“And this one?” he pointed at the next.
“E.”
We worked together, fleshing out the line as Diara watched. Hadrian darted a curious glance at her, then raised a brow at me.
Ceba, my love. I fear I will ne_er forgi_e you.
“These must beV’s,” he said, reaching over my lap to add the letter to his cypher. “Who is Ceba?”
I shook my head. I had no idea, yet the name was familiar enough to leave a small pinch in my heart.
Hadrian studied me with warm brown eyes. “Well, if you’re translating that whole thing, I’d say you have your work cut out for you.”
“Thank you,” I breathed, tucking Hadrian’s cypher into the journal and wrapping my arms around it. I met Diara’s inquisitive gaze and offered her a small smile, promising to explain later, though I’d have to figure out what to say.
I couldn’t very well share the contents of the journal, sure that I was it was filled with mentions of Naiads.
59
Thaan had said the entire royal family was traveling to Cynthus Castle, but the King didn’t come.
Queen Lyrena kept mostly to herself, reading by the fire as her children played a board game on the floor, a checkered plaque with wooden pieces they moved up and down. From the sound of it, Prince Mallus was losing to Princess Breer.
Diara had offered to go riding with me, but I declined, feigning a need for sleep after the long coach ride. Feeling slightly guilty for leaving her alone with the royal family, I retired to my room.
Door closed and the air around me quiet, I sat cross-legged in my bed, the journal beside me, and turned to the section with the stone. Vowels and consonants tumbled out of the ink of my pen as I scribbled lines from the text, gazing at my translation in muted awe.
Ceba is determined to free herself, but I worry the fixation borders on obsession. There is little said between us other than the repeated words of Theia, and when I look in Ceba’s eyes, all I see is a single-minded passion for an impossible goal.
If obtaining the Breath of Safiro is what we need to gain control over Thaan, I’m unsure if I want it. It’s said to be hidden somewhere in the fishing islands to the south, ruled by Queen Sidra, who I fear even more than him.
The only thing I know beyond a doubt is that vowing in one’s blood might lend a loyalty of the body. But it casts a virulence of the mind. Ceba’s daily thoughts grow more malignant, and as the days pass, I become more aware of the neurosis behind each spoken word. Ceba will either succeed or die, and I can do nothing but watch as my sister drowns herself in her hate.
I exhaled. After spending two hours translating letter by letter, my candles were low in their dishes, a soreness traversing the muscles of my lower back. Reading the passage over again, I rubbed my fingertips into my chest, quelling the ache that had tightened as I remembered who Ceba was to Selena. The sister who couldn’t escape Thaan. Whose blood vow bound her so tight she’d finally killed herself.
I forced the thought away, too aware of the words Selena and I had thrown at each other in our last conversation. My eyes lingered in the center of the text.Obtaining the Breath of Safiro is what we need to gain control over Thaan.
The Breath of Safiro.
I’d held it in my hand.
I could still feel it—cold under the ice of the volcano, the blue glow vibrating against my skin. Nori and Olinne had stared at it as if it were worth more than all the other jewels in the world.
Give it to me, child. It is dangerous in human hands.
Ceba had been searching for the stone to free herself from her vow. But she hadn’t known where to look, beyond the general area of the Juile Sea and the islands within.
I did. I knewexactlywhere it was.
Diara slid into the bed next to me, pressing the frozen icicles she called feet against my calves. I squealed and whipped around; she flashed me a guilty smile.
“Sorry to wake you. It’s draftier than the stables of Pirou in my room,” she whispered, her teeth clenching.
I pressed my lips together. I hadn’t been asleep. Attempting to nurse away the gnaw in my belly that came and went whenever I was alone, I’d been busy staring at the canopy above my bed, failing to flush thoughts of Kye from my head. “Snuggle in.”
We listened to the sounds of the house. Hadrian was awake in the royal guest room next to mine. Muffled sounds came from his bedroom next door. Down the hall, dishes and silverware clattered. Diara pressed her cold hands into my shoulder. “What are you planning to do today?”
“Mihaunaalive,” I burst, flinching away. Diara cackled and forced herself closer, devouring the heat of the mattress. Surrendering completely, I flung back my coverlet and rolled out of bed.
