I frowned, suddenly invested in a change in subject. “How does Aegir plan to attack Thaan?”
“By luring him into his own trap. After we find the stones.”
Cebrinne shook her head, a knot beginning to form between her brows. “If you’re hoping to lead him into an ambush, it won’t work. Thaan is highly suspicious, even of us. He won’t strike until he thinks I’mcordaed.”
A smile split across Vouri’s mouth, wide enough to crinkle the corners of her forest eyes. “Well, then. Let’s get youcordaed. I need you to send a message to my brother. Shall I write it in code, or will it be safe if you carry it from here?”
“Safe.” I cocked a hip, watching with a fraction of unease as Vouri stole her own parchment and began a hasty scribble. Whatever the message was, it wasn’t long.
Vouri folded it before offering it to me. “I’m sure you’ll read it,” she said. “Don’t worry. It doesn’t refer to either of you.” She wound a wide leather strip around her papers, tying them with a piece of cord.
“Are we finished?” Cebrinne asked, her fists over her hips.
“I think so.” I tucked Vouri’s missive into my dress. “Vouri doesn’t know the way to the servants’ quarters.”
Cebrinne stepped out of our circle, her face overshadowed by a hanging vine. “We’ll use the tunnels. You should learn them, anyway.”
“Tunnels?” Vouri shook out her chestnut hair, straightening her secretary’s uniform dress before falling into step behind Cebrinne.
“They connect to the servants’ passages.” My sister paused to glance at me. “Coming?”
I shook my head, holding up the files Vouri had taken. “I’ll put these back and meet you in our apartment.”
Cebrinne’s mouth hardened. “Be quick.” She led Vouri out the eastern exit toward the servants’ sky bridge. A blast of cold wind lifted my hair from my face and shoulders as they opened the door leading outside, and then I was alone in the damp quiet.
I’d been in the solarium at night before. Cebrinne and I often moonbathed here. But I’d never been alone in the near-dark. Suddenly, the jeweled plants seemed taller, their stalks thornier. They sat around me,drenched in patches of thick moonlight and shadow. The mist around my knees stirred against the door’s dying air current, the soft silence of it raising the fine hair over my arms.
I shuffled the stack I’d taken from Vouri, stepping over vines and under boughs as I made my way to the northern door. A parchment slipped from my hand. I bent to retrieve the errant paper, then stood.
A pair of eyes stared back at me from behind the leaves. Eyes I didn’t recognize.
A sharp prickle cascaded down the back of my neck.
13
Selena
Surprise flickered in the unknown Naiad’s gaze as he realized I spied him. He stood behind the line of exotic plants, shrouded in verdant darkness, one foot stretched beyond the leaves toward me. The Naiad recovered faster than I did, stalking from the line in a way that roused panic in my bones.
Go. Run.
I grabbed at the doorknob, pulled it open—and the Naiad lunged forward, slamming it shut. His chest shoved at my back as he did, his face close enough that his breath nipped the hair along my nape.
He grabbed my arm. I twisted, wrenching backwards.
A rush of blood filled my ears, wild and stunted, a liquid slam that crowded all my thoughts. My fear washed the room, reckless and desperate. His fingers pinched as he held on, his opposite hand now turning the same doorknob I’d turned, and he pulled me closer into his grasp.
A small shriek filled my lungs. I spun again, this time managing to whip my arm free. Before he could grab me again, I fled into the shadowed plants.
I didn’t get far.
A single step into the heart of the solarium, and I almost collided with someone else. Steel eyes glinted in the dark. “Step to your right,” Pheolix calmly said, and before my thoughts could catch up to the demand, I rotated to the side.
The Naiad hunting me landed in my place. Pheolix drove his knee into the male’s crotch. Before he could flinch, Pheolix’s fist connected with his face in a blurredcrunch.
He dropped to the floor, open-mouthed and stunned. Pheolix stepped over him, a foot on either side of the Naiad’s chest. He grabbed the Naiad’s head with both hands.
And wrenched.
