Selena shook her head. “Every monarch needs their generals. And no, he doesn’t trust me. He doesn’t trust anyone. There are other methods of gaining loyalty, Maren. Coercion. Fear. None of Thaan’s followers do so out of love. You know that. Look at yourself, the situation you find yourself in. Why doyoufollow Thaan?”
My fists clenched tight enough my nails bit into my palms. “Because I’ve been told that if I left, I would die. Is that even true?”
Selena opened her mouth, tasting her words before speaking them. “Yes. Not right away, but yes. It would take three years, but eventually, your blood would become toxic to your body.Your core temperature would rise, your heart would overstress itself, and your lungs would fail trying to compensate. Some Naiads hallucinate or become confused. Others remain level-headed until the end. But by then, it’s too late to reverse.” Her steady gaze captured my focus—she spoke as if she’d seen it happen.
I flexed my fingers against the air. Three years.
Three. The Triad.
“What are you doing to fight him?”
Selena’s brows rose. “I’m training you.”
“What else?” I demanded, determined to decide here and now whether I could trust her. The scent of my own anger filled the room. “I’m bound to my promises, but you're not. You could walk away.I’m the one who stands to risk everything, lose everything if I fail. What do you stand to lose? You said you were working on ways to stop him. What ways? Tell me what you’re doing.”
Selena exhaled through her nose. “When the time comes, I will tell you. I promise. Right now, I need you to study. Tocordaewith the prince, to finish out your vow. I don’t want you chasing a dream of freedom when you could achieve it instead.”
“How can you stand it?” I whispered, though the challenge in my voice had largely deflated. “I will neverbe hisOculosby choice. I swear it in my blood.”
Selena reeled back, eyes wide with horror. She crossed the room in three strides and grabbed my shoulders, shaking me gently. Her eyes filled with blue fire, but fear was the scent I caught as she neared, acrid and sour.
“First, you need to shed blood to bind such a promise to your body,” Selena hissed, blinking back a sudden shine that threatened to overfill her eyes. “And second, you fool—" she thrust her hand away, leaving a soreness across my shoulders, "You think you are young and invincible, blindly making prisonsfor your own blood through careless promises. This isnota game, Maren. You need tothink. Naiads have killed themselves swearing oaths they cannot keep. I am your ally, but if you choose not to trust me, so be it. I understand.But trust yourselfnot to make unwise vows out of anger or passion. A Naiad’s body will answer above all to their own word of honor, and once you speak the words, you cannot take them back.”
She stared at me as the lambent light caressed her skin like blue woad, ethereal and haunting.
I gazed back at her in shock, a shyness creeping up my neck. As though I owed Selena an apology.
Perhaps I did. Perhaps I didn’t.
“It's not a game to me,” I shot back, though Selena’s outburst had left the venom in my voice all but neutralized. “It’s my life.”
Selena’s gaze softened. She gave the glass box a backward glance, a hand softly carved around her own throat, and quietly stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her.
58
The carriage windows sat pane-less and open. Hadrian, Diara, and I sat inside. As we rounded the final curve taking us out of the city, the horses sped ahead, the wind crisp in my hair.
Diara had accepted my invitation with some hesitation. A week in a private castle with the royal family was not high on her list of desires. Seated across from Hadrian, I didn’t miss the way she avoided his eyes.
A gnaw had entered my belly over the question of Kye, growing and churning. I briefly considered asking Hadrian if he knew anything—and pushed the thought away. I’d wait and ask him in private. I didn’t need Diara worrying about me. I wasn’t sure I could handle her playing a moon-forsaken mother hen for a week.
The views of the country, though beautiful, offered only field after field of green agriculture, interrupted by small herds of cows. The hills rolled like the waves of the sea. Homesickness tugged at me. I looked away and found Hadrian watching me, his chin tucked into a hardened fist.
“Do you enjoy the country?” he asked casually.
I nodded slowly. “I’d never seen it before coming to Calder. There's nothing like this on the island.”
“I imagine you grew cropson the island.” He crossed one knee over the other, reclining into the cushions.
“I did, yes.”
“Youdid?”
“Yes. I grew taro mostly. But sugar cane and breadfruit as well. Coconuts. Tapa for clothing and tools.” My list could’ve gone on. Strawberries, eggplant, kava, turmeric.
“Mmmm,” he mused over my answer. “Tell me about Leihani.”
My eyebrows raised in surprise. Across the bench seat from me, I felt Diara’s gaze on us both. “What would you like to know?”
