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I was silenced by a hand pressed firmly over my lips.

“Good morning, Your Majesty.” The water cascading over my face blurred my vision from the person before me. Their voice I would recognise in both life and death.

“If I was you,” it continued. “I’d keep your screaming to a minimum. Otherwise, you’ll find the Nephilim will be here in seconds, and we need a few of them to spare.”

I blinked away the water, my mind swirling with impossibilities. As the figure before me came into focus, it was like looking into the face of a ghost. I couldn’t shake Jesibel and my dream, the words she wrote on parchment were burned into the backs of my eyes.

“Seraphine?” I gargled her name against the press of her palm.

Her sharp brows rose, eyes bright with scheming. “The one and only. Now, do you agree to stop your shouting, okay?”

I couldn’t manage to even nod, not as the true agony my body was subject to came into full focus. As did the room. All at once, without order, the details came rushing in.

I was in a room made of wood – a room that was swaying from side to side. It was lightless, not lit by candle or flame. Only the small circular window allowed for a beam of daylight to cut through. The view beyond was of the endless blue sea, waves occasionally lapping over the glass and bathing my room in darkness.

We were on a ship. That detail was as clear as the fact I wasn’t dead, just like Jesibel had believed when she first entered my dream. Turned out I hadn’t been crushed by a falling church or buried beneath rubble.

However, being alive wasn’t all it was cut out to be.

The first haunting thought was of all the people I’d last seen before the church came falling down on us. Erix. Duncan. Althea, Gyah, Rafaela. The names threaded through my chaotic mind all at once.

Jesibel had confirmed Althea was alive, but Seraphine had woken me before I got the chance to ask after the rest.

My second instinct was to move, but I couldn’t. Because my wrists were held above my head – fingers numb from the limited blood flow. My ankles weighed heavy by iron chains. Panic seized my lungs. I inhaled, only to be assaulted by salt, blood, sick and the overbearing odour of sun-bleached wood.

Seraphine must have noticed I was panicking, because the palm over my mouth soon became a claw that grasped my jaw and held my face in one place.

“Look at me,” Seraphine demanded.

I couldn’t make sense as to why she was here – Altar, I couldn’t make sense as to whyIwas here. I should be dead…

Duncan. Erix. Gyah. Rafaela.

My heart jolted in my throat, choking me.

Duncan. Erix.

“Robin. Focus onme,” Seraphine hissed, ever the snake she was. “Now isn’t the time to panic. Focus. I need you to calm down, and so do your allies, if you want to make it off this fucking ship alive.”

All I heard within her words was ‘allies’ and ‘alive’. It was enough to cool the fire in my gut.

Slowly, she removed her hand, keeping it poised just in case she needed to cover my mouth again.

I didn’t shout, but kept my voice as quiet as hers had been

“What’s – going – on?” I forced out between hulking breaths.

Anxiety had taken full hold, using me as its puppet.

“I was hoping you could tell me,” Seraphine replied, her thumb sweeping away a tear I hadn’t realised I’d released. “Almost every soul in both realms saw what happened during the wedding, and those who didn’t watch through the reflection of mirrors have surely been told by those that did. The fey have been accused of harbouring Duwar, preparing to use the power to take over the human realm. Then the vision in the mirrors stopped. Next thing we knew was the church had come down and Cassial pronounced you alldead. That was two days ago.”

Two days. Two fucking days had passed.

I shook my head, fury bubbling in every bone and vein. “It was a trick. The Nephilim lied. They…” I couldn’t get my words out, nor did I need to. “Cassial planned for this.”

Saying it aloud didn’t make it feel any more real.

“I’m not as easily led as the rest of the people in this forsaken world. I see the game the Nephilim have played, and unfortunately for you, it is to the detriment of our people.”