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Sweltering, sleepless nights of travel. Three carriages cross the countryside. Two rattle with dangerous cargo locked shut in enchanted chests.
Fearful heartbeats to the quick tune of the orchestra. The palace glows in the distance, alive with revelry. Her carriages ignore the traffic at the gates.
Two chests tumble over the cliffside behind the palace. Wood splinters in the rushes of the river below.
From the water, hulking silhouettes emerge. The beasts growl.
My hand tightens. I bite my lip to keep calm. The voice was right.
The Sun Capital is behind her. She scales a rocky hill, fairies cupped in her hands. A whisper: “Just a little farther.”
A set of crowns. A set of rings. A magnolia-lined hall in splendent white and gold.
The prince before her on the dais, frown carved in his expression.
My brows knit. Are those future threads?
Air thick with iron. Blood—too much blood.
Her terrified voice in a black-brambled ballroom. “Why are you doing this?”
A cackle and a crack of lightning and a burst of dark feathers.
“Seer.” Cyrus’s voice cleaves through my Sight. “You are crushing my lady’s hand.”
I open my eyes with a short gasp. Raya’s long fingers are bunched in mine, sweaty and trembling. Everyone is staring.
“Oh.” I let go, but there’s no hiding the shock on my face: I saw something terrible. I can still smell the blood.
What do I say? Raya brought the beasts, but it doesn’t add up. She seemed scared. There was—will be—awedding, and then a disaster. But why?
What if it’s because of me?
I barely hear the rest of what Cyrus says to the hushed crowd around us: “Would you pardon us? I nearly forgot—we have a meeting with my father today. It shouldn’t take long. Let’s go, Violet. Before we’re late.”
My chair scrapes against the tile as I stand up, movements automatic. It’s a lousy excuse to extricate me, but I follow the prince without another word.
Cyrus doesn’t head toward his father’s study, but toward a less-trafficked hall in the east wing.
“What did you see?” he asks.
I’m still shaking, but we’re far away from the party now. I don’t have to follow him anymore. I spin on my heel.
“Violet!”
His steps clatter behind me. He grabs my arm. I whirl around on him, lips pinched. His grip is familiar in a way it wasn’t a month ago. I remember it elsewhere on my body. The way he looks at me at this distance is intimate, no matter what we’re doing.
“I don’t need to tell you anything,” I hiss.
With a muttered swear, the prince opens the door to the nearest room and unceremoniously shoves me in.
Hot, stuffy air greets me as I stumble into what appears to be a lesser-used armory. Polished plate mails and racks of enamel-handled swords gleam under a thin layer of dust. There isn’t much space here for anything that isn’t made of steel.
Cyrus shuts the door behind him. “You saw something.”
I draw back against a suit of armor, riled as a cornered cat. “Maybe I did.”
“Dante told me that you had a vision the other day. One that said Lady Raya brought the beasts here.”
