11. Dayton
Dayton
Hadria is changing. It still doesn’t look like the city I grew up in, but it’s no longer claimed by the sea. Not since I returned from Winter and called the tide back out.
Hand braced on the wall of Soltide Keep, I stare out over Hadria. In the two fortnights I’ve been here, there’s been notable progress. The fae Rosie transformed into sirens have come back to help rebuild, and the citizens of Aerantheis are using their legs to assist on land.
With resources at an all-time low in the Vale, I’m still awed that Winter, Spring, and Autumn all sent their most skilled craftworkers to help in the restoration effort.
No, it will not be the same city as before.
We’ll build more canals for the sirens to swim in.
Instead of being purely Hadrian architecture, we’ll have a blend of the sea and the other seasonal realms.
Something about it warms my heart: everyone coming together to make the Summer Realm better. It reminds me of Rosalina, how she somehow saw the goodness in all us princes.
Rosie.
I miss my Blossom so much it aches. It kills me not knowing how she’s doing.
But I can still feel our bond, so I know she’s alive.
And unlike the last time she was taken from us, this was her choice.
It’s where she needs to be. The best thing I and the other princes can do is concentrate on strengthening the four seasonal realms so we’re ready to take on the Below.
Keldarion has been rallying the scattered people of Winter.
The legend of the prince who defied a volcano and tore the stars from the sky is spreading fast across the Vale.
And I have to admit, even I get a little tingly when I think of it.
It was pretty fucking awesome, and standing with my brothers protecting Winter is one of the greatest things I’ve ever done.
Ezryn has traveled to Spring with Rosalina’s father, George. They have the best forges to work mythkarite and hopefully repair the rose. Everything hinges on that. Once we can control the goblins and Sira’s other creations, we’ll have a way to seize the Below.
That is…if Rosie’s accomplished her mission and somehow rescued Cas from his own mind. Because all our armies won’t be enough to take him down. Not when he’s trapped by the Green Flame.
I, unfortunately, can relate all too well. My mind flashes to my bed, soaked with sweat from nightmares of the day I attacked Ezryn. Whispers still cloud my mind.
I shake my head, clearing my thoughts. Caspian’s not here. He can’t control me.
As for Farron…
Farron is in Autumn.
Hissing through my teeth, I turn, gaze landing on the coral throne: spires of pink and crimson coral twisted together. It’s never looked warm or welcoming, and it especially doesn’t now. I mean, there are barnacles on the armrest, and those give nasty-ass scrapes.
But it’s not the fear of a scratch that’s kept me from sitting on it since I’ve returned.
I can be the leader Summer needs. Wield the blessing well. But what if I wield it too well and I lose myself to the Green Flame again—
“Day?”
I turn and breathe out a sigh. My little sister, Delphia, stands in the doorway to the throne room. Her curly hair is windswept. She must have been flying around on her winged horse, Drusilla, who is big enough to ride now.
Trailing behind is my sister’s ever-present shadow, Nori, her nose stuck in a book, thin mouth in a frown.
“Del, Nori, I didn’t expect you here,” I say. “Thought you’d be gone a couple more days.”
“Of course we surprised you,” Delphia mutters, then looks up at me with her most formal expression. “Well, High Prince, we finished our mission early. We found them. They’ve made a camp in the Starweaver Mountains.”
“Seriously?” I move closer. “You located the rest of the Queen’s Army?”
The Huntresses of Aura have been searching the Enchanted Vale for the sector of the Queen’s Army that first left Queen’s Reach Monastery when Kairyn took over. They’re one hundred strong at least, and having them on our side, with their skills, would surely aid in our fight against the Below.
“Well, it didn’t matter.” Delphia’s shoulders slump. “They hated us.”
Nori raises her nose from the book and slams it shut. “It wasn’t that they hated us. They didn’t respect us. There’s a difference.”
“Seagull, sky rat,” Delphi moans. “Same thing. They wouldn’t come back with us.”
“What did they say?” I ask, stepping closer to my sister but still keeping a distance.
“They refuse to follow any master but their queen.”
“But Rosie—”
“We told them all about Rosalina,” Delphia continues. “They said it was a rumor. Especially when I couldn’t lead them to where she was.”
“Rosalina will come back,” I say.
“Statistically, the odds of surviving the Below are low,” Nori says. “Especially under a thralldom bargain. I mean, even the queen herself has been down there for twenty-five years. Rotting alone in the dark…”
“Eleanor,” Delphia hisses, smacking her on the shoulder. “You’re talking about his mate and his mate’s mother.”
“Right.” Nori looks at me unbothered. “Which is why, because I’ve met Lady Rosalina, I do believe she’ll return. It’s unfortunate it wasn’t before we found the Queen’s Army.”
“But Rosalina is not without allies. Matron Valeria wanted you to have this.” Delphie reaches into her satchel and pulls something out. It’s a magnificent horn. She steps closer and drops it into my palms.
The body is gold, polished to a soft, sunlit glow. Silver metalwork twists over the surface, curling like vines, inlaid with delicate roses. The mouthpiece is shaped in the form of an open bloom, the bell flared wide.
“No matter where they are in the Vale, the Huntresses of Aura will hear it,” Delphie says. “And they will come.”
The weight of her words settles between us. It’s the kind of thing that could change everything. “I’ll take good care of this,” I promise. “And now that you’ve returned, I have to head out.”
“To Autumn?” Nori looks up.
It would be nice to see how Farron’s doing in his quest to push back the goblins of the Briar that leak into Autumn. “Spring first,” I say. “Then Autumn.”
Delphia turns to go but looks back at me over her shoulder. “When you return, I want to see you, Day. It feels like you’ve been avoiding me.”
I swallow in a dry throat. “I haven’t, Del. I’ve just been so busy restoring Hadria.” A lie she sees right through. But keeping my distance from the last blood family I have is the only way to keep her safe from me and the monster I’ve become.
Delphia nods, then raises a dark brow. “When are you finally going to sit on it?”
I shrug. “Was thinking about it. Still feels like Dammy’s. Fear I’d sit down and hear him laughing at me from the world beyond.”
Delphia shakes her head, but Nori looks me straight in the eye with that familiar Autumn gaze. “I don’t think so.”
“You didn’t know Damocles very well.” I grin.
“No,” Nori agrees, opening her bag and swapping her book for a small leather notebook. “But he knew you.”
“What are you holding?”
“A diary Farron kept during one of the summers he spent here, years ago,” she says, flipping through it.
My cheeks heat. “Are you sure you should be reading that? Because I’m betting it’s not exactly suitable for children—” I cut off, thinking of all the very inappropriate things Fare and I have done in Summer.
Nori’s scowl deepens. “First, I’m not a child. Second, I’m only reading because I wanted to learn all I could about Summer to help in its restoration. My brother happens to be painfully detailed.”
“That’s true,” Delphie says. “Best way to fall asleep after a long day. She starts reading one of his eight-page descriptions of a weed bursting through the cobblestone or the meaning of a statue and I’m out.”
It’s so classically Farron. The shy Autumn boy kissed by Summer’s heat. It’s like remembering someone who doesn’t exist anymore.
“Third,” Nori continues, “I know how intercourse works, but thankfully the most vivid my brother got in his description was something about how his untouched petal bloomed and opened, spread apart by the sea’s crushing waves.”
“I threw up in my mouth a little at that part,” Delphie says.
“Okay, okay,” I say, waving my arms. “Enough of that. Why did you bring this out?”
“Oh, here it is,” Nori says and begins to read. “I shouldn’t be surprised Daytonales wasn’t there to see me off. The empty seat beside me in the carriage looks like a specter. The ache in my heart—”
“The lamenting goes on for sixteen pages,” Delphia says, reading over Nori’s shoulder. “Skip to the part about my brother.”
“But Farron’s misery is just so dark and delicious.” Nori sighs, flips the page, and continues to read. “Despite all that, I still believe the words his brother, High Prince Damocles, spoke are true: ‘Dayton is a fool.’”
I turn away, because I already know this part of the story. I heard my brother speak those words when he wasn’t aware I was listening.
“‘But I know my brother. His spirit is wild and untamed, like the fiercest of Summer storms,’” Nori continues to read.
I stop and turn. Because this I hadn’t heard. I’d left trying to spare my own feelings. But had my brother been saying something nice about me?
Delphia takes the book and stares me in the eye, reciting the last line. “‘Yet there is a warmth and a light in him that can shine in any darkness. He may stumble, he may falter, but within him lies the potential to ignite a path of glory.’”
“A path of glory, hey?” I say and smile, then stare out at the sea. “That’s a big ask, big brother.”
Delphia comes up beside me and takes my hand. And despite the fear coursing through me, I let her. “We’ll do it together. Now get your big butt on that throne.”
I give a long, dramatic sigh, then march toward the coral monstrosity and fall into it.
Damn, it really is as uncomfortable as it looks. Regardless, I laugh. “Guess you were right about me again, Dammy. One last time.”