Page 77 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

“You should really lock this,” Diara said. “Imagine if I had waited only five minutes.” She turned to me, raising a strawberry brow. “Your brother wants you in the stable. He’s trying to feed Maren’s horse and is convinced she’s possessed.”

I leaned against an arm, Maren still tucked below me. “You’re the established horse-breeder, Verrata. Why don’t you help him?”

She waved her hand as if shooing me from a chair that was rightfully hers. “Because that would be less comical than watching him try.”

A heavy sigh left my chest as I pushed to my feet. “You’re not even watching him.”

Diara’s mouth curved. “Yes, but I know he’s down there struggling, which is equally amusing.”

Maren pressed her lips together, hushing a smile. I leaned in, planting a kiss to her temple. Make sure the sadist is gone before I get back.

You’ll be fine, Maren sent back. Just don’t look her in the eyes.

Your 900-pound minnow or Verrata?

She flashed me a dark warning with those onyx eyes, the corners of her mouth stamped tight. We’d been ushered to the guest wing, the bedrooms on either side of a long, bent corridor, and I was still snickering to myself as I closed the door.

Voices around the corner halted in mid-speech, as though a noise had interrupted, and they were now assessing the silence. Pressure in the air flowed from down the hall, like someone had just doused a fire, leaving clouds of smoke to creep and crawl across the floor.

“Don’t. Ask. Again,” Cebrinne’s voice said, low and threatening. Footsteps padded. A door closed. A bolt slid heavily into place.

Hinges of a second door squeaked slowly shut.

I rounded the corner quietly, heated tension still burning across the floor. But the only thing that moved was the flicker of the oil lamplight.

35

Maren

Leal and Dimas rode with us to Calder’s gates.

I might have protested, but they’d lent us mounts to carry us back. They’d also stopped in Ochire on their way to Ascento, where General Senan had paused to restock supplies before his return to Winterlight, and news regarding the war trickled from the two men as we rode.

“Conflict with Rivea is at a standstill now,” Leal informed us between bites of a mushy-looking pear. “Reports are the Rivean King has been acting oddly. Accusing his council of holding meetings without him and claiming he never made proclamations that his people watched him make. Sentries say their army has vacated the mountains, and Illuskia sent an urgent missive to your father”—he paused to tongue some gritty fruit from his molars—“to ask if their princess can stay in Calder in the event of an invasion.”

Aren’s nose scrunched like he’d just felt himself step in something repulsive and had made the poor choice to investigate under his shoe. “The Princess of Illuskia? Aalto save us all if she does.”

I said nothing. I’d heard of the princess, often disparagingly, only a handful of times, but truthfully, the only thing I knew about her was that there had once been talks of joining the kingdoms through a betrothal between her and Kye.

That was, of course, before he sailed to Leihani in a rowboat to escape his future.

Mihauna alive, maybe she really was terrible.

Leal stretched toward the junior captain enough to flick his ear.

Aren batted him away. “What was that for?”

“When are you going to drink that bottle you nicked from Dimas’s mother?”

“I didn’t nick it. She offered it to me. And I’ll drink it when I’m plum ready.”

“Why plum?”

“What?”

Leal’s brows furrowed. “Why plum? Why not when you’re just ready?”

“Will Senan still be in Ochire when we arrive?” Diara asked. A few heads swiveled to look at her, but she ignored them, watching Dimas and waiting for an answer. She’d let herself into my room the night before, waiting for Kye to leave before asking if we might stop in the logging town so she could check on her mother.