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I didn’t understand it.

With Calista I could speak fine enough. With this blood fae, I shrunk to the shadows, taking a step away from him.

“Silas was there.” Calista rested a hand on my arm, gave me a soft smile, then faced Cuyler. “He was Ari’s Wraith. It is his skill beyond seidr—to dream walk, much like my Shadow Queen does with her tricky memories.”

I let out a breath of relief. How did she know the words had been throttled in my throat before they’d even formed?

Olaf approached, sweat soaked his brow, the hint of damp and brine was laced into the threads of his clothing. Apart even this short time, he already looked younger, stronger, much more like the Rave captain he’d been in Riot Ode’s army. The silver from his ratty hair had faded to the dark brown, his eyes had less yellow to the whites, and more vibrancy bloomed in the paleness.

“Shields will be broken within two nights, mark me,” Olaf said. “That quake, it was not an act of the earth. It’s added shoreline and absorbed much of our strength to hold. We need more defenses if another attack should come. What happened in Hus Rose?”

My skin heated. Could they smell or sense that I’d left them to guard the damn shore while I tasted every surface of Calista’s body? It didn’t seem fair that I indulged in pleasure while others stood out in the night, blades ready.

Still, something had shifted. The connection we’d built must have been the final piece. A true bond had formed in those heated moments, one that had clearly shifted our world as a whole.

“Any sign of the battle lord?” Calista asked.

Olaf let out a sigh and faced the sea. “Not yet. But the Chasm, you see it there, it is more . . . lively. Sea fae have always been rather antagonistic, even during peaceful trade turns. They like to think of themselves as superior.”

“Don’t we all,” Calista answered, but she faced me. “Silas, there is something coming. Ifeelit.”

“Same,” I whispered, and pressed a hand to my heart, a signal that the feeling was within me too.

“You’re different.” Olaf narrowed his eyes at me.

“They are, aren’t they?” Cuyler offered and started to circle us. “I can’t place it, but Cal, even you seem different.”

Gods, how much detail should I give? Was it common for folk to divulge every movement they made as lovers? In order to properly defend us, did they need to know what I’d done withmy mouth?

Calista’s hand fell to mine, squeezing gently, and the calm of her touch soothed the rage of taut panic. Her long-awaited acceptance of me, of us, seemed to give her some uncanny insight into my emotions. For she, again, spoke before I drifted into a suffocating unease where shadows would take me to a dark reality I struggled to escape.

“Our first kingdom began to shatter when a bond was formed between me and Silas,” Calista said. “We all know this. Gifts of fate have been scattered and gathered. What happened in Hus Rose was a final piece of a wretchedly beautiful story,” she said, looking at me. “No more secrets, no more hiding the bond that brought us all here. I’ve found it, accepted it, and it ended that alternate path we opened so long ago. It has brought us back to where my father began his battle.”

“That makes a bit of sense. It feels like the battles we fought beside the king,” Olaf said. “If I’m understanding, by breaking the kingdoms onto that new vein of seidr the two of you opened, Riot gave us time, yes? Time for the gifts of fate to grow stronger.”

“You would know, Rave,” Cuyler said. “You were there. Were you losing the battles?”

Olaf paused to consider it. After a moment, he nodded. “The battle lord was a terrible foe. His dark glamour overtook everything, and he knew the Rave like he knew his own twisted mind. Wewerehis army, after all. We could rarely hide a move from him, so yes. I think even the king knew that defeating Davorin with our blades alone would have been a damn near impossible feat.”

Calista closed her eyes for a few breaths. “I’ve harbored guilt since I saw the way my parents sacrificed it all to keep me alive, but it was not a sacrifice to them. To divide the power of fate was my daj’s answer, his way to keep his people free and living. Daj . . . he was not a selfish king, true? With his power, I mean. He wasn’t power mad.”

“No,” Olaf said, a slight smile in the corner of his mouth. “No, Riot Ode viewed his seidr as a duty, not a call to riches and prestige. He was a mightily fair king, My Lady. He would never have passed on that duty to you—” Olaf spared a look to me. “To the both of you, if he did not know you would rise with the same justness he and the queen shared.”

“Folk I love—these other royals—they are honorable much the same.” Calista hesitated. “Sort of. The Shadow King is quite proud to be a thief. Be aware of it.”

Olaf smirked. “You have walked the path you were meant to walk. Your power is yours, but you face the fight of your parents. Our command falls to you. Well, I suppose if the bond is reunited, it falls to both of you.”

I winced. Hardly able to speak, how was I to give a damn army any kind of command?

“I know little about armies,” Calista said. “Silas was a boy when our worlds faded. He might know more about the Rave, but I doubt he knows how to lead an army.”

Calista wasn’t degrading me—her smile told me she was shielding me. I dipped my chin and stepped closer to her side.

“I think that is where we are lucky to have so many kings and queens in this game,” she went on. “They each will bring a talent, a thought, a strength, that perhaps the final throne does not have.” Calista hooked her palm around my forearm, her gaze only on me, as she lowered her voice. “For that is what we are. The final throne.”

Four queens. Four battles. Four fates.

“Agreed,” Cuyler said. He faced the new distant peaks. “What I want to know is what bleeding happened, though.”