castle, not saying a word all the while. My question had obviously rattled him, and I wondered if he suspected I knew the truth behind his presence, which would have been bad. My only solace was knowing that his arrogance was trumped only by his suspicious nature, so had he suspected something, he would have pressed for answers.
I tried to relax as he hurried us up the stairs to the grand entrance.
“You know your way to the dining room by now,” he said, his voice echoing through the vaulted hallway. “Eat, then return to your room. I will send someone with details about the evening and your attire.”
“I thought you’d be joining me?—”
“I have matters to attend to.” He walked past me, turning left down a hallway I hadn’t noticed before. “I will see you tonight.”
“Tonight, then,” I said, filling my voice with a warmth I most certainly did not feel.
He stopped abruptly. “And Ariel?”
My chest seized. “Yes?”
“Do not stop to visit with your traveling companions. I would hate to learn that you disobeyed me.”
“Of course, Vesstan. Whatever you wish.”
Narrowed blue eyes looked back at me, and I could see that my words had struck the chord I’d hoped they would. “Save that for tonight.”