Page 17 of A Sea of Vows and Silence (The Naiads of Juile #3)

Cebrinne

“ W hy would Thaan send someone to attack you?”

“Not attack.” Sitting on the edge of one of the lower-level pools in Aegir’s throne room, Selena leaned on an arm. “Pheolix said the Naiad had been following us for hours and never made a move. He was watching us.”

I huffed. “Never made a move until you were alone.”

“I think I startled him. And once I’d seen him, he decided to take me to Thaan to force me to show Vouri’s message.”

Aegir rubbed his chin, leaning a tall shoulder into his carved wall. His cloak hung over his throne steps, leaving his chest bare, his silvery silk pants hanging lazily on his hips. “What will Thaan think when his Naiad doesn’t report back to him?”

He questioned the room openly, but his eyes drifted to Pheolix for an answer.

Mine did as well. Selena and I were tools for gathering intelligence.

For the research and development of strategies.

But for all of our frustrations over the limitations placed on our lives—the confines of my blood vow and our palace prison—we’d rarely ever found ourselves on the receiving end of Thaan’s ire.

Standing at our backs, Pheolix shrugged. “We threw him down to the water. If the fish don’t eat him, he’ll wash up within a day or two. We didn't stab him. I broke his neck instead. Thaan may just assume he fell.”

“Regardless,” Aegir said slowly, “I didn’t think he’d be wary so soon.”

“Thaan is suspicious of everyone,” I interjected. “All the time. Sometimes, for no reason. We could pull Vouri if you’re concerned. Replace her with someone else instead.”

Aegir’s gaze dropped to Vouri’s note, lying open on the floor.

“No,” he said slowly. “Vouri can hold her own. And she thinks the way I think. I trust her.” He continued to stare at the paper.

Selena and I had read it after I returned to our apartment.

With Thaan and Deimos living on the opposite side of our wall and Naiad hearing so acute, I hadn’t been willing to give her a full account of what had happened until we’d returned to Venusia.

A single sentence in the center of the note read in neat print: Time to cordae.

Aegir had read it with the expression of someone spotting a housefly hovering over their meal.

“I still believe Vouri is safe,” Selena said. “She inserted herself through outside channels. We only spoke once. And the one Naiad who caught us is dead.”

“We’ll see.” Aegir aimed his sharp green stare at her. “I’m not willing to trade my sister’s life for Thaan’s death, no matter the amount of bad blood between our colonies.”

“There couldn’t be more bad blood here than between Thaan and Sidra,” I said, stretching my legs into the water.

“Possibly.” Aegir watched me for a moment, the whirls of tide tattooed across his chest flexing involuntarily.

“But Thaan lured my grandmother out of Venus waters and killed her before my grandfather could reach them. Then he did the same with my mother. Later, my father. There may not be as much bad blood here as there is between Thaan and his Safiro queen. But there’s still plenty. ”

Selena and I met eyes. Safiro? I mouthed.

The Juile Sea, she mouthed back.

“So, the note…” Pheolix tamped down a small smile at the two of us that I ignored, motioning to Vouri’s parchment again .

Aegir sighed. “Naiad hierarchy was created for vast numbers of colonies. There used to be hundreds of colonies within an ocean. Prizivac Vodes were traded for strength and fortification. But there are no colonies today that I’d be willing to offer my sister to without sending her far enough to assume I may never see her again.

” He paused on the thought, jaw pulling to the side.

“There’s a Naiad within this colony she wants to name as her corda-cruor .

And perhaps it’s my own pride that halts my blessing. That she deserves better.”

“And this note?” I prompted softly.

Aegir cleared his throat. He bent to roll his pants up his muscled calves, then sank onto the side of the pool to face us, dropping his feet into the cool salt. A faint pattern of smoky gold scales breathed into the skin around his ankles.

“If Thaan is waiting for us to cordae ,” he said softly, those green arrows soft as they aimed directly into my eyes.

“Then the evidence that we had would be in the scent of it. Vouri is stationed within the palace. It would be simple to ensure she’s nearby whenever you’re with Thaan.

She wants to use this mission to force my hand. ”

I leaned forward. “Is it that, or do you tell yourself you know what’s best for her so that you can disregard her autonomy?”

A step behind Aegir, Pheolix chuckled. Selena shifted uncomfortably, sinking her attention into the walls, suddenly captured by the intricate celestial carvings across the interior canvas of the shell.

But diplomatic tact had never worked its way into my arsenal of communication. Grazing the surface of anything using only polite words and courteous avoidance never revealed the heart of a problem. I was too unbothered. Too careless. Too impatient.

And maybe, at the core of it, a personal fight within me reared its head at the thought of a male Videre telling a female Prizivac Vode who she could and couldn’t cordae .

Aegir leaned against a hand, his hard expression that of someone who had just been ordered to scrape all the algae from the sea. “You think I should allow my sister to cordae whoever she wants?”

“Of course that’s what I think. That’s the reason I’m here .”

His mouth twitched as he considered saying something and promptly decided against it. I wondered if he’d ever entertained the notion that a Naiad might not want to cordae with him.

“Even if the match is a terrible choice?”

“It’s not your place to decide what’s terrible for her.”

Aegir laughed, a low warning in the roll of it. “It is when I’m her monarch.”

“Do you decide who all the members of your colony cordae ?”

“Ceba,” my sister whispered sharply.

But Aegir settled his weight to lean against a second arm, viewing me with a comfortable scrutiny I could have spent the entire day testing. His mouth crooked, and something in my chest fizzled at the warped line of it. “Let’s talk about the stones.”

“The ones that will kill Thaan, or the ones in this room?” Pheolix asked.

“Thaan,” Selena said, sending him a look that threatened violence.

“Theia said we could use the two crystals to reverse Thaan’s trade with Darkness.

The Breath of Safiro stole Sidra’s lungs, but the Scale of Safiro took Thaan’s tail.

He has no use for Sidra’s stone, but if he were to find his own, he could finally reenter the sea.

” She paused to gnaw the inside of her cheek.

“If he did, we’d be at his mercy. All of us. Every Naiad alive.”

Pheolix gave a low whistle. Aegir’s eyes flicked to him and then me. “Where are they?”

“Sidra’s is on an island in the Juile Sea, according to Theia. It’s where Thaan was born. Thaan’s is in a cave somewhere below the surface in a territory that once belonged to Paria.”

“Neutral waters,” Aegir said.

Selena crossed her arms in consideration. “Yes. ”

“Finding Sidra’s stone would involve requesting access to their waters. And I’m assuming if we found her stone, she’d want to keep it. If we’re going to search for one, let's start with Thaan’s.”

Selena nodded, throat tighter than it had been the moment before. My hand covered hers, and I squeezed.

“I’ve never been to Paria before,” Aegir said quietly, watching us.

I released a slow breath, gaze heavy as I met Selena’s vivid blue eyes. “We have.”