Chapter 10 #2
Augustus took the empty crate from her and knelt over his mess. “Thanks.”
She bent with him, eyes narrowed, voice dropped.
“What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you trying to scare the new guys away? Your reputation isn’t already doing the heavy lifting for you?
” At his questioning look, she said, “Apparently, a handful of them owe Omar a life debt or they wouldn’t be here. ”
He still didn’t follow.
Lili rolled her eyes. “You’ve got a light knife hand, remember? At least you did before—”
She stopped cold.
“Before Selene,” he finished, tossing a handful of nails into the crate. “I’ve gone soft, is that it?”
She sat back on her heel and shrugged.
“Great,” he muttered.
She was right, though. He hadn’t drawn blood since they killed the last king. Acting the perfect little citizen these last few months…well, it wasn’t him.
Lili snatched the crate from his hand. “Do you want to tell me what’s crawled up your ass, or will I have to guess?”
Fucking Dimitrios. Lazaros. The whole godsdamned country of Perean, that was what.
Augustus fisted a hammer until his knuckles turned white.
Lili snatched that too and threw it into the crate. “Talk.”
He stared down at the mess. “Selene isn’t coming.”
The act of saying the words cracked him wide open, and it all spilled out. The fight. Her resolve. His threats.
And that wasn’t pity on Lili’s face. It was fury. Disbelief. “Let me get this straight,” she began, her tone cool and sharp. “Selene was unraveling, and you set the whole godsdamned tapestry on fire.”
Wasn’t that his way? Years of battling Cassia had made him a fucking expert.
Selene wasn’t Cassia, however, and she hadn’t deserved that. She was good. And she was still without all the facts.
Fuck. He should have just told her. Why didn’t he tell her?
Lili tossed the last of the scattered tools into the crate. “You still want to be with her?”
“Yes.” He rose and thrust all ten fingers through his hair. “There’s not a single doubt in my mind.”
“Then stay here. Who cares? Stay and get a little blood on your hands—we both know you feel most at home in a fight. The ship will still be here when you’re ready.”
A bitter laugh climbed his throat. “And the ship? The crew?”
“Is this really about the ship?”
Augustus inhaled the sea air into his lungs. How much should he tell her? He’d kept so much to himself for so long, and getting into Cassia’s prophecy felt like opening a raw wound.
“We can’t stay,” he finally said, staring into the sunlight glinting off the mast. “We have to leave before it’s too late.”
“I’m not following, mate.”
“The reason that fucking sellsword was able to kill my mother was because she was under a god spell the likes I’ve never seen. It was…” He blew out a breath. “There’s a second prophecy.”
Lili’s mouth fell open. “Say again?”
“If Selene and I don’t leave here soon, we’ll be separated. I don’t know how, so don’t ask.”
“Does Selene know?”
“No.”
Lili’s fist cracked against his chest. “You’re a fucking fool. What’s wrong with you?”
Even now, any response he might have ended up knotted in his throat. Cassia’s death was wrapped up in every line of that prophecy.
But, what did it matter? As long as he could get Selene safely away, the gods could leave them out of the rest. Everything that happened here was a problem for Dimitrios and anyone else who stood at his side.
“I’ll get her on the ship,” he said. “Even if I have to kidnap her to do it. She’ll forgive me once she realizes I did the right thing.”
He heard the madness in his words and didn’t care. He’d welcome the role of her villain if it meant she lived.
Lili shook her head. “No, she fucking won’t. And if you don’t know that about her, you’re a bigger fool than I thought you were.”
Augustus’s fingers dug into his palms. “I’m not fucking losing her.” The words hit the boards like a war drum.
Several crewman looked up.
Lili raised her hands as if he were some kind of furious monster. Maybe he was. “All right.”
“Don’t patronize me. I’m serious.”
“Oh, I know, mate. Anyone with eyes can see.”
He spun on her. “The last time the gods pulled our strings, no one listened to me, and if we’d stayed out of it—” He scrubbed his face. “If we’d stayed out of it, my mother would be alive.”
Lili’s eyes widened.
“And now,” he choked out, “Selene is heading straight for the same fate. Am I supposed to sit by and watch?” His breath hitched, and the band he’d kept cinched inside his chest snapped. “Don’t look at me like that,” he snarled. “Don’t feel sorry for me. Help me.”
Lili only shook her head. “I can’t help you with this one. You need to talk to her.”
Augustus dropped his gaze, chest heaving. He wanted to—gods, he wanted to. But Selene had chosen to stay. And he had no power to stop her.
“Augustus.” Lili’s expression shifted, her gaze on the horizon. “Those ships… Look.”
He turned.
“They’re getting a little close, aren’t they?” she asked.
Two ships with full, unmarked sails made a course straight for the Entia.
Flaming Sphinxes.
The mystery ships from Vrinis.
Augustus calculated the trajectory and speed, and a giddy anticipation wet his lips. The entire world pulled in tight until it was just him, his ship, and his enemy.
Lili gripped his arm. “Augustus. They’re charging us.”
The pirate inside him stirred, and the grin he unleashed was one he hadn’t used in far too long. “I know.”
Selene bathed and dressed, breathing air that had lost its charge.
Her entire world had turned its back and left with Augustus.
Even her room felt wrong. The tokens she’d purchased and placed on every surface belonged to a girl who had been playing at fitting in.
Maybe, deep inside, she’d hoped Augustus would mistake her stillness for belonging. Maybe she’d mistaken it herself.
That future she’d promised Augustus, following the wind and the sun and the stars… Had she ever taken it seriously? Or had she grown so comfortable in the safety of what she knew that she was always looking for a reason to stay?
Was that what she was doing now? Using Dimitrios and the assassinations as another anchor?
These questions filled her mind on her walk outside the palace grounds, the air heavy and warm. She was outfitted and armed for an afternoon of sparring with the nearest willing Blade—she needed to work off this tension.
The dronsian followed along, diving in and out of the treelined path, scaring the wildlife into trees and wearing a big grin.
If Augustus were there, he’d probably say something like, “You’re supposed to hunt and eat them, not play with them. Stupid dragon.”
His absence hollowed out her chest, and the backs of her eyes stung. What were they doing?
The dronsian stopped in front of her and looked up. Head angled to the side, all previous smiles and panting gone. Concern vibrated through her like a low hum.
“I’m all right,” she said, then a traitorous tear dripped onto her cheek. “We had a fight about leaving Perean. He wants to leave as soon as possible, and I don’t think I’m ready.”
The little scaled body scuttled to her shoulder, where he nudged her cheek. Images flooded her mind. The pregnant women she’d been seeing all these months. The one from the docks who made her think of Noi. The strange pull she had to all of these unborn children.
In the last image, Selene stood in the mountain temple with the woman who had seen her across the centuries. She’d said the two words that have haunted Selene more than anything else. “Hello, Mother.”
“I wish I knew what any of this meant,” she said to the dronsian. “But I know where to find someone who might be able to help.”
Selene still didn’t know if she could walk away from Dimitrios with his world crashing down, but she couldn’t ignore the information Blaze had given her either.
She kicked a stone across the dirt road and located the Entia floating out on the bay. “I have to talk to Augustus.”
She wanted to tell him about the people in the Trayterre Isles, but she needed to make things right between them more. Her world didn’t feel centered without him.
Selene reached a split in the road that took her toward the docks, and the market surrounded her like a living thing.
Scents collided—sea brine and spiced smoke, cut by the sharp tang of sun-warmed fish entrails and dried blood.
Crates scraped. Hooks clanged. Somewhere, a merchant barked a laugh that stopped halfway through.
The dronsian paused near a pail of rotted fish to watch the flies buzz. Overhead, sunlight baked the edges of fabric awnings. It was the sort of scorching day that felt more like summer.
Despite the heat, it was business as usual in the market streets. Another day working to survive what the previous regime had started.
Selene adjusted the weight of her weapons on her hips, strolling toward the docks. The dronsian darted ahead, then stopped suddenly, head jerking toward a shaded alley, his body taut and still.
She followed his gaze. Nothing. Just stacked crates and fluttering tarps. But she felt it too—a shift in the air, like someone had just held their breath.
Probably nothing. A child playing hide and seek.
“Good day, Selene!” came a call from the left.
She waved at the butcher’s son, urging a smile past her unease. He tossed a dried fig to the dronsian, who snatched it mid-air and bounded after a passing gull.
A shadow moved in her peripheral.
If Oskar were here, he’d tell her to trust her instincts, and right now they were screaming.
Instead of continuing to the docks, Selene detoured into a side lane, weaving past baskets of squid and netting. She stopped at a basket of lemons and put one to her nose, inhaling the citrus.
And waited.
A child bumped into her from behind and mumbled a distracted apology. His eyes flicked behind her.
She pivoted smoothly, pretending to examine a rack of gloves—
There. A flicker of gray vanishing behind the baskets.
Heart a steady hammer, she turned toward the docks with deliberate calm, murmuring pleasantries to every vendor she passed, laughing a little too loudly at an old man’s joke. She scanned glass reflections. Knife handles. The gleam of dark metal hidden in daylight.
She caught the shadow again. Small. Quick. Ducking into another alley off her left.
“Got you,” Selene muttered, pulse kicking.
The dronsian snapped to her side, a living arrow.
She lunged into the alley—
Selene slammed into her follower with a grunt and a grapple.
“Stop!” The girl yanked down her hood. “I’m not here to hurt you!”
Hazel eyes. Brown hair. Dimples.
“Get Selene. Hurry.”
Alexandra’s last order to this woman inside the collapsing temple. The princess had pushed her into the raining debris, uncaring that the ceiling was collapsing all around them.
The last time Selene saw this woman, she’d fled the room, ignoring the order entirely.
Where she’d spent the last five months was a mystery Selene had no interest in solving.
This woman was an Eye.
“Petrina,” Selene hissed, drawing both blades. The dronsian snarled from the ground at her side, wings flaring. Selene stepped forward. “Are you here to finish what Alexandra started?”
Petrina didn’t flinch. “I’m the last thing you should be worried about right now.” She grabbed Selene by the arm and pulled her to the edge of the alley. “You’re being hunted.”