Page 162 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

Kye nodded, twisting his soul ring over a knuckle. “Pheolix, what can we expect after they’re released? Will they continue fighting us?”

The drone leaned forward, crossing his arms and considering the question. Though his recent memories seemed to sometimes twist and turn out of his reach, his mind remained a stronghold for older memories and knowledge. “It’s possible. Drones are a bit like worker bees. Kill the queen in her hive while they’re in the garden and they’ll go on harvesting pollen.”

“How many drones does he have?”

Pheolix blew a small raspberry. His brows furrowed, his gaze sliding over the wooden surface of the table, catching along the intricate grain. “Sixty.”

Sixty trained assassins. My mouth pinched, and I avoided crossing eyes with Kye, though I knew what he was thinking. Sixty drones seemed manageable. Simple, even, compared to the ten thousand Riveans we’d faced. But I’d seen Pheolix fight. I knew each drone was worth at least ten warrior Naiads, perhaps even more.

Six hundred, I whispered into Kye’s mind. That’s how many we need.

Aegir’s army boasted close to four hundred. My own warriors counted another ninety.

We needed more.

That’s how many average Naiads we need, he whispered back. We also have you.

I dragged my teeth over my lip. What good was wielding the stars against assassins who held the power to steal mine?

Kye was watching me as I looked up at him, subdued, like he knew what I was about to ask.

Feel anything yet?

He shook his head, glancing back to Pheolix, who had rescinded sixty and offered a guess of forty drones instead.

A transfer of power—that’s the answer Theia had given Kye when he’d asked how to reopen the door. I hadn’t understood what he’d meant. But Selena had just been taken, and I’d let myself become swept up in a flood of frustration over the riddle Theia had given me. To find Selena at the divide.

But now Kye’s question to the goddess seer burned clearly in my mind. And after drinking Aegir’s blood, evidence of a power transfer existed in Kye’s body. The trace of symbols lay deep under his skin like light shining through the surface of water, too faint to make out but undoubtedly there, the promise of a Videre’s power dancing in his veins.

It had taken Aegir seconds to call heat waves over his hand. He’d done it so effortlessly I could only imagine calling solar flares—lumenum, Kye called them—felt much like calling to water. But it had taken me months to learn the gift of water calling, almost a full year. I didn’t have time to teach Kye in a matter of days.

He stared into the center of his palm as Aegir had, frustration glittering in his golden eyes. I could see the question lurking inside his head, reflected in my own mind.

Would a drone’s eclipse obstruct the power of Sola?

“What about regular Naiads?” I asked Pheolix, driving Kye’s attention back to the conversation. Thaan’s oceanless colony numbered in tens of thousands, but it was impossible that they all might fit within Neris Island. Beyond that, I hadn’t felt unknown Naiads in my water. I wouldn’t feel a drone, according to Pheolix. Thaan would have flown in with Selena. But while it was possible for Naiads to pass through my detection by ship, it seemed unlikely that that number would have managed it unnoticed, as closely as the Juile colony sat under the sea.

“He keeps a few close by,” Pheolix said. “Most of them aren’t fighters. He uses them as spies, though. Every time you leave the palace, he is aware of it. Aware of where you go and when you return.”

I rapped my nails over the tabletop. “His communication with his spies wouldn’t be instant. Not unless he’s speaking mentally to an Oculos.” My voice trailed, waiting for confirmation.

Pheolix gazed at me with his cloudy eyes. “If he can, I’ve never seen it.”

“What are you considering?” Cebrinne asked. There was no trepidation, no hesitance in her tone. She was ready to get her sister back.

Slanting my gaze at Kye, I leaned back in my chair. “To use our disadvantage to our advantage. They have the numbers—fine. We have stealth. And something else.” Their heads turned, following my line of gaze to Kye, who lifted his brows, waiting.

My fingers ran smoothly down the wall of his mind, until it evanesced away like seafoam between the rocks at sunrise. He gazed back, and I wasn’t sure if we were in his mind or my own as I stroked his arm down to his hand, lacing my own into it. Selena’s apartment faded away, tucked into the corner of my head along with all the thoughts I didn’t need at the moment: Naiad song and star wielding and gardening by moonlight.

He watched it all fade in wonder. We hadn’t done this before, walking into each other’s mind through our rings, throwing a veil over the rest of the world so that for a moment, only our souls existed.

Nothing surrounded us. A vast, deep, endless nothing, sparkling like the stars.

Kye’s brow stretched. What are we doing?

An experiment, I murmured, leaning into his chest. You won’t tell me to stay behind, thinking to protect me. I’ll be at your side, and you’ll be at mine.

He smiled, tucking a tendril behind my ear. The days when I thought I could tell you to do anything are over, Leihani.