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The soft whisper of feet alerts me to Oraya’s presence seconds before she takes a seat beside me, her pants are already rolled up her calf and she dips her toes into the water, like she was here all along. She has an uncanny ability to sneak up on me.
She subtly sniffs the air. “Brine and vinegar. You’re mad,” she says softly. Oraya doesn’t make eye contact, but she doesn’t have to look at me to observe. Where most people ignore how useful other senses can be, Oraya embraces it. She can scent emotions. She can feel the change in the air around her. She can hear the way you breathe and needle her way inside your head.
It’s quite frankly unnerving, but she’s my sister and I love her.
“Are you surprised?” I eventually ask, studying her. When I left, she was only fifteen. Two years haven’t changed her much, but enough. She’s taller. Her face isn’t so childlike anymore. Her brunette hair is plaited down her back and unlike Oretta with her frilly dresses and Orlena with her fatigues, Oraya wears a simple, but fine pair of pants and a simple shirt.
“No.”
I scoff. “Am I really always mad?”
She swirls her feet in the water. “No, but Dad is planning something bad.”
“Oraya,” I say, holding myself as still as possible, “are you spying?”
“Do you love your mate?” Her navy eyes, filled with curiosity, flick to mine.
The question is meant to distract me, and it works. Do I love Daisy? We’ve only known each other for a short while, but the mate bond makes it so that I can’t help but care for her.
“My mate is the sweetest person I’ve ever met,” I explain. “She makes me smile… and she makes me happy.”
“Does she make your heart race?”
“I suppose so.”
“And do you think about her all the time?”
“Yes.” I search her face. “Why are you asking me these things?”
“Before you left, Dad wanted you to take a mate.” She moves her gaze from mine. “But they wouldn’t have made you smile. Is that why you left? Did you know Hecate had a mate waiting for you out there?”
I sigh and shake my head. “No, Oraya. Don’t romanticize my decision to leave. I left because I didn’t want to take the throne. I think it’s safe for me to assume you’ve been sneaking around enough to learn what made the furies mad in the first place?”
She swallows and tips her head down, glaring at her feet before nodding.
“Right. Well, our father wanted me to take the throne because he wanted to escape accountability.” I shrug like guilt isn’t threatening to break my spine. “My leaving was selfish. I didn’t want the accountability either.”
Oraya doesn’t speak for a few minutes. I try to dissect her reaction, but it’s impossible. Aside from the way her eyebrow’s pinch together, I can’t tell how she feels. Eventually, she turns and looks at me; her eyes are so similar to our mother’s with a splash of white around her irises, that for a moment I see her in front of me instead of Oraya.
“Are you going to help him execute the vampires?”
“You need to be careful with your spying,” I warn her. “You’re good but that doesn’t mean you won’t get caught some day.”
“Are you going to help?”
“I don’t have a choice.”
“Change the plans,” she says.
“It’s not that easy.”
“Why?”
“Because…” I trail off.It’s complicatedsounds cheap. I was so certain I was right when I left. I hadn’t truly considered how it would all play out. “Because he might be right, Oraya. The time for amends has passed.”
She narrows her eyes. “You sound like him.”
“What would you have me do instead?”
