Page 55 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

So I didn’t ask.

It might have cost us days. I waited to see if Kye would be called back to Winterlight, knowing it would be soon. Every courier that delivered Kye’s letters, every summons to the King’s audience, every nod from a noble or a council member. I wrestled with uncertainty: was it truly wariness to ignore a truce with Selena, or was it my own pride? Too worried at what I might find, I didn’t allow myself to dig far enough below my own surface to uncover the answer.

A week dripped by, then two. Kye and I discussed whether we might be faster at translating the journal, as Hadrian’s royal duties kept him occupied for most of the day. But by then, Hadrian had memorized Selena’s cypher, spilling ink into Cyprillic words as quickly as he could read them.

Almost a month after we’d returned, I watched from the eastern towers as a small brigade of soldiers rode to the iron palace gates. I didn’t frequent that wing of the City of Towers—in fact, it had been the first time I’d ventured across that particular sky bridge since the morning after I’d married Kye. It was as if I’d known he was coming as I gazed down the curtain wall to find the King’s flag high above the horses sweeping in, and recognized General Senan’s dappled red war horse.

The flagstones rapped under my feet as I raced to our tower. Kye.

Yes? Kye had spent most of the week pulled into conferences with the royal advisors, returning to our bed at night exhausted with a day’s worth of parochial and political discussion. I sympathized with him—I knew he hated being caught in the net of a round table of conspiracy and heightened egos—but I couldn’t find it within me to complain when he closed the door to our rooms with a lazy foot, marched across the room to where I stood, and laced his mouth over mine, draining his mind of such affairs by shedding my clothes.

Senan just arrived.

A brief pause. You saw him in the palace?

Arriving outside the gates. Are you still with your father? I cringed, realizing I’d meant to say the King.

And Hadrian, Kye responded. Where are you headed now?

To collect our things and ready Kolibri.

A second pause, long enough I wondered whether he was in the middle of talking to someone or contemplating something in silence. Are you sure you don’t want to ask Selena?

My molars ground together. I didn’t want to admit that in the last fortnight, I’d grown more impatient, more uncertain, more doubtful that an answer to the location of the Scale of Safiro might even exist within Selena’s journal. Yes, I’m sure.

Kye didn’t say anything else, and I tried not to let my mind flounder as I pondered whether that silence was a message. If he was already with Hadrian, then it would be easy to gather Diara in the offices. We’d concocted a faux errand that King Emilius would send Kye and Hadrian to attend once he’d discovered the location of the Scale, though I’d hoped for the revelation to manifest before Senan did. Our timeline away from the City of Towers had just shortened.

My breath echoed off the walls of the tight spiral staircase of our tower. Nori.

The siren surprised me with a swift answer. Yes, my Queen.

We are readying to leave the palace.

You’ve found the stone’s hiding place?

I turned the corner at the top of the tower stairs, and even with the chill of the winter wind still ringing in my ears, my skin glowed warm and dewy with exertion. Not quite. Come ashore and meet us in the stables—

A sound behind me, the quiet scuff of feet against stone.

I skipped thought. I skipped question. My fingers dipped into the slit of my skirt, unbuckling the knife sheathed around my thigh as I threw myself against the wall and spun. I’d already called to water within blood, clenching the vents of a heart before I even laid eyes on the mortal it belonged to.

His knees hit the stone as he clutched his chest, the point of my knife under his chin. Aegir looked up at me, amusement dancing in the green of his eyes.

“I know you’re searching for the Scale,” he choked out. “Ask me where to find it.”

“Does Selena know what I’m looking for?”

Arms crossed, I leaned against an iron pillar between the mullioned glass, my knife a warm weight in my hand. I hadn’t sheathed it since reluctantly withdrawing it from the bow of Aegir’s trachea.

“I’ve not said a word.” Seated in an armchair across from me, Aegir tilted his head. “That doesn’t mean she does not know.”

Irritation and apprehension wove through my blood. “How would she know?”

Aegir smiled faintly. “Her notebook seems to have been misplaced.”

I swore inwardly, though I didn’t move. “How did you know we were leaving today?”

His eyes widened. “You’re leaving today?”