Cassius’s eyes briefly closed, and when he stared at Graves once more, the blue was startling like the summer sea. "I’m sorry, friend. I cannot sway my father or Cassiopeia. But if you need me—if Serpentisneedsme—you have my aid."
More laughter echoed. Voices carried on the wind.
"Where’d Cassius swim off to?" a female asked.
Deep, masculine laughter. "Probably got distracted by a passing siren. You know the princeling…"
Cassius gripped Graves’s forearm. "You can’t stay here."
Swallowing, the Knight reached for his cowl, righting it to cover his lower face again. He stepped away from Cassius, heart heavy at what he had learned. His spies were throughout the kingdom. His mission on Syreni was not complete yet—he had Umbra to question.
Graves turned without looking back, but Cassius called out:
"I will try to talk to my father again. I can’t promise anything."
Graves turned his head barely, watching the mer Prince’s shadow as he stepped back, out of the tunnel. Gills took shape on the side of his neck, expanding and contracting with his every breath.
"I don’t expect you to." The Knight gripped his amulet. "Cassius… thank you."
Cassius smiled faintly before he turned and ran out of the tunnel in a shimmer of blue scales.
Graves let his own shift overtake him. The sun had set, and the kingdom was cast in brilliant moonlight as his raven form flew.
Graves had shared his feelings for Luella with someone, likely not to be seen again for decades. And it was… freeing. At least one soul besides his own knew.
The next evening, deep beneath the prison island at the Fallen Isles, Graves let his blade carve over the strung-up Umbra’s flesh.
The Umbra’s face was a mottled ruin of bruises and strips of peeled flesh; the skin kept trying to regenerate, but Graves kept cutting it away. The Umbra screeched, but went silent when Graves stepped close, demanding answers about Luella and the Tenebrae’s plans.
"Graves," Vale announced as he entered the torture chamber. "Has he talked yet?"
Graves didn’t look back. He hadn’t the time to confront Vale about what he’d learned from Cassius—about reaching out to other kingdoms for aid. Because Graves knew Vale. If he had asked Syreni for aid, he’d have asked other kingdoms, too.
The dragon King was nothing if not thorough.
"Not yet." Graves stared into the Umbra’s shadowed eyes.
Dirty strands of hair clung to the Umbra’s ruined face. "It doesn’t matter." His head thrashed, the back of his skull slamming against the wall. His voice fractured into multitudes. "You’ll die,die, and she’ll be forced to—" He stopped, almostsheepish as he glanced down, before lifting his gaze through his lashes. His lips were a slash of scarlet over his ruined face.
"Forced to what?" Graves dragged the dagger’s point under the Umbra’s jaw. When he didn’t answer, Graves applied pressure. He moved the blade up, then down again. Graves clicked his tongue. "Still loyal to a master who does not give a fuck about you?" Graves slid his gloved fingers into the top of the cut andpulled.
The Umbra screamed as skin tore free in strips, blood bubbling.
Graves conversed with Vale, as if they stood in a meeting room instead of a torture chamber. "When were you going to tell me you sent letters to the other kingdoms asking for aid?"
The scent of burning embers filled the chamber. "How did you find out about that?"
The flesh came free with a wet sound, and he threw it to the ground.
"I hear everything. How do you think?" Graves’s tone was acerbic.
There was a pause. In it, Graves carved away another piece of the Umbra’s flesh.
"You went to see him… in Syreni." Vale didn’t say Cassius’s name.
It was no surprise that Graves was acquainted with the mer Prince. Syreni wasn’t far from the Fallen Isles. Graves had grown up alongside Cassius, seeing him often in youth, then less so once they grew up. They hadn’t spoken in centuries. But Graves had been keeping an eye on him through his spies.
"Cassius said he’d offer Serpentis his aid. He told me the King of Syreni turned down your plea."
