“I wasn’t angling for your help.”
“No? You said you were looking for the pendant. Where?”
Kai stared up at her, his bristled jaw ticking.
“Where did you look, Kai?”
He spoke carefully, low and reluctant.
“At first, I expected to see the Queen, or perhaps you or Mareda, wearing it around your necks. You never did, so I checked the palace exhibitions.” He winced. “I searched the archives. Then you told me about the Shrine, and I thought…” He scrubbed a hand over his face, worn and weary. “It doesn’t matter what I thought. I was sure it would be there, and it wasn’t. That’s when I gave up. At the Faire, I decided it was lost, and I committed to making a place here for the Merrow.”
At the Faire. The day he’d charmed her little sister, danced with Adeline by the fire, felt her up in the dark forest.
“Bollocks,” she half-whispered, and sank into the couch.
They sat in silence for a long time.
“I know how this looks, but it’s not as though I went pawing through your room while you slept, or stole your mother’s jewellery box. I only looked where I had free access.”
“Oh yes,” she spat. “Thank you Kai, for being so respectful in your complete betrayal of my trust.”
She stood again, crossing the room until she reached the door, where she stood with her arms folded.
“I’d like you to leave now.”
“Adeline.” His voice broke on her name. “I’m sorry.”
And she believed him. She really did believe he was sorry. He looked sorry. He looked heartbroken, really, like a man torn in two. But what did that matter? She’d also believed that he’d never do anything to hurt her, and here they were.
“I’m glad you’re sorry. I’d still like you to leave.”
He got to his feet, but didn’t move any closer to the door, hesitating until she understood that there was something more he wanted from her.
“I am not going to tell the Queen anything you’ve told me. Your people are still safe here. Your sister is still welcome to stay at my apartment. Butyouneed to get out of my room.”
To his credit, he didn’t try to plead or argue any further before he took his leave. To hers, she kept her hot and rageful tears at bay until the door had shut between them.
Chapter 41
Kai
Kai didn’t know what the Commander was doing with that pendant at his throat. The Wielders fought so vehemently against the growing Thaw, he had to believe that their Commander had no idea of the extent of the power he held. If he knew, the Silver Kingdom would surely be colder and starker than ever. If he knew, the ice would be mended, and Mareda would have no cause to villainise the Merrow as she did.
So it hardly seemed to matter if Edward had the pendant that had ended the world as he knew it.
All that mattered was that Kai was going to fix his mistakes.
He had come clean to Adeline, like he’d sworn to himself he would, and it had cost him just as he’d feared.
But it had also untethered him. Alun had written to Kai – days ago now - with all that he’d learned of Dhalias and Eleni Vanjir, and both the Empress and her offer appeared genuine.
And so the time had come to hold court with the Merrow.
They gathered in that same clearing in the forest, the one where they’d hidden away while he stormed the palace searching for a Beira to hold accountable; where he’d first brought Adeline to meet his people. It seemed like a comfortable middle ground; close to that ghostly echo of the Laune’s call that they all pretended not to hear, but not so close that they had to stare into the glassy depths of their lost home.
It hadn’t taken long for Al to answer the summons that Kai sent out with Simon, and between them they’d herded the others together by dusk.
Os and Ceri had come straight to the clearing armed with fresh firewood and borrowed blankets, setting up in a shaded corner of the clearing before the modest crowd descended in a small sea of faces shining with hope. And now, with the remnants of his subjects huddled together with trust in the eyes they turned toward him, Kai took a deep breath and broke the news.
