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“Have either of you seen Isla?” Malakai asked from beside him, the plate of food before him barely touched as he scanned the mingling crowd.
Sebastian, who’d already scoffed down his meal, snuck a fritter off his father’s cooling pile. Malakai didn’t notice—or didn’t care, at least.
“She’s probably changing into a new dress.” He waved the morsel in an arch before popping it in his mouth. “I swear, every day, she goes through at least three outfits.”
Despite his words, Sebastian’s gaze slid to Adrien, lip curling and a knowing look in his eyes. His better guess for where Isla had gone—likely the correct one if his feeling of intruding on an intimate moment between Kai and Isla while they stood on the dais was any indication—was probably the last thing Malakai wanted to hear.
The Imperial Beta sighed and finally dug into his rice.
“Are you alright, old man?” Sebastian went to swipe another fritter but earned a slap on the hand with Malakai’s fork. Recoiling, he met his father’s narrowed eyes, pine-colored mirrors of his own. “You’ve been white as a ghost since Isla and Kai nearly burned the place down, and they put that crown on her head.”
Adrien grimaced.
He’d tried his best to forget aboutthatmoment, just for tonight. He swore he could still feel the heat burrowed beneath his skin from the tunneling flames that shot to the ceiling, sending everyone in their seats faltering back. He’d never seen anything like it before, and though it had slipped his mind, the significance of the ritual and what the offering of the blood represented, especially when burned, gave him a sinking feeling that whatever Kai and Isla had ignited only served as a beacon.
A target. Bigger than they may have already been.
From those who’d witnessed it, news would spread, and he had no idea how his father would feel when he heard. Given how Malakai’s features were also crossed, he may have realized it, too. Maybe it would be a good idea to pull him aside so they could make a plan about what to say when they returned to Io.
For a few moments, Adrien watched the Beta stew in silence, pushing around the food on his plate. “It just happened so fast.”
“That’s how mates work, isn’t it?” Sebastian said. “Find each other and run off into the sunset? Everyone was pushing her to choose someone a few years ago.”
What looked to be regret flew over Malakai’s face before he swept his utensil beneath the fried potato and skillfully flipped it onto his son’s plate, a swagger to his movements that shouldn’t have surprised Adrien as much as it did. From all the tales of their youth that the prince had heard, Malakai had always been the lightness to his own father’s heavy nature, through childhood, through battle, and through his rise to power. “I always imagined she’d take them back to Io.”
A part of Adrien had always thought so, too.
Malakai dipped his head. “Isla of Deimos,”he muttered, seemingly disbelieving.
Even Adrien hadn’t completely adjusted to hearing it yet either, a sinking feeling pitting his stomach.
“She’s still Isla,” Sebastian reassured him, gnawing on his fritter. “A know-it-all pain in my ass.”
Adrien couldn’t hold in his laugh. They were all words laced with love. Though, at the jeer, Malakai barely flinched.
Adrien’s stare collided with Sebastian’s, his best friend’s lips turning down as he surveyed his downtrodden father. His knitted brows betrayed the deep concern clawing through him, and Adrien recalled the same look on his friend’s face once, long ago, when he couldn’t do anything while he watched his father fall into a pit after losing his mate.
Sebastian made another attempt. “Hey, you still have me.”
Malakai finally lifted his head, his eyes scanning his son’s face. “Yes, a know-it-all pain in my ass.”
Sebastian’s shoulders dropped, relieved and shaking as he laughed. Adrien couldn’t help but feel the reprieve, too.
“Fair.” Sebastian grabbed a toothpick and leaned back in his seat. “She’s worse, though.”
A resounding crackle and pop drew Adrien’s attention outward to where a shimmering light burst and filtered through the cloudy sky alongside some of the bobbing lanterns. The crowd around him pointed and gawked.
His lips ticked up in a smile. Happiness. Life.
A coolness around his wrist suddenly pulsed, and he glanced down just in time to catch the nearly imperceptible sliver of shadow skittering up his sleeve. He hoped neither man alongside him at the table had noticed.
He couldn’t explain how or why one of Raana’s shadows had attached to him, as if she’d somehow marked him, not with her bite but with magic. Dangerous, perhaps—no,definitelydangerous—to let it linger, but even if he’d known how to make it go away, he wasn’t sure he wanted to. If the shadows were a part of her, its small pulse, heartbeat, and mere ability toexisttold him she was still alive. And until he decided if he’d leave her be or go back into the Wilds to drag her out, he had to hang onto that.
Another roll of distant thunder shook the sky, making everyone gasp and look up. Some threw their arms out to embrace the oncoming onslaught of droplets. But nothing fell; only a soft rain-kissed breeze blew by, making the hair on Adrien’s neck stand up and sending that shadow meandering over his body and to his back.
That was three times now without a hint of rain or lightning. If that meant the storm was building, maybe they should’ve started thinking about some shelter.
“Are you ready to return with me tomorrow morning?”
