Chapter 7 Aria #2
My sister nods, the ends of her braids tickling her shoulders with the movement.
“You aren’t the best at making sure you aren’t being followed.
” At that, I can’t help but chuckle. I nearly tell Lyre of Nia and the deal I’ve been forced into with her.
Of my bargain with the fae, Myla, and what I asked for following Mashaka’s death, but I keep those truths held in.
If this is something Lyre really wants to do, I can’t have her aware of things that may derail her one opportunity at the life she deserves to live.
If our mother finds out about any of it, we’re as good as dead, and though Queen Amari is already holding my love for Lyre over my head to help her find the missing sirens of the seamounts, I wouldn’t give her any more ammunition.
The consequences of those choices are mine alone to bear. My heart thrums, that small whisper gaining against the trepidation within me.
But the reminder of Myla sparks a different thought.
I had made that bargain with her to learn how to fight, hadn’t I?
I couldn’t have known that Lyre would present me with a real chance to escape, but I would be a fool to let both opportunities slip through my fingers because this life—this all-consuming fear—is all I know.
I may not trust myself, but I do trust Lyre.
And after all she’s sacrificed for me, how could I not take a leap of faith with her?
I often thought there wasn’t anyone willing to stick their neck out for me, but Lyre had continued to do so, and though I was terrified I would fail her, something in me sparked at the chance to do something good.
“Okay,” I rasp, unable to stop the smile that tugs on my mouth. Lyre’s mirroring one brings a warmth to my chest that is foreign and unfamiliar, but I grasp on to it as hard as I can.
“We can do this. We will do this. Together.” We linger, and though my mind threatens to race back into panic mode, I force myself to enjoy the feeling of hope.
“There is one more thing.” She reaches around her back, tugging on a braided cord that is secured around her waist until a small pouch comes into view.
Untying it from the cord, she places the pouch gently in my hand, closing my fingers around it until I feel the small round objects that are inside.
“I will not need these for a while, so I want you to have them. Add them to your stash, and there should be enough to protect you for a while yet.”
Opening the pouch, I peer inside. Golina berries.
They are rare, only found growing in small pockets of sea that the queen hasn’t yet destroyed in her search for the plant.
The tiny bitter fruit, when taken within the correct time frame, can stop a pregnancy from taking root.
Lyre had been sneaking the berries to me since my very first hunt.
“Thank you,” I rasp, taking the pouch from her and placing it in the only other hiding spot I have now that my cave is no longer my own. Lifting a bundle of the sea kelp in my bed, I tuck it into the sliver of empty space there before smoothing the kelp back over.
“Mother will be announcing my pregnancy this afternoon at the queen’s address.”
That small bit of warmth in my chest ices over as I nod my head.
The yellow sea glass door to the throne room opens, and my mother, flanked by legionaries, enters, swimming down the center aisle with a powerful and raw elegance.
The light from the open waters above gets lost in the fathomless black of her braids and the cold darkness of her deep purple eyes.
Unlike those who inhabit the pit past Tula Ledge, she is the only creature here that induces fear.
“My subjects, welcome!” Her greeting quiets the murmurings of the sirens present, all of their attention focusing intently on their queen as she moves up the dais and lowers herself gracefully into her throne.
“Thank you all for joining me today. We have something lovely to celebrate.” She taps her trident against the stone once, and the noise beckons Lyre to swim to the front.
“It is my absolute pleasure to announce that my daughter, your princess, Lyre is pregnant.” A single moment of utter shock ripples over the room before claps and cheers of congratulations ring out, the chattering of the females in front of us full of excitement as their eyes eagerly devour my sister.
I glance back to my mother, her smile sharp and eyes keen as she looks down at the sirens filling the room. She taps her trident again, ushering in silence as Lyre bows and then returns to her spot next to me.
“But this is not all we have to rejoice over.” I catch the quick line that forms between Lyre’s brows before she smooths it back out. Allegra’s deep blue tail flashes before us as she makes her way to the front.
Part of the reason I’ve taken to hiding in my room is to also avoid seeing her.
The memory of Mashaka—his dying wails and bloody body—skewers me all over again every time Allegra is present.
She doesn’t even care that he’s gone. A creature that she had captured and formed some kind of bond with over years is dead, murdered, and Allegra behaves like nothing of value has been lost. I know better than to be so affected by her callousness, yet I still can’t fathom how she can be so cold.
“The goddesses have blessed us with not one pregnant princess but two. Allegra is with offspring as well!”
More cheering. More clapping. More tiny white bubbles lifting to the surface from the chaotic delight of the sirens below us as my heart seizes in my chest. Lyre’s arm brushes against my own as she claps.
I can’t move, can hardly hear my own thoughts above the discordant celebration.
She does it again, roughly enough to draw my attention.
“Clap,” she whispers from the corner of her mouth.
I immediately begin doing so, scanning the throne room in a haze.
It isn’t that I am necessarily surprised; Allegra has been pregnant many times before.
Her pregnancy has the opposite effect on me that Lyre’s does.
In the same way that Lyre is now bound to the palace, so too is our eldest sister.
My mother addresses the crowd with the rest of her announcements, cryptically citing the dawning of a new era, which causes even more excitement than the pregnancy reveals did.
I stay tucked into the possibilities of my mind, wondering if I’ve finally been given reprieve from the constant dread that has settled into its corners.
If Allegra can no longer lead the hunts I’m forced to go on, will anyone else watch me as closely as she did?
When the address is over and I attempt to leave, my mother’s smooth voice halts my retreat.
“We have more matters to discuss, Daughter.” Jaw and shoulders relaxed, lips flat, spine straight, and attitude vicious.
I silently repeat my mantra as I turn around and force my gaze to hers.
“We must prepare to leave and meet with the king of the Mortal Realm.”
“Why?” Allegra hisses from her place at the queen’s side.
“Has your pregnancy turned you into an imbecile, or are you simply choosing to not understand?” My mother’s brashness makes something flash in Allegra’s eyes before she bows her head and drops her gaze.
“What do we need to know before we go to the surface?” Sade cuts in, her conch shell helmet held against the orange scales at her side.
She wears no other armor and clutches the smaller trident that mirrors our mother’s in her other hand.
Her facade is steady, calm, a lethal brutality lingering beneath it.
“Sade, Aria, and Dyanna, you will accompany me to speak to King Dolian. The mortal king is in my debt, and I want to ensure my plans do not falter. We cannot give him the opportunity to do something foolish, as his kind is prone to.” Queen Amari lifts her hand up in front of her, her dark eyes studying the pearl ring that adorns her finger.
Softly, as if the words are only meant for her, she adds, “I will not make the same mistakes as before the war.”
“And what about me?” Allegra asks.
My mother drops her hand back to her lap. “You and Lyre are to remain here, both to enforce my rule with me gone and to stay protected.”
Allegra’s blue eyes widen, her lips lifting into a snarl. “You want me to stay here? I am one of your fiercest warriors—”
“You are not,” she cuts in smoothly, sliding a talon down one of the diamond-inlaid prongs of her trident. “Sade, as the commander of the legion, is.”
Allegra snarls in response but doesn’t speak another word.
“Was the king on that ship?” Sade asks, earning our mother’s nod.
“And who was the mage we handed over to them?” The question slips unbidden from me, from the place it has rattled since that night.
My mother’s attention falls to me, her full lips twisting with something too ghastly to be called a grin.
“She may just be the key to finally getting everything we are owed. In due time, we will show the beings of Olymazi what happens when they try to contain us. We will show the males of these lands the reckoning that has been brewing beneath their shores. Until then, you will continue to serve me as I command and without question.” She looks around at my sisters as she leans back on her throne.
“Tell me what progress you’ve made in finding the traitors of the seamounts? ”
The question locks my shoulders and careens my heart against my ribcage. “I—I don’t know where to start looking for them.”
Tilting her head, her eyelids lower in displeasure. “Disappointing, but unsurprising. Sade will aid you in your search for them once we return from our visit with the king.”
What? I look to Sade, surprised to find the same confusion hinted at in her sunset eyes. “Your Majesty, you know I am but a servant to your will, but working with Aria will be a waste of my valuable time.”
“You will help her form a plan to find the traitors and then report the progress she has made to me. I hardly think that will interfere with your normal duties, Daughter.”
“And if she has nothing to report?” Sade questions, her eyes snapping to mine.
“The next few months will be crucial in solidifying our plans and reclaiming what is ours. I cannot have a group of traitors plotting against the queendom while I try to raise us from the sea. They will be taken care of, or I shall show our people just how little I care for blood when it comes to extending my mercy.”
Sade’s talons scrape against her helmet as she curls her fingers inward. “As you wish, Your Majesty.”
Satisfied, my mother tilts her head back and closes her eyes. “Prepare what is needed for our departure. I would like to leave within the hour.”
It isn’t until I’m finished packing my own small woven eelgrass satchel that I realize that traveling with my mother to the Mortal Kingdom means I’m going to miss my first meeting with the fae female.
Shit.