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Then he muttered to himself, shaking his head, and moved on.
As the minutes trickled by, punctuated only by the tinkling of all the waterfalls and the rustle of paper, my brother finally looked up with an expression that had shed its outward layers to reveal the one thing I couldn’t above all others: pity.
I knew what he and Yenatin thought every time this happened. That the lack of finding meant there was nothing left to find. That only a skeleton remained, or perhaps only a mound of loam that had long since melted back into the core of the world. That I would have no way of seeking revenge and returning to what once was.
But I couldn’t accept that. I wouldn’t accept it. Fate was a bitch, and she could kiss my ass if she wanted to be this cruel to the people who deserved so much more. I would find a way to—
A soft inhale from Yenatin had my heart stumbling. To our left, the tiger’s ears perked up, and Kanuk glanced from me to the map in disbelief.
Where the elderly faerie’s finger was trembling over a single point in the heart of Asmod that made my blood run cold.
“Here,” he croaked, his eyes flashing open. “There must be a new—yes, this map has extra details here… another spiral of water that surrounds the fortress, see?”
I peered over his shoulder to study the ink markings. The capital of the northernmost continent had always sat in the middle of a spiral of water coming in from the ocean, but Yenatin was right. Now an extra channel curled around the one place I’d never want to tread.
“You’re sure?” My grip tightened on the edge of the table, so hard I could feel the wood groan beneath my fingertips. “She’s really there?” She’s really alive? I didn’t dare ask out loud.
“Oh, yes. Her aura is strong.” Yenatin nodded, and Kanuk’s eyes went wide. “I don’t know how, but I have no doubt that she’s right there. In the center.”
I whirled, walked a few paces, and clawed a hand through my hair.
Finally, after twenty years, I was one step closer to the justice that had been so cruelly ripped away from me. But that didn’t stop the new mystery from unfolding right before my eyes, settling in my bones and sending a snarl up my throat that Kanuk’s tiger reciprocated.
Because somehow, inexplicably and inadmissibly, Rayna Drey’s mother was in the realm of the vampires.
CHAPTER
1
COEN
The hues of a new sunrise bathed Bascite Boulevard in silken amber below.
I sat between marble spires on the edge of my old mansion’s rooftop, the ground a dizzying distance beneath my feet. A few birds twittered overhead, but otherwise, the Esholian Institute campus sat in thick, lazy silence in the half hour before everyone usually woke up. Just the way I liked it.
Because during these moments, I could watch her without interruption.
Through a gap in the vines cloaking one of the many windows of the Wild Whisperer mansion across the street, my gaze latched onto Rayna’s sleeping form curled up in her bed.
I always wished I had Barberro’s superior eyesight during times like these so I could make out her expression as she dreamed of both the good and the bad—how the freckles on her nose would scrunch, how her eyebrows would furrow and relax, how her lips would part. There were so many times I’d had the chance to memorize every inch of her in the past, and none of them would ever be enough.
Now, I could only stare at the shape of her, the way her wild cascade of curls spread across her pillows and her arm cradled her head. My innate magic tugged on my bones, begging me to cut through the short distance between us, to lay down beside her and pull her against my body so that I could hold her like I was supposed to…
But the oath inked onto my back seemed to burn whenever the thought even dared to cross my mind.
You will bring me Dyonisia’s head within the next year, the queen of Sorronia had told me. And within the same time frame, you will also kill every branded citizen under her rule.
Queen Mydusia’s voice haunted every single second that I breathed in the air of the island she’d commanded me to destroy.
I would do as she said—I would rip Dyonisia’s head clean off her shoulders without a trickle of remorse when the time came—but there would be no touching Rayna. No putting her at risk by even placing myself in the same room as her. We’d been communicating solely mind-to-mind ever since that command had infused my entire being, and I wouldn’t break my self-control now just because my fingers ached to trace the knuckles on hers.
No. Until we figured out how to break this fucking oath, I would simply watch her from afar. Whisper good morning into her mind. Imagine rubbing my thumb across her forehead as she yawned herself awake.
Just as she was doing now.
Down the row of mansions, a few doors opened and slammed as the first students began to trickle out, but my focus stayed on her as she stirred.
I wasn’t too worried about anyone seeing me sitting here for the time being. I always strapped a mask to my face whenever I visited the island—one I’d had tailored by an artisan in Sorronia, black with tendrils of copper swirling around the slits for my eyes and mouth. If anyone did see me, they wouldn't know I was the pirate fugitive who was supposed to be dead.
