Page 108 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

I was in command.

Somewhere above storm clouds, light blazed and dimmed. A resounding boom rolled through my bones. I let it ebb away like the tide, giving a little at a time, and only after I’d finally traded command back to the sea did I turn to find Aegir still standing near me, satisfaction in his eyes.

Days seemed to bleed and blend, one fading into the next. The sun grew brighter, the hours longer. Tulips cleaved through blades of grass, frosted in the morning but vibrant by noon. The King hadn’t yet returned from his hunt, and his name didn’t pass between Kye and me. We steered around it like rocks at low tide, eyeing it yet keeping our distance as if Emilius’s presence was safer kept in sight and yet ignored.

I didn’t ask, though I knew Kye was planning something.

He waited until he thought me lost to sleep, slipping from the bed, padding to his sitting room. After a few nights I followed, creeping to the door and cracking it open just enough to peer through to find him reading late into the night—brows furrowed, chin in hand.

At times he would drift away from conversation, his focus aimed at something that wasn’t there, a wrinkle in the curtains or dust along the shelves. Even in the weeks that held the last of winter’s chill, on the tiny isle of Evenstar, he would dip and twist as he caught punches in his hands, though it was more like watching someone go through motions than practice a fight, a dance of muscle and memory and little else.

We continued coming to the little island.

Aegir’s Naiads began to watch, peering from the water before I tore it to shreds, cleaving stars from the wind. A few of them climbed ashore on human legs and silver silk, interested in the blind gnat teaching Naiads to fight drones without the call of water as a weapon. Aegir’s Oculos, Sindri, even joined for a few sparring matches, testing his skill against human fighters.

“Relax.” Aegir’s voice cut through the static din of my mind. “You’re fighting for power. Join the sea instead of contesting it.”

I gritted my teeth. In two weeks, the sea would respond to my every whim. But today, the moon was new—dark and shadowed, invisible against the stars, and the waves challenged my call like an unbroken horse on a lead, kicking and bucking against my every word.

I settled for pulling rain from the clouds instead, sifting through the drops, angling them this way and that. The Naiads at my back paused every so often to watch, as if rain answering a Naiad’s call was a sign from Theia herself.

My power wasn’t nearly as effective as Thaan’s. I hadn’t forgotten the way he’d blasted the water of my glass box into thousands of hardened droplets, fixing us like articulated specimens along the walls and floor.

I suffered a small shiver at the memory.

I’d tried, of course, to solidify water without turning it to ice, to keep droplets small and clear and uncorrupted, sharpening them at the same time so they moved like glass. I wondered if, like the ability to spread wings or steal a face, Thaan had bartered Darkness for it, a skill I’d never master. So I shifted the rain instead, more a plaything than a weapon, no matter what the other Naiads liked to think. It wasn’t long until I relented, too tired to fight against the untamed ocean below.

Pheolix’s lessons were winding down. I joined Diara, who had perched along the edge of a raised rock, Selena and Cebrinne curled near her feet. I’d wondered, when Selena first mentioned the training, how Pheolix would manage to teach what he couldn’t see. How he’d correct things like posture and strength. But he stood with his head angled slightly to the side, listening to each breath and footstep and scuff of hands against leather, patiently offering critiques.

“Imagine a triangle under your feet,” the drone said, smacking rain-drenched rock with the end of a stick. Adjusting the leather straps between her fingers, Nori frowned at the offending branch between her feet. “If you move a foot forward, place it here—the point. If you move back, keep your feet wide like a base. And bend your legs. You’ll move faster if you don’t lock your knees.” Pheolix’s mouth quirked. “Is he smiling like a smug little welp?”

Nori’s glare lifted to Kye, who stood across from her, ready, fighting to keep his mouth in a straight and respectable line. At the isle’s edge, Kolibri nickered.

Pheolix leaned in, whispering into Nori’s ear. Then stepped back with his ear angled toward them, a saccharine glint in his clouded eyes. Nori settled her weight into her heels, fists tucked against her chin.

“Get him, Nori,” Aren said.

Olinne sent him the same scowl she sent the other humans when they spoke to Nori.

Leal grinned. “Punch him in his filthy human face, Nori.”

“Yeah,” Hadrian agreed. “His traitorous face.”

Cebrinne chuckled. From the corner of my eye, Aegir smirked.

“You’ve got this, Nori,” Diara chimed in. At the sound of her voice, the coppertail Naiad’s eyes settled into determination.

Kye smiled tauntingly, hitting the flat of his knuckles against his open palm in an invitation to catch her blows. Before he’d fully lifted his hands again, Nori launched. She struck, laced fingers against his hand, then struck again, feigning a second attack before spinning into a low kick. Kye dropped to dodge it, and her knee connected with his jaw.

The isle burst into cheers and applause from the humans. Olinne rolled her eyes, though a pleased shadow hung over her mouth. Hidden between their bodies, Selena and Cebrinne bumped fists.

Kye rubbed the corner of his jaw. He extended an open hand to Nori, whose gaze simply shifted down to it and back to him before she turned to take her seat beside Olinne.

Pulling at the ties of his leather, Kye glanced around. “Anyone else?” No one offered to stand. We’d been on the island for hours, and from the surrounding sounds of sighs and groans, everyone was as tired as they looked. Kye rolled his shoulders slowly. Heavily, letting the invitation expand into the salty air before unwinding his leather from between his knuckles.

“Sure,” Dimas said, lurching his weight forward in slow motion. “I’ll dance.”

Kye’s teeth flashed as he reached to help his friend to his feet, coiling the leather once more up his wrist.