Page 155 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

“If we strike a deal,” Aegir said, thrusting me back into the moment with shallow breath and dizzying clarity, “what guarantee have I that your untapped Sola blood will lend me more power than hers?”

“I’m not sure that my power would rival Maren’s,” Kye replied, slanting his head back to Aegir. “But Sola have unique power, found nowhere else on the three continents. And mine would transfer to you.”

“Even though you’re human?” Aegir raised a brow. I didn’t like the way he’d sat up in interest, the way he leaned forward when Kye spoke. His voice remained flat with reluctance, but his attention dripped from Kye’s words with a raw hunger I hadn’t seen from him in all our meetings.

Kye’s head lowered, a measured nod. “Everything I’ve read implies that inheriting full Sola power is like crossing a bridge. I’m stuck on one side, waiting for passage, but you were born directly to your power. You’re already on the other side. You just need one thing.” He lifted his wrist, his rolled sleeve revealing the blue of his veins, which he studied for a moment before turning his arm enough that we could see.

“No.” I shot the word to the floor like a poisoned barb had somehow nettled its way into my mouth. Then it clamped shut under Aegir’s compulsion, refusing to open no matter what I tried. I twisted and turned, but my body had fossilized, hard and heavy as petrified wood.

Aegir’s back left his pool wall. He rested his forearms against the opposite side instead, gauging Kye in a way he hadn’t before. “And in what ways have you discovered these Sola powers would manifest?”

“There’s limited recordings of Sola abilities,” Kye said, letting his hand return to clasp the other behind his back. The details are ambiguous, but from what I’ve read, the Sola experienced a heightened awareness of others. A developed sense of who and what they could trust.”

He let that thought linger in the room, jaw gyrating in silence as he stared pointedly at the Videre. “Sharper eyesight, able to observe a target from miles away. There’s evidence that the Sola fought with blasts of lumenum and solar flares. One recording said, and then the victim became the dust of clouds, which Selena interpreted to mean they were burnt to ash.”

I was no more than a farm animal to them, a mute sheep as they discussed the worth of my trade, Kye’s blood the currency. Aegir had all but forgotten me, but Kye’s gaze shifted to me, apology shining from the pools of his calm eyes.

“In the oldest scrolls,” he said softly, “we found text regarding the strongest of Sola. Translated to the words: a veil among wind. What that means, we couldn’t puzzle out, nor find it written anywhere else.”

The seconds dragged as the members of Aegir’s grand council leaned into each other and whispered. Aegir’s eyes didn’t leave Kye. They locked onto him as the Naiad radiated deep thought, and I could almost hear the murmurs inside his head. My power may have been stronger than Aegir’s, but Kye offered him abilities that would make him a Naiad like no other.

The Videre stretched a slow finger at Kye. “Why should I make a deal for your blood? You stand here outnumbered, a human among Naiads, an enemy without me even having to declare it. I could simply take it from your body.”

A snarl rose from the depths of my chest, suffocated in my throat by my latched mouth. I shook from the invisible binds around my body, from my fight against them.

“You could kill me now, yes,” Kye said, softly. “But that’s part of how the Sola died out. Sola rivals couldn’t steal each other’s power as Naiads do. It was gifted instead. I could gift you a drop of my blood, transfer the lumenum within me to you. Share it with you, without any need to die. Though I expect you’ll want to kill me,” he added, as if it were an afterthought.

“And your demands?” Aegir prompted.

Kye nocked his head in my direction. “Swear Maren will never be hurt by your hand, or the hands of your colony. That you’ll release her today, as well as the Naiads who brought me. That you’ll never touch her, speak to her, or seek her out again. And that you’ll never set foot in Leihani or the city of Calder.”

“I imagine you’re aware of how such a request would be impossible—”

“In your blood,” Kye cut through Aegir’s voice, his tone stripped of all propriety. Olinne and Aitne shifted their weight behind him, discomforted by the tone he took with a Videre. Nori watched without flinching. Cebrinne looked as if she were a moment away from tearing Aegir’s throat out.

Aegir rose from his pool, his silk dry as he stood. “I’ll need a moment to discuss this with my council,” he said, though that hunger hadn’t left his eyes. “Sindri will remain in the hall, and I’ll post more of my Naiads outside. I’ll leave you to speak to him, Maren, as it may very well be your final chance. But you’ll remain where you are. You’re not yet released from your debt.”

A small withdrawal of his control washed over my head like a knot worked loose. The rigid cords of my muscles unraveled, a puddle of loose threads tossed to the floor. My legs wouldn’t budge, and I all but collapsed into the peaks of my knees, shoulders rolling forward, limp.

What a fool I’d been.

I’m not sure when it happened. How it happened. Somehow, I’d let myself think we might win. Maybe when my feet touched down from Perpetuum, alive and whole, Kye fighting alongside me. Or when my hand had wrapped around the Scale of Safiro, the weight of it against my thigh with its mate like two vows hidden in my pocket. Even with the blow of losing Selena, I’d watched Thaan steal away with her and known that he’d run from me. That I was a power that might match his own, or at least, a power he was afraid to see aimed in his direction.

It had grown in me like a wave, simple and small at first like a kiss from the wind or a beam from the moon. Then bloomed into something stronger, a roaring wall of tide and anger threatening to consume anything that stood in my way. Aegir helped me wield the stars only to examine the depth of my skill.

I probed for the last time I’d felt this level of defeat. Even after Kye had thrown me in the cargo hold cell of the Aspire, I’d simmered and bubbled into a scratching, biting mirror of my former self, determined to claim my revenge. I’d always used my anger like a spade, driving it underground in the direction I needed, an escape route hewn from my scorn.

I could not see an escape now.

Even if Aegir accepted Kye’s deal, even if by some miracle, we both made it out alive—Kye had laid eyes on a Naiad tail.

I stared at my legs through the wavy lines of water, flecks of bioluminescence like a floating galaxy over my skin, though I didn’t really see it. Boots stepped into the little pool. Legs crouched low enough that knees sank into the water.

“Leihani,” he said, his voice like a soft song built to make my throat collapse.

I tried to look up at him.

But it was like looking at a broken promise. A beautiful lie I’d whispered into my own ear, a star I’d wished on only to realize that promises will only ever be broken. Lies only turn ugly. And stars only fall.