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“We should get him to Calixta.” Asa reached out a hand for me. “As quickly as possible.”
Linking our fingers, I sat down and thought about the logistics of that. “Did you set up an exchange?”
“She understood the time delay would mean she had to wait. We have two days.” He frowned. “Or did.”
“Two Hael days or two Earth days?” I bit the inside of my cheek. “Never mind. Stupid question.”
Calixta would figure she had waited long enough, and I couldn’t blame her for wanting to finish our deal. But this fiasco with Luca had taught me a valuable lesson. I had never been an eager student, but unfortunately for the director, I liked to think I learned from my mistakes.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Asa and I stood on the shore below the ruined cliffside where the compound once perched like a vulture over the sea. How many times had the director gazed out his window at the ocean and reminisced? The compound, in hindsight, not only connected him to Luca, but Calixta as well. He had given no thought or care for Luca. Had he ever thought about the mother of his only surviving child? Of what he had done to her? How he had treated her? What it got him in the end?
A son who hated him.
A granddaughter who despised him.
No legacy. No dynasty. No nothing.
“Are you ready for this?” Asa kept his head forward, gaze cast across the sea. “After this…it’s over.”
Overhead, Dad pinwheeled, keeping watch over me while distancing himself from the scene.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” I cautioned him. “It won’t be over for ten more years.”
Until Aedan walked out of the sea, I wouldn’t consider this deal with Calixta done.
Even then, we might never fully cut ties with her or her court if Asa continued to offer his services.
A churning of the waters announced her arrival. A dozen sharks, mostly tigers, splashed their long tails in the shallows. Tentacles longer than I was tall rose from the deep, waving like strands of kelp in a current. At the center of that pageantry, standing on the creature’s forehead, stood Calixta. Draped in a severe gown of inky black fabric, its hem spilling into the water in rippling eddies, she greeted us with a frown.
“You have something that belongs to me.”
That was it. Straight to the point. As if the last few days hadn’t happened.
Did she know we were behind the uprising? She probably had her suspicions. She had sat on the Haelian Seas throne long enough to have a keen eye for machinations. But she wanted the director enough to go along with the deal as if this had always been the plan.
“I have the contract ready for you to peruse.” I held it out over the water, and a sharp-toothed fish leapt to snatch it out of my hand. “As soon as we’ve both signed it, I’m ready to fulfill my end of the bargain.”
“Rennet.” She snapped her fingers, and a skeletal man with splotchy grayish skin covered in scales stuck his head above the water. “See that the paperwork is in order.”
The fish zipped it to him, and he patted it on the head as he took the scroll and unrolled it.
Time spent waterproofing the paper and ink had definitely not been time wasted the way he kept dunking it as he bobbed on the waves.
Asa and I stood in the sand for more than an hour while he read the contract, pausing to cast a gimlet eye at me, but he did finish eventually.
“The document is sound, my queen.” He presented the paper to Calixta with a low bow. “You may sign, if it pleases you.”
“A moment.” Calixta put him off while she pretended to consider me. “You sent a letter, pleading with me to award your mate a position of authority within my court.”
Pleadingwas a strong word, though I would have if she had pressed the matter.
“Your court was in turmoil.” I studied her right back. “We offered you a boon.”
“Hmm.” She inclined her head. “The timing was convenient, yes?”
“That we reached you before any real harm was done? Yes. The goddess clearly favors you.”
