No no no no no.
Here it was. They’d ask. I’d answer. They’d kill me.
I gazed up at Hadrian over Kye’s shoulder, waiting for the question that would likely end my life. The crown prince stared hard, his gaze flitting back and forth across my face. Reading me.
Gauging me.
“Who?” I asked, my mouth dry.
Jaw tight, his eyes narrowed. “I think you know who.”
None of us moved. Kye’s heart pounded softly against my chest.
I licked my lips. “How—how do you know?”
Kye 's mouth worked. “As though we’d tell you. I donottrust Thaan.”
“I understand,” I breathed. “I don’t trust him either.”
My husband took an eternity gazing at me, collecting the lines and pores of my skin, the shape of my eyes and slant of my brows, as if recording the evidence of a crime. “Tell me who you really are,” he said quietly.
I shook my head absently, words lifting and sinking through my mind. I couldn’t tell him I was a Naiad. “Marenismy name,” I said, hoping he believed me. “Just Maren. They added Inoa, the name of an ancestor, to give me a surname. We don’t use surnames in Leihani. I was born to my mother and father in the dry season. I spent my childhood digging clams andgardening. Paddling in my canoe, exploring the island. I like to sing to trees.” I chuckled nervously. Kye didn't bat an eye. Hadrian crossed his arms, cocking his head with patience. I swallowed. “They—the other islanders—used to call me a witch. They hated my mother. She wasn't born in Leihani, and none of the islanders trusted her. Except my father.”
Face and neck flushed with tension, hands firmly gripping my own, Kye never wavered from my face, reading my eyes for hidden truth or deceit. “Why did you avoid my question on the island when I asked how she died?”
"Why did you avoidmyquestion when I asked what you came looking for?" I shot back. Hadrian's gaze shifted to Kye in sudden interest, but the golden eyes before me remained locked on mine, cavernously deep.
“I don’t like to talk about my mother,” I confessed. “I grew up on an island where she was hated, and I was hated for being her daughter.”
“How did she die?”
“In akai e?e. A monster wave that hit the beach. I was with her when it happened. She’d been sick, and had taken me for a walk. She was able to get me to safety, but the wave took her away.”
Hadrian cleared his throat. “And Thaan?”
“I met Thaan when the ship came to take you back to Calder.” I said, staring into Kye’s gaze as I answered him. I hesitated, wondering which parts of my story I could tell him. “He had me arrested for murdering my uncle. I came to Calder in the prisoner stockade of theAspire.”
For a moment, I thought Kye’s hold faltered.
Hadrian's frown deepened. “And did you? Murder him?”
“I—yes. I killed him.” My mouth went dry, my voice fractured, but I raised my chin, meeting Hadrian’s stare over the curve of my own cheek.
“Why?”
My eyes closed as my throat fought away the rawness whenever I remembered my final moments with the uncle who’d taught me to read. “He attacked me with a knife in my garden. I somehow got it away from him, and he climbed over me, strangling me underwater—”
My voice caught, though Kye’s words from that day drifted back to me.
Don’t mourn a man who tried to kill you.
“So, I stabbed him in the back,” I finished with a whisper.
Kye exhaled heavily through his nose.
Hadrian coughed, clearing his throat. “So, you’re claiming self-defense. You were blackmailed.”
Mihauna, I hadn't expected the relief that followed those words. At admitting what had happened, at having someone understand why I’d come to Calder without having to explain myself. Even Selena had glossed over the reality of how my contract came to be signed. But Hadrian tackled it head on, with all the sheer focus of a steer tucking in and ramming the unknown. Before me, Kye’s eyes flickered, thoughts turning in his own head.
