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“Have you ever been to the south of the continent?” Jax asked.
“Before Deimos, I’d never really left the north. It was one of the reasons I wanted to be a warrior, other than protecting people,” Isla said. “I wanted to travel the continent.”
Jax snickered. “So small-minded.”
“Excuse me?”
“Why just desire traveling the continent when there’s a whole world out there?” He nodded towards the water. “You know, they say if you squint hard enough, you may be able to see a siren’s tail kick above the water.”
“Really?” Isla focused, widened eyes narrowing and seeking anything over the rippling blanket of dark.
Jax nodded and, as if he could hear her next question, said, “Technically, they’re not allowed this close to the continent, but by the time someone gets in the water to fight them off, they’re long gone. The sea makes its own laws after that until you reach their isles.” His lips thinned. “So much out there, and yet we’re just here, wolves amongst ourselves.”
Wolves, some witches, and a part fae…apparently.
Isla caught the longing in his voice, the spark in his eye. “Is there anywhere you want to see?”
“The fae ruins of Naerel,” he answered immediately. “Their architecture was extraordinary. I mean, the entire city was crafted by magic. No mortal builders could ever equate. And now, it just sits there. Not many go to appreciate it, given the fae were so…”
“Heinous?” Ameera finished for him. She was silent for the most part, but the general was always listening.
Isla’s skin itched, the hair on the back of her neck standing.Not now.“Were they really all like that?”
Jax shrugged. “I mean, I’m not a thousand years old, so I wouldn’t know. I’ve never met one, but an entire people couldn’t be all evil. I think I read some even stood by mortals during the War of Realms and offered their lives along with the others who sacrificed themselves to seal the veil and keep them out forever.”
Isla vaguely remembered that part from her history lessons. Wolves, witches, sirens, crawlers, humans, and fae, it had taken everyone to end the war—even the deities.
Jax’s final word echoed in her head.Forever.
She swallowed, glancing at the ocean again and then up at the sky as if she could see the veil shimmering there. “Do you think the fae would ever be able to return?”
“Of course.”
Isla snapped her head his way, her eyes briefly snagging on the ferry boat they closed in on, the line of revelers fifty-deep.
Jax clarified, “History always repeats itself. We never learn. We just better hope it’s not our lifetime. They’re immortal; they can wait forever.”
Isla’s stomach pitted.
“What could we even learn from the war to prevent it?” Ameera asked, fiddling with her necklace. The pendant on a gold chain like she always wore.
Jax’s following words clanged through her. “Never trust a fae.”
* * *
The air of the island had been electric.
Lights shimmered everywhere Isla turned as infectious, upbeat, foot-stomping, hip-swaying music flooded her ears, her veins.
Jax had let out a triumphant howl the moment he stepped from the docking sands to the boardwalk. Some of the passersby echoed him, and it wasn’t long until the sound traveled distances far beyond what she could detect.
A party that never stops.
Isla had never seen anything like it. It was the perfect escape from their worries. Even Ameera was beaming as she took it in, and she swore Amalie’s sour look had lifted, too. She felt like a child on Solstice.
“Welcome to the best night of your life, Your…” Jax trailed off, his eyes questioning.
Isla smiled. “You can call me by name; I won’t tell anyone.”
