Chapter 28
“Absurd, isn’t it?” Morvyn said with a smirk as we stood at the entrance of Hylos’s bedchamber. “A ruler should have the finest bedchamber, I suppose. But this seems a bit overkill to me.”
The room was made of navy marble, so dark it was nearly black.
It looked like if I set foot in the space, I would vanish into a void of night sky or sea.
Its arched door stood three men tall, left carelessly open.
Not a guard in sight. The most powerful siren in all three seas didn’t need bodyguards.
“Go on, have a seat, he’ll be here shortly,” Morvyn said, ushering me into the room and toward a seating area of plush, cerulean velvet chairs framed in—“That can’t be,” I exclaimed.
“Oh, but it is, my dear,” Morvyn answered, still smiling. “Pure gold.”
I looked around the room. Every flagrant decorative piece, crown molding, and ornate pillar was gilded.
I carefully sat on the overstuffed, opulent furniture, but strained my neck to see the main bedchamber through another grand entrance framed in swaths of dark-blue fabric.
Likely they were used for privacy for Hylos and whoever joined him under that luscious, cobalt-blue counterpane that spilled off the massive bed.
“Does one person really need such a lavish room?” I asked.
“Like I said. Absurd.”
“Oh please,” Hylos scoffed from the threshold. “If you were king regent, your bedchambers would be a hundredfold more ostentatious, Morvyn.” Hylos clapped his friend’s pale, bare shoulder with a smile. “And the bed would be three times as big.”
“That is absolutely”—Morvyn feigned insult, then gave in—“correct.”
Hylos grinned. “I’d invite you to join us, but I believe you have dinner plans with your aunt and cousins.”
Morvyn rolled his pale eyes. “You mean you’re forcing me to dine with Elspeth against my will.”
“Exactly. You are my ambassador, Morvyn. I believe meeting with other High Circle leaders is in the official job description.”
“See, I just assumed that title was more of a formality. You know, to keep me around for my wonderful wit and good looks.”
“I fear not.”
“Fine, fine. But I will request an increase in my wages come year’s end,” Morvyn said, then left the room.
“Now that he’s gone,” Hylos began, padding across the expansive room to where I sat. “We can break out the wine. Otherwise he’d never leave.”
“Will Raylik not be joining us for the war council?” I asked, noting Raylik’s absence.
“Not tonight. There’s no new information, and he wished to spend the evening with Nixie. She was very … upset about last night.”
About me losing my absolute mind in front of her. I would thank her when I saw her again. I should have this morning when she trained with me despite being exhausted herself. But I was too raw then.
“What about Lumina?” She had been there too. “Is she alright?” I asked. Who would stay the evening with her to ensure she was okay? Likely she only had herself and her books.
“She’ll be fine,” he said, turning toward a small drink table beside the seating arrangement, where matching chalices sat beside a flagon. “Lumina is strong.”
That she was. Strong enough to watch the man she loved be with another, all while helping him achieve his ambitions. Even when it clearly broke her heart.
“How are you feeling?” he asked as he poured wine into his cup.
Confined. Confused. And for some Guardians-damned reason, utterly unafraid. Despite the very real fact that someone was out to expose me, or worse, harm me.
“I’m fine.”
Hylos raised the other chalice to me in question.
I nodded a yes. Why not drink? I’d been running from the shadows of my past all day. I tried beating it out of me with Nixie, tried hiding from it with Arlo. Neither worked. Why not try to drink it away?
Hylos handed me the filled cup, and I drank it down in two gulps.
Hylos raised a blue eyebrow at me. “Ah, about as fine as me then, I see. Another?”
“Please. What is there for a siren king to fret about?”
“Besides my people being taken in droves by—” He paused, shaking his head.
“Besides that situation. I was worried for you.” He filled my cup.
“I feel foolish that someone attacked you, again, on my watch.” He handed me the cup and met my eyes.
“I’m sorry, Elowyn, I truly am. I want you to know that I had no part in what happened. ”
“Then who did?” I pressed. Apologies were fine. But they didn’t hold answers.
“Truthfully, I’m not sure. There are many new faces in the castle and—”
“Was it Calypstra?” I asked pointedly.
I’d seen the way she looked at me when the poison started working through my veins. It was like she knew my fate before anyone else.
Hylos hesitated, uncertainty flickering in his eyes. “She wouldn’t.”
But it wasn’t a no.
“Who are you trying to convince? Me, or you?”
Hope twinkled in his gem-blue eyes, but then it faded and died. He didn’t have an answer. At least not for that question.
“Why stop me from revealing my secrets? Wouldn’t it have served your interests to know my thoughts, as your enemy?”
He met my gaze squarely. “We are not enemies. The war I wage is against your father.”
“Which makes it my war.”
Hylos let out a breath. “I’m not at all surprised to hear you say that.” He shook his head and smiled as he sat beside me in the matching chair. “I know you feel strongly about protecting Oakhaven. It’s in your blood to do so.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Elowyn, you are his heir,” he said softly, like I would flee at the very statement. Which is exactly what I wanted to do.
“I’ve told you, I am not his heir. I am not in line for the throne. I am a illeg—”
“Tell me your heart does not argue otherwise.” He cut me off. “I know it does because mine does. We are the same, destined to take from our fathers. Born with a natural inclination to do so. Ready to seize the moment we rise and meet our destiny.”
“That is not the truth for me. Unfortunately for you,” I said, grabbing the chalice to busy my hands. But doubt slithered up my spine. Did I long for my father’s crown? The vision of my mother, was that truly her, or was that me wailing my own selfish desires?
“I stopped you from sharing your thoughts because I believe you’ll help me with this war when you’re ready to.
You’re no fool. The missing sirens aside, your father’s rule has been a contentious one.
Your people suffer at his hands. You know that.
You yourself have suffered at his hands,” Hylos added.
I’d never thought of it as suffering. If anything, I always felt my circumstances were punishment or penitence. For not being a man in this cruel world.
But did my mother die for the same crime?
Were we both truly guilty? Or was my father simply wielding the blade of justice incorrectly?
Cedric’s voice scraped over my mind. He doesn’t hate you. He fears you. They all do. He was so bloody certain that I had some untapped power. Just as Hylos was now.
“I could put you on his throne,” Hylos said, pulling me from my thoughts. “If we rise from the sea, march into Guardian’s Watch, we could take the city with ease, just as we do the king’s ships.”
My heart thrummed in my chest. Was he truly offering me my father’s throne? Offering me Oakhaven?
“Oakhaven is not a ship, Hylos. It is a country with armies and navies.”
“We can brandish water and control people.”
“You can control a portion of the population.”
“The more powerful part,” he countered.
“And you plan to put the weaker part of humanity on the throne? A feeble woman such as myself?” I scoffed. “You doubt the strength of women at your peril. They will fight for their men. For their children. They’ll rip you apart with their teeth for their Guardians-damned country.”
“You’re right. As would you. So save it. From him.” He said it so easily. “You have the heart of a fucking king, Elowyn. He only possesses the withered, black, dying organ of a leech.”
“You don’t even know me.” I had no king’s heart. I was a lover of art, history, and stories. I possessed the heart of a reader, a musician, a poet. Not the heart of a fighter, a ruler. “You also do not know Oakhaven. I’d be challenged immediately. A woman has never ruled.”
“The sea would defend you. I would defend you.”
“Why? Why would you ever do that for me?” I asked.
“Because you would never harm my people.”
Understanding dawned on me. “You think I’d be a good puppet.”
Hylos didn’t believe in me, he sought to control me. Just as Cedric did. Just as everyone did.
“No. I think you would be my ally. Land and sea would be united for the first time. We would be unstoppable.”
It was an absurd, juvenile hope. One that would be cut down and battered, just like every person before him who’d dared to go against my father.
Heavy silence settled between us. There was nothing more to say. Nothing left to do. It was a foolish plan by a foolish boy-king, and I needed to get the fuck out of Naiadon before I was forced to comply with his childish whims.
“I’ll think on it,” I lied.
His smile fell, like he could hear the doubt in my voice. He took another sip of his drink. His jaw set. “We have another event tonight, with the royal sirens. Will you join?” His tone had changed. It was heavier, more guarded.
I eyed him warily. “Are you sure it’s safe?”
“Yes, security will be increased and only royal guests were invited.”
“Will Calypstra be there?” I asked.
“No. She is unaware of the event.” Wrinkles formed on his brow, the truth etched in them. He didn’t trust her to be aware of the event.
“Yes. Sure, I will attend.”
I couldn’t stop looking for an escape now, not after this conversation.
“Good. The guards will come for you tonight.”
Hylos poured the remnants of the wine into his chalice.
“Want more?” he asked.
I would need it to keep me sane at this point. It felt like Naiadon’s walls were closing in around me and soon I would drown below in these depths. “Yes, please.”
“I’ll grab another bottle,” he said, walking to the other end of the room and pulling a bolt of dark-blue fabric onto a hook. It exposed a small wine cellar that Hylos stepped down into.
Then I saw it, just briefly. An object as tall as him leaning against the back of the cellar wall, shrouded in a cloth.
My heart raced.
It couldn’t be, could it?
“What is that?” I asked, trying to keep my voice from quivering.
“What?” Hylos asked. Bottles clinked as he selected the one he wanted.
I rose to my feet and walked toward him, trying to get a better look. “That thing, covered and leaning up against the wall?”
Hylos reappeared. “Oh, that.” He glanced at it as he walked past, a wine bottle in hand. He untucked the fabric and it flowed back into place, hiding the small room and the object inside.
“It’s a painting.” A frown dragged on the corner of his lips.
“A painting of what?” I was holding my breath.
He winced like the thought pained him. With a wave of his hand and siren song, the wine bottle’s cork popped. He caught it smoothly in the air.
“Of my mother.”
My heart sank. It was the portal out of Naiadon.
Winter 5339 AT
Aegir has warmed to the idea of me becoming a mother.
Even if it is not his child. At first, he was furious.
Distraught even. But one night, amid the quiet of his bedchamber, the sea twinkling in silver moonlight, he confessed his love for the child growing within me. Because the babe is mine, and I am his.
Aegir fusses over me incessantly, showering me with attention and care like a doting parent-to-be. From rubbing my sore, flattened feet to bringing me jelly sweets. He can’t resist the urge to caress my growing belly. His love for the unborn child is evident in every touch.
He’s convinced it’s a boy. He claims to sense a strong energy from the small flutter in my womb, that the child’s inner song is brave and wise. I hope he’s right. Every powerful man wishes for a son. Maybe that would quell my husband’s callous nature.