Chapter 8
Ashtine
She hadn’t planned to go there.
When she’d stepped from the White Halls, she’d wandered for a while, letting the winds take her where they would.
And when they’d dumped her on the shores of the Water Court, she hadn’t had it in her to truly care.
Anyone could have found her. His Inner Court would have likely felt her cross into their territory, but Briar would have felt it first. She didn’t know what she’d do when they came for her either.
But no one would find that out of the ordinary.
She was the sheltered, peculiar Wind Princess who spoke in oddities and was difficult to understand. Hard to converse with, yet simple to dismiss. Easy to pass her concerns off as the idle chatter of the breezes and lack of faith in her advisors.
For weeks, Briar’s words had plagued her as much as the winds, and she’d realized he’d been right. But how does one demand consideration for something no one can understand?
So for a few moments, she’d dropped to the sand and tried to simply exist. She’d said her piece. She’d passed the winds’ warnings along. What the others chose to do with those cryptic words wasn’t her concern.
And yet she knew it wouldn’t be enough either.
Not as her winds swirled around her, throwing her hair across her face and whispering more and more as the waves methodically rolled to shore.
She’d been so distracted by their newest musings, she’d missed Briar’s arrival.
But with each passing minute of his presence, the winds had quieted, and when Abrax had let her run her fingers along his muzzle, she’d found the smallest breath of peace she’d been seeking for months. Years. Decades.
Ashtine had expected to go back to the House of Water and dine with him, but she had not anticipated being escorted to his private quarters. It had made sense, of course, but after his weeks of silence, it had still been a surprise.
But not as surprising as his admission to wanting to kiss her.
Not as shocking to her desiring the same thing.
Not as unforeseen as both of them giving in to that longing.
And now she was confused about more than the winds.
She moved to her bathing room, peeling off her dress.
Now that she was feeling more herself, she realized how sweltering it had been in the Water Court.
She bathed, wishing she could take her time in the water, but consequences for her brash actions earlier in the day would certainly find her soon.
Sure enough, she’d been in the bath all of five minutes when she felt the power cross her wards. More than one.
A light knocking sounded, and Noelle entered the bathing room. “I apologize for the interruption, your Grace, but Ermir asked me to tell you Queen Talwyn is here along with Prince Azrael.”
She was already moving to retrieve towels and preparing to help Ashtine get ready.
“Is Tarek also present?” Ashtine asked.
“No, your Grace.”
Ashtine nodded. “Renly and Sion?”
“Are also here.”
She nodded again, already tired at the thought of dealing with all of this. She was also a touch annoyed that the winds could plague her with ominous warnings but not warn her about who was coming to her Court.
Perhaps useful information would serve us all better, she snapped internally.
Answers lie across the sea. Find the one to go there.
By the gods, she sighed, standing from the bath so abruptly, water sloshed over the sides.
Noelle was there, handing her a towel before helping her squeeze the water from her hair.
Long before she was mentally ready, she was making her way down to one of the meeting rooms near the main foyer.
The room fell silent when she entered, everyone but Talwyn getting to their feet and bowing or nodding.
It was ridiculous, really. These formalities were pointless after centuries together.
“Princess,” Ermir greeted, everyone returning to their seats after she’d taken her place at the other end of the table, opposite Talwyn. “Queen Talwyn and Prince Azrael were just telling us of your visit earlier today.”
“I was unaware my movements were being monitored and reported,” Ashtine replied.
“That is not what we’re doing,” Talwyn said.
“My misunderstanding. To what do I owe the visit?”
Everyone in the room shifted in their seats, but it was the Earth Prince who said, “You cannot be serious.”
“I am usually quite serious.”
“You came to the White Halls, told us a war was coming, and then you left. Surely you recognize we would have questions after all that,” he said in disbelief.
“One would assume you would have questions,” she agreed.
“And what do you have to say about it all?” Azrael demanded.
Ashtine tilted her head, folding her hands in her lap. “I have nothing to say.”
“You have … How can you—”
“Stop, Az,” Talwyn interrupted. “I’ll handle it.” Turning her attention back to Ashtine, she said, “We have questions, but do you have any answers, Ashtine?”
“I do not know your questions,” Ashtine answered. “But if you are asking of the rivers running red, the lands dividing, and the survival of the realm hanging in the balance, I have been searching for those answers for months. I have the same questions you do.”
“If you have been searching for answers for months, then why do you just now bring them to our attention?” Azrael cut in.
Ashtine’s gaze slid to him. “As you said, the winds’ whispers are vague and often nonsense. They could mean nothing, but they could mean everything.”
“We are talking about a potential war,” the Earth Prince snarled.
“I am aware.”
“You cannot keep a war threat a secret for months, Princess.”
“Not informing you does not mean it was kept a secret, Prince Luan,” she replied, the air in the room stirring.
“If I may,” Ermir cut in before Azrael could speak again.
“As you know from working with the late Princess Ophelia for decades before her death, the winds are not an Oracle. It has long fallen to the Wind Court to investigate and try to interpret the songs of the winds. That is why our library is so vast.”
“The fact remains that a potential war should be brought to our attention,” Azrael argued.
“Prince, do you know how often the winds speak of war? Of death? Of bloodshed and any number of catastrophes?” Ermir replied, his tone getting sterner.
Ashtine had only heard him speak this way a handful of times. It was his power stirring the air in the room now. Not hers.
“They speak of peace and prosperity just as often,” Ermir went on.
“They carry news from other continents, other realms. They carry history. Not just ours, but of the stars. When we say the winds know everything and nothing, we mean just that. We do not dismiss things lightly, but to assume we have kept a threat of war a secret is insulting to our princess and our Court as a whole.”
Talwyn’s gaze was moving between Ermir and Azrael, clearly trying to decide if she should intervene.
She was the youngest Fae at this table. Ashtine was older by mere months, but half of the Fae in attendance had fought in the Great War.
And all of them, save for the females, had been alive during it.
“I meant no disrespect, Ermir,” Azrael said. “I remember well how Ophelia was often plagued by the winds.”
That had Ashtine leaning forward in interest.
“But I also remember a war fought and lives lost,” the Earth Prince went on. “I would be failing my own Court if I simply sat back and did not pursue a potential threat.”
“That is understandable,” Sion chimed in.
“We would do the same, and we have. The princess came to us with these whisperings months ago, and we have been looking into them ever since. We know it plagues her. We can see it consuming her. We are not blind, but we have found nothing to substantiate it. Bringing it to your attention without proof brings just as many obstacles.”
“What if there was proof?” Talwyn cut in.
“What do you speak of?” Ashtine asked, and even she could hear the desperation in her tone.
The concerned looks from around the room told her everyone else could hear it too.
“There are … rumors. Of a weapon hidden in the mortal lands,” Talwyn said.
“Rumors?” Sion asked with a frown. “We cannot act on rumors.”
“The source is credible.”
She ventured east, the winds whispered.
“You spoke to the Oracle,” Ashtine said in realization. “That is why you went to the Witch Kingdoms.”
“When did you go there?” Prince Azrael demanded, turning to the Fae Queen. “And who escorted you?”
“I went myself, Az,” Talwyn sighed.
“To the fucking Witch Kingdoms?”
“Yes,” Talwyn snapped. “Maliq was with me,” she added, referencing her wolf spirit animal.
“By the gods, Talwyn—”
“Who or who did not accompany her is not important,” Ashtine interrupted, the chatter around the table falling silent. “What did you learn, Talwyn?”
“I was told that a weapon hides in the mortal lands. I was told how to retrieve it, but that the time is not right,” she explained.
“And when will the time be right?” Azrael asked.
“I was only told I will know. That’s it. That’s all she would say. But the weapon will determine the outcome of centuries of conflict.”
“A war that was not won but only sleeps,” Ashtine murmured.
Feelings of relief at knowing she wasn’t losing her mind warred with dread at learning the winds weren’t just chattering nonsense.
“So where does that leave us?” Azrael asked.
“On the precipice of salvation and destruction,” Ashtine answered.
“That is … not helpful.”
“You believe now is not the time to seek this weapon?” Renly asked, sitting forward to peer at Talwyn down the table.
“The Oracle was clear the time is not now. She insisted I would know when the time was right to retrieve it,” the queen answered.
“And how will you find such a thing? Let alone retrieve it? Do you even know what it is?” Sion asked.
“I am still working on the strategies, but when the time comes, I will be prepared,” she answered, sitting taller and lifting her chin. “In the meantime, we use the time we have to prepare.” She met Ashtine’s gaze again. “And if you learn anything more, Ashtine …”
“The information you have provided may be useful,” Ashtine said, the burden and expectation of what she was weighing on her once more.
“We will help her,” Ermir added. “As the princess said, your information helps us narrow down our search.”
Talwyn nodded, glancing at Ashtine quickly before saying, “While this is pressing, we have time. None of us need to stress over it.”
“Understood, your Majesty,” Ermir answered.
Ashtine had stopped listening though.
A prince hides in plain sight.
Beginnings and endings.
A world the gods forgot.
There must be balance.
A genesis brings death.
“Is there anything else I am needed for?” Ashtine asked suddenly, the winds so loud now she could scarcely hear herself speak.
“No,” Talwyn said slowly. “Will you come for dinner tomorrow evening?”
“Will I dine with you?” Ashtine asked.
Princes fall. Kings rise. The realms will divide.
“Why would I invite you to dinner with someone else?” Talwyn asked.
“That would indeed be odd. Dinner sounds lovely. Thank you.”
Then, before anyone else could speak, she was moving among the winds.
The rivers will run red.
The winds swirled around her.
Allies will stand on opposite sides.
They carried her where they willed.
Across the sea the cursed one rules.
She let them have her for so long, she lost track of time. Minutes became hours, and still she stayed among them because while the winds were her freedom, they were also her prison.
Across the stars, he waits for vengeance.
Ermir had spoken so much truth in that room, but one thing she was sure they were all wrong about was the winds speaking nonsense.
Their chattering may be nonsense in this moment, but a decade from now, would they say the same?
Or were warnings for another world carried to her across the voids and stars between the realms?
Either way, she did not believe them to be nonsense. The winds were rarely wrong.
It wasn’t until she glimpsed dark skin and pale blonde hair sitting on a shore that she realized how late it was.
She’d been wandering among the winds for hours if it was nearly dawn, but she didn’t step from them now.
It was for the best. The winds wouldn’t let her linger.
They would pull her somewhere else soon enough, so for the briefest of moments she let herself remember what it had been like.
His lips on hers.
How he’d tasted of the sea and sun.
How he’d been demanding yet soft with how he spoke to her, touched her, when everyone else in her life was careful and wary.
How she’d wanted more. So much more.
How she had sent her magic to him, hoping he’d lose as much control as she was.
She’d been with males before. Not many due to her obvious peculiarities, and they were never more than physical needs being met or curiosity being satisfied. But this had been different, and she was unsure how to feel about any of it.
But she knew she could not meet him tonight like he’d requested.
She knew it broke laws of old.
That waves and winds would tip the balance.
Still, she found herself returning among the winds the next morning before the sun woke, and he was there, just as he’d said he would be. He was there the next and the next and the next, simply waiting.
He’d promised he would always be there. With her. For her.
But he didn’t know what she knew.
He didn’t know what the winds had whispered to her while she’d lain on that shore the day he’d kissed her.
A prince of water will fall.