21. Twenty One
Someone is calling my name.
No, they”re singing it.
I hear someone singing my name just before sunrise, beckoning me to follow the call. The song is the loveliest sound I”ve ever heard.
Easing quietly into my sandals, I grab the closest long robe, wrapping it tightly around myself. The voice beckons, stronger now, pleading me to follow.
I have to be quiet. If anyone sees me, I”ll be dragged back here. But I have to follow the song. I have to know what they need from me.
They sound so sad, a song full of aching melodies and quiet heartbreak. Using light steps, I weave through the castle, the song telling me where to go to avoid any guards. The voice must know all. Perhaps it”s the witches who need me for something.
Coming down the final stairs, two guards stand watch, nearly spotting me. The beautiful voice tells me to silently slip down the hall at the bottom of the stairs, the hidden servant”s entrance tucked into a small alcove that way.
When the door opens to the fresh, early morning breeze, it smells of sea, sand, and magic. The fresh air fills my lungs, warm and cold at the same time.
This way,the voice beckons, calling me toward the waves crashing against the shoreline.
I can”t swim.The thought leaves as soon as it arrives. I”m not going in the water. Only putting my toes in it. I kick my shoes off, letting the sand settle between my toes on each step as I wander closer and closer to the incoming tide.
The voice calls my name again and I spin in circles, searchingto findthe person who needs me so desperately.
”Elva,” I hear a normal voice call, and finally, I spot her. The Syren Queen sits on a throne of water, only a few feet from the shoreline.
”Valta,” I respond kindly. ”Is everything alright?”
”Everything is fine, my dear. Though I can”t quite hear you. Can you come a bit closer?”
With a few more steps, the water crashes over my ankles, nowhere near as cold as I expected. While it”s certainly not warm, it”s pleasant, and I imagine how lovely it would feel on a hot day, lounging in the shallow water as the sun rains down.
”Elva,”Valta”s voice is suddenly much closer. ”I need you to focus.”
”Focus?”I ask. ”On what?”
”I need to know what the king has said about the missing Syrens,”she tells me, her ethereal voice more song than spoken. ”Please.”
The sound floats into my head, wrapping all my thoughts in a warm embrace. Nothing could be bad here with Valta. I can tell her everything, and she”ll take care of it.
”There are missing Syrens?”I ask. ”That”s not good.”
”No, it is not,”she agrees, a bite in her words as she appears even closer. ”But the king must know something.”
”Why would Kairon know something?”
The embrace becomes a vice, squeezing my skull until I scream. ”Tell me. I know the king trusts you. Tell me what you know. What is he doing about my missing Vanya?”
I scream in agony again, trying and failing to clutch my head. Why can”t I reach my head? Only then do I notice that the queen was not coming closer to me, but in fact, I was moving closer to her, and now I”m neck deep in water, trapping me in place.
”Please!”I beg, the word hardly more than a shrill cry. Water splashes into my nose, and I choke on it, thesensation entirely foreign. ”I know nothing, I swear.”
”But the king trusts you,”her voice wavers as the pressure on my head decreases.
”Apparently not enough to share that with me.”I cough, trying to expel the salty water from my mouth and nose.
She shrieks, and the water lifts me up until we are eye to eye. ”You have to know something. Think. What about conversations with that man who works for him?”
”I”m not allowed in his private meetings with his advisors. Why would I be? I”m from an enemy nation,”I explain, though she knows all this.
With dramatic flair, she rolls her eyes. ”You and Kairon are no more enemies than I am with the sea itself.”I choke again, this time on the words that she spits my way. ”The two of you are nearly one already. You move in sync, like the waves. You always find each other, like the tide and the shore.”
I shake my head, not ready to hear what she”s saying. ”No, we are just working together for peace.”
With a musical laugh, she condescends, ”Peace is impossible when there is a power imbalance. As long as there are those with power and those without, violence will rule. But you paint such a pretty picture of a better future. I”m almost saddened to know that you might not live to see whether it comes to fruition.”
”Valta, please. I need to go back to shore,”I explain. ”I can”t swim.”
”Yes, I know that, my dear.”She sighs. A long, thin tendril of water leaps from her throne, wrapping around my neck like a leash as she creates a makeshift seat for me at her feet. ”But Kairon will come and find you, and as long as you”re in the water, you”re perfect leverage. If he kills me, you fall into the depths, and he has to drag your drowned corpse back to shore to mourn you.”
An invisible weight presses on my chest, and goosebumps break out across my skin. I am going to die out here. Being above the water forthe time beingdoes nothing to ease my fear. If anything, it”s worse. I”m just waiting for the inevitable drop.
Movement on the shore draws my attention. Kairon, with his horrifying mask and a small armada of his guards, run toward us in sync, the perfect machine moving closer and closer. They”re just far enough that I can barely hear Kairon shouting, but I can”t tell what he”s saying. ”Please,”I beg again. ”You think he”s going to choose to save me over keeping his secrets? Be realistic. He”ll kill you and let me drown just to spite us both!”
Her laugh fills my head again. ”No, he won”t. Unfortunately, for you anyway, The Horned King seems to have finally found something worth caring for.”
The seat and leash around my neck have me firmly in place, too far away to reach out and touch her.I”mnotsure it wouldeven workanyway, orif Syrens are like the Fae and immune to my abilities.All I can do is helplessly sit and wait, hoping Kairon”s need for peace outweighs his vengeful impulses.
”This doesn”t have to end in violence, Your Majesty,”her voice floats along the water to him, the musical quality a sharp, biting sound, far unlike the way she used it to summon me here. ”Tell me what you know about who has my Vanya and she lives.”
Kairon yells something again, and while I can”t hear him, it seems Valta can.The ring of water around my neck squeezes, and I try tono avail torip it off. The swirling water just reforms through my fingers again and again and I pull uselessly at it.
Valta shrieks. ”It”s been weeks, Kairon! Where is she? Where are they?”
Again, a muffled shout reaches me, seeming even further away.
”What—what is this? What are you doing?”the Syren Queen says suddenly, a frantic shrillness in her voice as her eyes dart around us.
Following her wandering gaze,I see dark shadows approaching us in every direction.Slowly, they close in around us, andslowly,the watery noose around my neck tightens.
Her wild eyes meet mine. ”Stop it now, or I”ll drown you right now and make him watch.”
”It”s not me,”I choke out, just as scared as her of whatever is gathering around us. They”re only a few feet away from us now, and I almost think I can make out the shape of someone swimming.
She looks back to Kairon, his guard positioned around him and ready to attack. He stands with his arms folded, each of his men holding weaponry that even I know is useless from this distance. What are they planning to do? Cut through the water? Swim out here carrying massive swords and axes?
The shadows.
Just as the realization hits me, a dismembered hand breaches the surface, the dark flesh sloughing off it as it does. My body begs to gag, the horrid vision in front of me demanding it, but the water around my neck won”t allow it. It”s so tightly wrapped, and the world blurs around me, dizziness settling in.
The Syren Queen screams as dozens of corpses ascend from the depths. Some are only bones, the flesh long since shed. Others still have the remnants of who they once were, skin bloating and discolored.Up they swim throughthe swirling throne, traversing it as quickly as Valta can push them away with waves while remaining afloat.
”Stop!”she screams. ”I”ll kill her!”
The corpses swim harder, faster, hands and skulls fighting to reach us. Terror and disgust war with my body”s fight to stay conscious, the pressure on my neck becoming unbearable.
Just as my head starts to lull, too exhausted to keep it upright any longer, Valta shrieks. With the last of my strength, I see a bony hand clinging to her tail, ripping through the translucent green fin. Her hold on my throat lessens as her concentration falters. She tries fruitlessly to tear the hand away, only for it to be replaced by another, this one attached to half of a body.
The corpse crawls up her tail, then her torso, the sharp fingerbones digging into her flesh. She cries out in agony, finally releasing the pressure around my neck altogether.
With a final defeated, pained shriek, she uses the water to send herself far away from us, splashing nearly 10 feet away and disappearing into the ocean.
As soon as she”s out of sight, the watery seat beneath me gives out beforeI”veeven taken my first full breath. I try to inhale just once before submerging into the dark, corpse-filled depths, but I don”t have enough time, inhaling the salty water as I flail and try to stay above the surface.
Slimy, waxy hands and teeth grab at me, and I try to swat them away, coughing and fighting to stay afloat while I do. Again and again, assorted dismembered bodies wrap themselves around me, trying to pull me under.
”Elva!”someone shouts my name, but I”m far past hearing it, needing to fight against the corpses trying to drown me. ”Stop fighting, Elva, please!”
It”s the last thing I hear before the water swallows me completely.Even as I try to fight against it, further and further downI go.The light from above gets darker the deeper I go, still pushing against the water and the bodies.
But my strength wanes, the effort of holding my breath taking all of my concentration. I have no energy left to fight against my dismembered killers. I wonderfor a momentif Kairon will take the time to mourn me or ifhe”llbe too busy trying to fight the wars it will mean for his country.
All I think at that moment is how sorry I am that I”ll be the cause of it. I wish I could tell him that I”m sorry. My eyes drift closed, and my lungs ache to breathe in. I know it”s inevitable, at this point, that my body will breathe in the water. Survival instincts won”t allow me to hold my breath indefinitely.
It wouldn”t be so bad to die here, I think, as my lungs force me to inhale. If nothing else, I won”t ever be alone. There are so many that the sea has taken prisoner. I”ll be in good company for my eternity.
Suddenly, my head breaches the surface, strong arms pulling my head and shoulders from the water. The moment I feel the breeze on my skin, I cough up the water in my lungs, the pain of them expelling all the salty liquid immeasurable.
The arms drag me, half submerged, until we reach the shore. I don”t have the strength to open my eyes yet, every ounce of my energy being used to heave in huge breaths to stop my head from spinning and my chest from aching.
Someone rolls me over and lies me on the sand, the light from the rising sun burning through my eyelids.
”Elva?”the voice speaks again, and I realize it”s Kairon. But his voice sounds so different. The calm, almost flat way he usually speaks is gone, replaced with what can only be described as wavering, a wobbly sound like there”s something stuck in his throat.
I try to speak, tell him I”m fine, but instead, I cough again, throwing my arm over my eyes to protect them from the bright light.
He releases a sigh of relief. ”It”s alright. Don”t speak. You might have damaged your vocal cords. You need a healer. One is coming now.”
”What the fuck just happened?”I croak.
”I told you not to speak,”he orders, adding a pained, ”Please.”
I don”t think I can say anything else without it burning, so I relent. A weight shifts beside me, and I peek under my arm to find Kairon, helmet gone, fully dressed, and soaked to the bone with water. He”s lying down in the sand next to me, catching his breath as if he were the one who just took an unexpected swim.
”The healer will be here in a few minutes,”he assures me, exhaustion turning his voice into a breathy, strained whisper. ”Just try to relax and breathe.”
Kairon”s breathing settles, and the show of power he just displayed is taking its toll.Itake the brief opportunity towatch him rest, his dark lashes casting long shadows across his cheeks.He really is unfairly beautiful. No one should be this powerful and this gorgeous. It”s unnatural.
The sound of feet pounding on the ground travels to us, and I turn my head to see an unfamiliar man running toward us. Once he steps foot on the sand, a wall of guards stands in front of him, blocking him from view.
Kairon groans, rolling over to grab his helm from where it lays in the sand. Seated, clothes sopping wet and covered in sand, he eases the monstrosity over his head before grabbing his discarded red cloak.
”Say nothing,”he tells me. ”He does not need to speak to you to know where it hurts or how to heal it. Do not speak until he leaves.”
I try to ask why, but no real sound comes out.
”Because he”s the most talented healer in the kingdom, but he”s also the least trustworthy. Anything you tell him will be used against you,”he tells me. ”He won”t even be permitted to know who you are.”
I stand slowly, awkwardly, the bone-deep exhaustion from very nearly drowning and being ripped from sleep too early making me dizzy.
Once allowed, the healer makes his way to us, the man looking almost human, but most definitely not. His skin doesn”t seem right, like it”s too perfect, pulled just a bit too tight over his cheekbones.His lips are just slightly too big for his face—his eyes, too.His nose is so perfectly straight and so angular that it looks surreal.
He silently places a perfectly manicured hand against my throat. His emotions are a mess of annoyance, sympathy, curiosity, and even a little vindictiveness and anger at Kairon. While I”m sure anyone would be annoyed at being woken at this hour, I worry about the cruelty underlying everything else, like he”s already plotting how to use this against the king.
Staring too intently at my face, he stands eerily still, his fingers warm on my throat. The warmth seeps into my skin, soothing the pain and calming my still-racing heart. The heat grows into my chest, where my lungs burn again. I tense my muscles against the need to heave again.
”It”s alright, sweetness. You still have a little water in your lungs. As long as it”s there, they cannot fully heal,”he tells me beforemoving backto give me space. The moment he”s out of range, I cough and choke again on the water expelling from my body. ”There”s a good girl.”
Behind me, the king bristles, ”Is she well?”reminding the healer that he is still very much under the watchful eye of the terrifying man.
The healer places his palm against my sternum, delight dancing with his other emotions due to Kairon”s reaction to the too-intimate way he spoke to me. The warmth enters my body again, rendering me free of pain but utterly exhausted.
”She will be, but she needs to rest. As you know, healing is daunting on the body,”the healer tells the king. ”And my payment?”
”Will be sent with you. The guards have it.”Kairon points with his chin to the wall of guards waiting to escort the healer off the property.
”Thank you,”he bows as a farewell, ”Your Majesty. Miss,”he says before turning on a heel and leaving the way he came.
Once he”s out of earshot, I consider telling Kairon what I felt from the healer, but I can”t do that without explaining my powers, and I just don”t have the energy for that right now. I just want to crawl back into bed.
”Are you alright?”Kai asks, and I nod, too tired to speak—infinitely more exhausted than I was before the healing. ”Let”s get you inside. You need to go back to bed. I”ll cancel the final negotiations, and we will have them after the ball. Perhaps a night of dancing and frivolity will loosen everyone up, and we can come to some sort of agreement.”
”Idon”t have time to sleep,”I tell him with a yawn. ”There”s too much still uncertain.”
He crooks half a smile. ”My Elva, your body just sped through what would normally be weeks of healing, if it survived it at all. You”re going to fall asleep whether it”s in bed or in front of all of our sort-of allies. Which will it be?”
”Bed, please.”
”Splendid.”
On the walk back to my room, the king asked more than once if I needed to be carried,then if I would consider being carried because watching me struggle was making him tired. Fortunately, we made it back before he could beg,because I think if he did, I would be powerless to deny him anything.
At my bedroom door,he tries to hide his concern behind a smirk, but his eyes give him away.”Get some sleep, Elva. Guards will be right outside your door. You are perfectly safe. I”m going to go decide how I”m going to deal with the Syren Queen.”
”Give her a break, Kairon,”I suggest. ”She”s out of her mind with terror.”
The king scoffs, ”You want to show mercy to someone who just tried to kill you?”
With an exhausted shrug, I confirm, ”Yes. She wasn”t thinking clearly, and she didn”t succeed. No harm done.”
His jaw clenches, another argument sitting on his tonguefor a momentbefore he sighs. ”We can discuss it later.”The concession makes my stomach flutter. This powerful man being willing to make room for me and my ideas gives me a feeling unlike I”ve ever known.
Unable to speak, I just nod, stepping backward into my room. As I slowly close the door, the king”s eyes don”t leave mine until I”ve been blocked from his view. The spell of his attention breaks, and I leanmy headagainst the door for a moment before pouring myself into bed. The bone-deep exhaustion pulls me under immediately.
When I awake, Raya informs me that the king is in the library, so I find my way there on exhausted, slow legs.
As I enter, his eyes drift to me, relief palpable only for a moment before it”s replaced with a bitterness I haven”t seen since I first arrived, and he was trying to get a rise out of me.
”Kairon,”I greet, nerves making my voice quiet.
”Miss Aistin,”his cold delivery washes over me, and Islow my walking, stoppinga few feet away.
”What”s wrong?”
”Why would anything be wrong?”he asks, his tone sharp and derisive.
I choose my words carefully, not wanting to anger him further. ”You”re behaving strangely.”
”Acting strangely?”he tsks. ”I can”t imagine why. It”s not as if since you”ve been here, I”ve had to save you several times— at mine and my people”s expense.”
My eyes narrow. ”Okay. Well, I”m sorry?”I”mreally not surehow to deal with this version of him, the one I haven”t seen in weeks and hoped I never would again.
”You”re sorry?”He laughs to himself. ”You”ve been nearly murdered twice, and you”re sorry?”
I open my mouth to say something, but he interrupts me, ”Was coming here worth it? Was it worth all the death you”ve nearly faced? For nothing, really.”A bitter laugh leaves him as he rifles through the papers in front of him again.
”For nothing?”Fury fills me. ”What do you mean for nothing? What we”ve done here is incredible. Because of this, there will finally be peace between all of our countries for the first time in centuries. This is going to be in history books. It”s going to change the world. For everyone.”
He laughs again. ”Forgive me.”Sarcasm drips from his mouth, making me ache to throw something at him. ”I had forgotten how little you still actually know of this world. This is only historic for you. The rest of us have been capable of peace for generations. King Rivchi was useless, but even he managed to maintain these alliances during his rule. Rhyma is the only nation who has refused to lower themselves to our level here.”
”No.”I shake my head. ”We have tried for years to-”
”You think that because your people voted for you and those who rule alongside you, there”s no evil in Rhyma,”he chides, malice filling his tone. ”You don”t understand that it doesn”t matter that you think they chose you or that they think they chose you. They chose who they were told to believe in. And someone told them to believe in you so they could put you right here, knowing that you are more likely to die here by my hand than taken seriously. So you tell me, who is the more likely side to be lying about our collective histories? Me, Fastid, Lermo, Suva, Slawyth, and the Eyes? Or Rhyma, who has everything to gain if you”re killed here?”
”Why would my country gain anything from my death?”I ask, confused by why he seems so angry at me. If I was fooled, if my people were, that certainly isn”t my fault.
He stands and comes toward me so quickly that I nearly trip attempting to step back from him. But I”m not fast enough, and his gloved hands cradle my face. Exhaustion and desperation are so evident in his expression that his gray eyes leave me frozen in terror.
”Don”t you see, Elva?”he asks, gripping mefartoo tightly while his eyes search my face. ”You are the perfect martyr. Beautiful, young, kind. And they sent you here, believing your chances of returning were minimal. Either you succeed, and they get to cheer for their wisdom in choosing you to represent them, or you die, and they blame me, tearing through my country one village at a time to avenge you. Dragging Maren, Tirriel, and Colm into this conflict against their own wills.”
”What is wrong with you?”I ask him, pushing him away from me. ”What happened?”
He grips his hair at the roots, tugging at it. ”What happened?”he repeats my question incredulously. ”I”ve just finally realized how utterly fucked you”ve left me.”
”Me?”I ask. ”How is any of this my fault?”
”You have absolutely no instinct for survival.”His eyes close in exasperation. ”You literally walked right into a Syren”s call, right into the water. You can”t fucking swim, and you willingly walked right into the ocean.”
I create space between us, unsure how I would cope if he chose to reach for me again. ”How do you expect me to react to something I”ve never been exposed to before?”
”That”s the point, Elva. You have no awareness of anything in this world, left completely ignorant by your leaders, sent into the most dangerous of your neighboring countries.”With his hands on his hips, he stares at me. ”You”re in a position where your survival is entirely up to me, the person who has only ever been good at making sure the people around him die too soon.”
”Kai,”I start, reaching for him to show some kind of comfort, at least. ”I”m fine. The Syren Queen attacked, and while, yes, it was a surprise that it was her, we knew something was coming, and now it has, and it”s done.”
”That doesn”t fucking matter, Elva. So many things in this world could kill you, and I would have to fight a losing war while also recovering from the devastation.”He laughs, a mirthless sound.
”Everything is going to be fine,”I assure him. ”I”ll leave in the morning as soon as we finalize and sign all seven copies of the accords. You only need to put up with me for a few more hours.”
His fury doesn”t abate. ”And then what?”
”What do you mean and then what?”I ask.”We go back to our lives.”The statement feels bitter in my mouth. There”s no way my life will evergo back to the way it was before.
”So that”s it? You”ve come here, learned what you can, and now you”ll go back to your people like none of it ever happened?” he scoffs.
”That”s not what I said—”
”No.”He runs his fingers through his hair again. ”You don”t need to say it. You”ll go home, back to where you can live in feigned ignorance with all the other pretenders leading your country. Go back and tell them how you barely survived staying with the animals from your neighboring nations.”
”I would never say that about any of you,”I argue, eyes watering. ”I”ve loved my time here. I”ve learned so many things I can take home and teach my people. This can be good for everyone, don”t you see?”
”You”re lying to yourself again, Elva.”Defeat makes his shoulders droop. ”You think anything will change because of this? That Rhyma will allow you to break the hold they have over their people within the ignorant bubble they”ve created?”
”If this was pointless, why did you let me come at all?”My frustration almost boils over.
”You can blame Shan for that, Elva. He orchestrated all of it.”
”And you let him,”I add. ”You knew I was coming.”
”Wrong,”he bites. ”I knew someone was coming. Had I known it was some girl with no survival skills, no real-life experience, just a pretty face and a charming smile, I would have told them not to fucking bother.”
The blow lands, knocking the wind out of my chest. Just a pretty face. After all this work, giving my whole life to this, risking it time and again tocomefind peace. After the time we”ve spent together and the things he”s shown me,all I am isa pretty face.
Rather than show vulnerability and show how small I feel, I shrug. ”Well, how fortunate for us both that I”ll be gone tomorrow, then.”
”Can”t fucking wait.”
We both stand, fuming, facing one another alone for what will probably be the last time. He”s angry at me for being ignorant, even after telling me more than once that my naivety isn”t my fault. And I”m angry because he”s being a colossal asshole once again.
I nod, pursing my lips and refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing how upset his cruel words have made me. Without another word, I leave the way I came, storming past Raya, who doesn”t bother trying to stop me.
She”ll hear all about it from the king anyway.