Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
Dayton
N o light streams out of the tiny apartment window, but that doesn’t mean she’s not home. We keep the curtains drawn to attract less notice. Slowly, I enter.
She is here. My mate.
Wrenley’s smile broadens as I arrive, and she crosses to me, resting a hand on my arm. “Dayton, you’re back. I was worried about you. Well, I always worry about you, talking to all those people out there.”
“I’m all right,” I say, dropping my bag near the door and throwing off my cloak in such a way it causes her to move her hand from my arm.
The air hangs heavy with the scent of sea salt and mildew. The walls, once adorned with vibrant frescoes, are now cracked and peeling. Flickering oil lamps provide the only source of light, casting eerie shadows that dance across the floor.
The furnishings are sparse and worn. In one corner, a rudimentary hearth serves as the kitchen, backed by smoke-stained walls. Pots and pans hang haphazardly from hooks above. A rickety wooden table sits in the center of the room. Wrenley has piled it with items she’s pilfered from the Summer Palace. She returned to her job as an acolyte by claiming she was lost after the attack on Queen’s Reach Monastery. She’s been learning what she can from Kairyn, but it’s dangerous work.
“Good haul,” I say, raising a brow as I look upon the table, laden with bread, fruit, and a jug that might be wine.
Gods, I hope it’s wine.
She skips to it. “The fig bread is great with a little olive oil, and the grapes make the most satisfying crunch!” She picks up a grape and slowly brings it to her mouth before sinking a sharp canine into it. The juice spills over her full lips.
Despite being an acolyte, she knows how pretty she is, with her sapphire eyes and wavy brown hair. I often notice people’s lingering glances on her the few times we venture out together. It would be so much easier if I was the one who couldn’t look away.
“Makes me sick to think of Kairyn and his goons eating food grown by the very people he invaded.” I reach for the wine and pour a full glass into a wooden cup.
“Did you learn anything that could help today?” Wrenley asks.
I take my cup and saunter into the next room. This one has nothing but threadbare cushions scattered on the mosaic floor. That’s where the wolf sleeps. There are two narrow alcoves in the back of the apartment, containing nothing but drab sleeping quarters, simple cots with moth-eaten blankets. One is where Fare stayed all those months, and even though she could sleep in the palace, Wrenley sneaks out and spends most nights here with me.
“There’s been another sighting of Delphia,” I say.
I collapse down onto one of the cushions, and Wrenley sits down on the floor across from me, concern flicking over her features. “I hope she doesn’t try anything brash.”
I can’t help the smile that twinges at the corner of my lips. “Are you kidding me? Being brash is in my sister’s blood.”
“But if a High Prince doesn’t stand a chance against Kairyn, what chance does a little girl have?”
“Delphie’s stronger than she looks.”
“Aren’t you worried?”
“Of course I’m worried. There’s still no news on Rosie. Farron’s been gone for weeks. I thought for sure Kel or Ez would have sent word by now, but we haven’t seen or heard anything from them. Fuck, I’d even welcome a visit from Cas if he’d tell us something useful.”
“And I’m working at Soltide Keep. If Kairyn discovers—”
Shit, I probably should have mentioned her too. “Of course, and you. I don’t know how you do it, serving that monster every day.”
“I have a lot of experience serving monsters.”
Right. Before Kairyn dispatched the High Clerics, Wrenley served them in Queen’s Reach Monastery. That was before the Nightingale kidnapped Rosalina, and Ezryn painted the monastery red getting her back.
Or so Wrenley says.
I wish I could speak to Ezryn about it. I don’t want to believe such things about him. But then again, I wouldn’t doubt the lengths he’d go to for his mate.
Tilting my head, I study the woman across from me. Would I go to the same lengths for her?
“What I mean,” Wrenley says, when I don’t reply, “is aren’t you worried about your sister? You keep putting yourself in these dangerous situations, and if something happens to you …”
I pause, catching onto her meaning. “My Blessing would pass to her.”
“Kairyn would stop at nothing to hunt her down. Her Blessing wouldn’t be cursed like yours is. But even with such a power, Delphia would never be able to stand against Kairyn and his forces.”
Explaining the curse and showing my wolf to Wrenley hadn’t been my favorite thing ever, but Fare had been there, and he made everything easier. Surprisingly, Wrenley had taken it all in her stride.
Though, I know she wonders why I’m not motivated to break my curse. Why I haven’t even kissed her. How can I get to know her, really? How can I even think about her when my realm is occupied? My sister is a runaway, Rosalina is missing, and I bloody miss Farron so much it hurts.
With my free hand, I touch the metal cuff around my forearm, the one forged from our bargain. We struck it on the battlefield of Autumn, so that my strength might belong to him as long as he never forgets that moment. The moment where we both finally claimed our love out loud. What would you do if you were here, Fare?
It comes to me in an instant. Wine sloshes over the lip of my cup as I stand. “We’ll go to her.”
“What?” Wrenley rises quickly.
“We’ll go to Delphie. Claudius said she was spotted along Veritas Bay,” I say. Farron would never abandon his family. He would do anything for them. “We can rent a sailboat and find her. I know where she would conceal a ship around there.”
“Where?”
But I’m already packing my bag, throwing in clothes and waterskins. “We’ll find her and make sure she’s not doing anything rash. Maybe she has information on what’s going on with the other realms.”
“I’m not going to sea—I can’t.”
“Then stay,” I say, making my way to the kitchen.
Only silence echoes behind me, and I turn to see tears pooling in her eyes.
“Shit, Wren, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way.” Then I shrug. “I thought you’d like going out to sea. Wasn’t your dad a fisherman?”
Wrenley shakes her head and steps closer to me. “I’ll go. One of the other acolytes owes me a favor. She could say I’m sick for a few days. I’ll just have to put a few things in place tonight.”
“I only meant this could be dangerous.”
She gently touches my chest, fingers resting over my seashell necklace. Farron strung it for me, and for many years it held the token of Summer. Wrenley’s staring at the necklace’s newest addition, a nautilus shell, gleaming gold. The one she gave me from her own necklace, the day I saved her from drowning.
“Where you go, I go,” she says softly.
I force a tight smile. “Once we figure this out, we’ll figure us out. I promise.”
“I’ve waited years for this, Daytonales. I can wait until you’re ready.”
“Thank you.” I look out the small window to the peek of blue beyond. “At dawn, we head to sea.”
As I stare at the horizon, I feel like it’s calling me in a way it never has before. A tether drawing me deep beneath the blue waves.