“Shit, she heard,” Kieran muttered to Benedict, whose hand tensed slightly on my hip.
“She’s going to try to take off,” he murmured.
“—I don’t care about the weather!” Nerissa snapped, words echoing off the wooden slats. “My son deserves justice. That rogue bastard is alive. They said he is alive. I will bring him home in chains?—”
A calmer voice answered, one of her daughters. “You cannot fly in that. No one can. The northern storm has carved a wall of ice and wind across the entire range. The air witches can barely make it in or out. If you attempt to reach Hoveria now, you’ll die before you cross the ridge. Don’t be stupid, Mother.”
“I don’t care about dying,” Nerissa insisted.
Her daughter laughed.
Benedict and Kieran stood, both ready to intervene, but a third voice cut through the rising tension, smooth, firm, and unshakeable below us.
“Enough,” Kaida said.
Silence dropped like a stone.
I shuffled toward the railing, peeking over just far enough to see them: Nerissa shaking with fury, her daughters just as furious that she’d risk herself, and Kaida standing like a pillar between them all.
“You’re thinking with grief,” Kaida told Nerissa gently, but not softly. “Not strategy.”
“Exactly!” Vanca said, arms spread in exasperation.
“He killed my son!” Nerissa exploded. “And now he walks free in a king’s hall like some—some honored guest?—”
“Alive,” Kaida corrected. “He is alive. And so is the child he stole. That means Ronan and Canavar and Nasi reached them in time. And that means movement will come soon when it’s safe.”
Nerissa paced.
“Mother,” Nava began, “no one wants justice more than us. He was our brother. But remember the first rule of bloodmagick–”
“Never let your heart overcome your mind,” Nerissa grunted out reluctantly.
There was a pause, the sunlight shining through a break in the canopy onto a patch of dirt between them. A bird cawed somewhere overhead, echoing off the trees. Nerissa threw herself against her daughters.
Kaida smiled. “No good hunt begins in a storm of the heart.”
Nerissa froze just for a breath, but it was enough. She glanced up and saw me watching them. I froze.
“Ah, Queen Wren. We have bloodmagick to do, don't we?” she asked.
Wards would be the perfect task to occupy my mind with!
Benedict frowned, but Kieran placed a hand on hisshoulder, grounding him. Kaida’s eyes lifted toward our treehouse window, toward me.
I already heard her question and felt Benedict’s concern as he practically vibrated next to me.
“I am fine,” I grit out, for everyone’s sakes.
“You are not,” Benedict said flatly beside me. His hand stayed firm at my back, heat and warning both. Kieran didn’t even bother pretending to disagree, the traitor.
I exhaled sharply through my nose. “I am perfectly capable of standing on my own platform and listening to a conversation. You promised I could learn.”
Benedict’s nostrils flared.
“You did promise,” Kieran reminded him, grinning.
Benedict’s fangs peeked out from behind his lips. “Fine.”
