Chapter 14
After emptying my breakfast into the grass, I rolled over and tried to catch my breath.
“I’m so sorry.” Audrey had been holding my hair out of my face, rubbing my back as I vomited seconds after touching ground again. “I didn’t realize Liam lyskifting us would make you this sick.”
Liam chuckled off to the side.
My eyes were closed, I was flat on my back, but I still managed to lift a hand to flip him off again.
I just knew deep in my bones that the asshole took off without proper warning on purpose.
One moment, we were standing in our little condo, letting Liam grasp each of our hands.
The next, the world spun, and I was thrown on the grass in Hyvenmere.
“Give me a minute,” I breathed. Audrey pressed my water bottle to my lips, so I took a few sips and wiped the back of my sweaty forehead with my hand. I recovered relatively quickly, which was a relief. I’d be completely useless to Audrey and Liam, and our sneaky plan, if I were queasy and dizzy.
“Feeling better?” Audrey asked. I opened my eyes and glanced up at the sky. The air tasted different here. Fuller. Fresher.
Each lungful helped bring me back to earth. When I sat up, we were on a hill that gave us a clearer view of the distant Fjellenheim Mountains.
“That’s where we’re going.” Audrey stood tall and stared at the landscape. “We’re standing in Lyndoruun, the sirens’ territory. Your grant has already alerted Queen Ada that you’re in Hyvenmere, though. If you get nervous or feel like someone is trying to take you, take comfort in that.”
I rested my hands on my hips. “Are we teleporting to the orgy?”
Liam shook his head, ignoring my bait by calling these things the wrong names.
“If danger arises and I need to lyskift out, I want my energy to do so. So, to get to Lydhavn, we’re going to take the train.
It’ll be about an hour’s travel. If we don’t need to lyskift back, we can take the train back too, and you won’t vomit all over us. ”
I grinned and said, “I love the train.” Liam’s lips twitched, but he held his smile in until he saw Audrey stand beside us, ready to depart.
“Me, too.” Audrey grinned, but it felt forced.
She was nervous, which made me feel anxious as well.
We were walking into a court with a suspiciously dangerous king and a murderous prince.
A murderous prince who could read minds.
Who could reveal our plan. We chatted a lot in our apartment about the importance of not dwelling on the plan.
Of changing our train of thought if Drustan was around.
I then went out of my way to pull Audrey aside and let her know she can’t get angry when Liam starts flirting it up with Drustan’s cousin.
Audrey assured me she could keep her cool, and I believed her.
Her crushes usually didn’t affect her moods that dramatically.
Audrey had never been a territorial person.
While we rode the train, I did my best to come up with routes my train of thought could take me instead, in case Drustan was there and wanted to pry.
All I kept thinking about, though, was our moment in the drapes, and as the soft melody danced throughout the air now that I was in Hyvenmere again, getting more distinct the longer the train ride lasted, I wondered if perhaps I was too confident in my ability to handle being in his presence again.
I kept my growing concerns to myself. Once we had finalized the plan one last time before stepping off the train at Lydhavn, it was basically showtime.
However, there was something about the land of Lyndoruun that just…calmed me.
It wasn’t the kind of calm that I experienced sitting on a beach or inhaling the salty sea air like in Vanhirra.
No, the tropical beach scene in the nereid territory made me relax in a way like I was rushed for time.
Like I needed to force myself to lie back on the beach because the moment was fleeting.
The calm I felt in the city of Lydhavn was deep in my bones.
Perhaps that’s the reaction I’d always have while being surrounded by the largest pine trees I’d ever seen, while breathing in the trees’ scent mixed with the mountain air.
It wasn’t nearly as dry as the mountain air would be in California, but… crisper.
Perhaps the large lake just behind the city, separating Lydhavn from the base of the Fjellenheim Mountains, added enough humidity to the air.
The siren capital was magical, but in a reverent way. As soon as we stepped off the train into the main part of the city, which wasn’t nearly as busy as Sammara, siren soldiers in their identifiable leather grey uniforms calmly approached us at the stone platform.
“What brings you to Lydhavn?” the younger-looking soldier asked. He was wearing his siren mask, but from the way his eyes crinkled, he was smiling at us.
“We’re here for Bandthral,” Audrey replied with a calm tone.
His eyebrows rose, and he shared a look with his companion that was difficult to decipher while they wore those facial coverings.
“I’ll escort you.” The soldier nodded in agreement, while his companion waited for us to step ahead so he could walk behind us.
Sirens of all shapes, sizes, and colors littered the main road. Playing music on the side of the street, having meals at a table with friends and family. Riding e-bikes with little baskets on the front and back, filled with purchases.
As a cream-colored castle came into view, surrounded by trimmed pine trees and wild grasses, an excited squeal made me turn my head to the side.
A group of teenage siren girls were on their phones, talking in a language I didn’t understand.
I smiled at them, something the siren soldier behind me noticed as he turned to see what caught my attention.
“They seem excited,” I whispered to the soldier behind me.
“They’re talking about Bandthral,” he replied. He sounded young, maybe early twenties.
“Oh, right,” I replied. “Does everyone participate in that?” I asked.
“If they want.” The soldier nodded forward, indicating that I needed to keep moving. “And as long as they are of the age of maturity.”
Twenty-six.
That must be the equivalent of being a legal adult here.
“Are you going to participate?” I asked him.
His eyes widened a fraction before they scanned me from head to toe quickly. So quickly, I could have missed it.
“Are you?” he asked, instead of a response. Easy, tiger. I smiled. I still had no idea what Bandthral was. Audrey said it wasn’t, but I was still convinced it was just a massive orgy.
“I’m not sure if humans are allowed.” I replied.
His brow pinched at that before he cleared his throat and stood taller.
The conversation was over, because suddenly we were being led through large, wooden gates into the Siren King’s estate.
Another courtyard came into view, and in the center of it, a large stone statue of a woman with long hair and a formal gown, donning a crown, stood tall.
She wore a bright smile, with her hand angled toward the gates, as if inviting people in.
I stepped up to Audrey and whispered in her ear, “Who’s that?”
“The former Siren Queen, Astrid Shaw,” she replied. “Ilia had it made immediately after her passing.” Ah, Drustan’s mother. At least Ilia wasn’t a total piece of shit to not memorialize his dead mate.
As we approached the front doors to the castle, I inhaled a breath of confidence.
Here we go.
Sitting on a throne that wasn’t nearly as elaborate or decorative as I expected it to be, was King Ilia.
He sat stiffly, with a ramrod straight back.
Based on the age in his face, I would have guessed he was about sixty years old, not well over a hundred.
His long fingers curled over the armrests of his seat, tapping a rhythm of impatience as we approached the center of the courtroom.
His gold eyes narrowed on us; mistrust was evident in his scowl.
He had a trimmed white beard, accompanying his pale blonde hair that fell just past his shoulders.
A thin gold crown with emeralds rested on his head, as well as gold medals on the breast of his shirt.
He didn’t wear a cape or anything else super kingly, but his dress clothes elevated his status above everyone else in the room, who dressed in what looked like staff uniforms. He held himself with unmistakable authority.
Next to him, casually leaning against the throne with his weight shifted on one hip, one ankle crossed over the other, was his son.
Drustan.
His arms were crossed over his chest as we approached; his shoulder-length dark red hair was down. When he lifted an arm to brush his fingers through it, away from his face, it showed off golden loops in his pointed ears.
While Ilia’s body language portrayed strict dominance, Drustan’s body language was lazy and sensual.
Relaxed. I was immediately flooded with the reminder of how it felt for Drustan to tower over me at Fergus’s party.
How he smelled, how my body reacted to the barest of touches from him.
How my arousal from his proximity and manhandling felt so natural and yet out of my control at the same time.
I was better prepared this time.
Drustan wore a billowy cream tunic that was completely open.
Enough for me to see his pierced navel. He paired the shirt with an open grey vest, stitched with delicate golden thread, illustrating artistic images throughout the material.
The vest and shirt combo accentuated the hard dips and planes of his exposed torso, the bulge of his biceps.
The large thighs that pulled tight at the tan pants he wore.
I knew better than to get too distracted by him, though. I had a thorough understanding of how dangerous a siren’s ability to manipulate emotions and hormones could be. Assuming he intended to get close enough to sniff my neck again. Perhaps I was being overdramatic.