“Your Majesty, you arebeloved.Think of how many citizens walked away with their hearts lighter, just from being in your presence.”
The pendant’s glow drained from Avette’s eyes, but it remained pulsing above her heart. She took a deep breath that flared her nostrils, and Kai was once more reminded of a reptile, a serpent coiling back.
“You’re theSorceress,” Imogen went on. “The Saviour. All they wanted was to see you with their own eyes and walk away with something to believe in.”
“I’m afraid very few have walked away at all,” said Doran dryly, and not without a glimmer of delight in that steely gaze. “Those who were not frozen or otherwise debilitated have been held in the reception hall. Four dozen of them, give or take. We must decide, Your Majesty, what to do with the traitors.”
Rage twitched over Avette’s features, and she swayed where she stood a moment, then reached for the back of her frozen seat for balance.
“The only true traitor has been taken care of,” said Imogen. The syrupy sweetness of her voice did as much to underline her irritation as the glare she flicked at the Captain, but then sheturned a soft and fawning look on the queen. “So bravely struck down by Her Majesty to protect us all. The rest, of course, are our guests.”
“Our guests,” Avette echoed. Not a question—to lower herself would be to credit Imogen with whatever plan was brewing.
“Guests to your wedding,” said Imogen. “An invitation extended to thank them for their faith in you. To give them exactly what they came here for: something to believe in.”
“They believe in the fairytale,” Avette said slowly.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Imogen said, with a simpering dip of her head. “They do.”
“Then we shall bring them the fairytale they desire,” said the queen. She paused then, to round her seat and lower herself delicately to the table, both hands folded primly in her lap.
And when Avette smiled, Kai felt his blood curdle in his veins.
“I shall wed the Drowned Prince—within the fortnight.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Adeline
For days now, Adeline could stomach little more than root tea and sweet bread.
The tea calmed her seasickness, and the bread kept her from outright swooning, but neither could touch the writhing nest of anxiety that had taken residence in her gut. If she’d had the will to be grateful for anything, it would be that the crossing had been relatively swift up to this point. Now, with the shudder of ice grinding up the sides of thePasiolaas they sailed the narrow path to the port, Adeline could think of nothing but the slow drag of every second.
Each one of them held infinite horrors.
What ifthiswas the second that Gerard disappeared, as so many others had?
What ifthiswas the second that Avette turned her sights on Mareda?
What ifthiswas the second that Kai was killed?
And the worstwhat ifof all, the one that did not bear thinking, though she could feel it scraping around the inside of her skull like the ship through the ice path.What if it’s already too late for them all?
Her nails were a bloody, ragged ruin; she’d started chewing them again the morning she woke to find Kai gone. Rising late with a burnt taste in her mouth and a smoggy headache, she had half-crawled to her aunt’s dining hall—and there she had found the Merrow Court staring gravely back at her.
I have an idea,Eleni had said.
They’d talked for hours that morning, so many of those precious, dreadful seconds slipping past while they schemed and mapped and planned, and Adeline tore her hangnails to gory rags.
In the end,thiswas what Eleni’s grand plan had amounted to: commanding a ship to follow Kai over the Common Crossing.
And, it appeared, delivering Adeline across the oceans to Avette.
???
“Come nowagameni; one foot in front of the other.”
Adeline scowled.
