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Dani surveyed him. Shaking her head, she reached forward. Before she could wrap her fingers around the handle, Graeson snatched the blade. She glared at him through her eyebrows, and annoyance burned within her light green eyes.

Snarling, she thrust her chair back, and the chain bolting it down to the floor rattled. With a disgruntled groan, she stomped to her hammock, throwing herself onto the netted fabric without another word. However, the mobility of the hammock made her movements shaky, lessening the dramatics she tried to display.

Shaking his head, Graeson returned to his hammock, the blade still in hand.

After climbing into the swinging net only marginally more gracefully than Dani, Graeson inspected the blade. It was smaller than a dagger and had a simple pommel with a mud-brown leather grip. Graeson preferred his curved blades that offered quick, clean maneuvers that lay on the floor in his bag beneath him. His scimitars weren’t as easily concealed, though. To sneak into a wedding hosted by the famed military capital of the seven kingdoms, they would all need to be stealthier than they had been in Ardentol.

Last time, they knew Kalisandre would be traveling after the ceremony. They knew the schedule and had someone inside the castle to assist them. This time, however, they had no one. Nor had they heard of any rumors suggesting Kalisandre would be traveling.

Graeson was not surprised. Their enemy would not be that thoughtless again.

According to the servant who had delivered the letter to the queen, Graeson and his makeshift crew would have several opportunities to snatch Kalisandre since Frenzian weddings were a week-long endeavor. So, they had less than a month to finalize their plans, arrive in Frenzia, and make their move.

Thankfully, that left just enough time to make one more stop to improve their odds.

It was time Graeson visited an old friend.

Chapter17

KALLIE

The sun kissedher skin as Kallie walked through the peony garden. A breeze swept by, ruffling her hair and carrying the smell of sea salt and citrus. Hidden among the leaves, small birds chirped in a nearby fig tree, and Kallie could scarcely make out the bright yellow tails peeping out.

Smiling, she sighed and looked toward the east. From the top of the hill, she could spot the white peaks of the ocean as the waves danced across the sea. Large hawks flew down, their talons scraping the top layer of the surface. Further out, a dark spot grew on the surface. A shadow of some sort.

Kallie squinted. Unsure if her eyes were playing tricks on her.

She gasped.

There it was again.

A giant tentacle broke the sea’s surface, sending a nearby bird hurrying away. However, one hawk wasn’t as lucky when a tentacle wrapped around it, pulling it under the surface of the Red Sea.

“Did you see that?” she shrieked, spinning around.

An amused smirk slid across Graeson’s face. “See what, Kal?”

“That!” Kallie pointed at the sea.

Graeson leaned down as if shrinking his height and looking from her viewpoint would help him see what she did. But when she looked back, there was nothing there, and she groaned.

“I swear I saw it.”

“You’ll have to be more precise than that,” Graeson said with a slight lilt in his voice.

“I thought I saw—” Kallie huffed, brushing a hand through her knotted curls. “Nothing. Forget it.”

“You mean to tell me that you”—his breath kissed her neck, and she shivered—“the disbeliever of myths, believe you saw the kraken?”

“Hush.” Kallie laughed, knocking her elbow into his side. “You don’t need to mock me. I know, it’s ridiculous.”

Graeson's fingers brushed beneath her chin, and he turned her head toward him. His eyes danced across her face, and not a hint of amusement sparkled in his grey irises. “Kalisandre, it is not ridiculous. If you say you saw it, you saw it.”

Her brows furrowed. “Just like that?” she whispered.

“Just like that, little mouse.”

“But—”