Page 7 of A Storm in Every Heart (Enchanted Legacies #2)

ODESSA, PRESENT

D aemon orders everyone to reconvene in the barracks in half an hour, but I can’t think of a single thing to do with myself in the meantime. How am I supposed to wait an entire thirty minutes to hear about this hypothetical alliance I’m being thrust into?

With a frustrated huff, I march straight to the barracks intending to wait in the meeting room. Clearly thinking the same thing, Jett follows. He speeds up to walk beside me. “Sorry to fuck up your afternoon.”

I look sideways at him. His wings have disappeared again, but his coal-black hair is still windswept and his equally black eyes are bright with adrenaline. Between his dark hair and eyes and the head-to-toe black clothing he’s wearing, he’s really leaning into his namesake.

I huff out a breath. “Don’t worry about it, it’s not your fault. Are you alright?”

“Of course, why?” he asks.

“Because of the wings. Were you threatened?”

“It was nothing, I was fine.” Jett grins, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes as we reach the entrance to the barracks.

The building is a recent addition to the estate, built to house the hundreds of soldiers who take it in turns to guard the king and queen.

It’s a long rectangular structure, mostly filled with dormitory-style bedrooms. There’s a large dining room and several areas to store weapons, as well as a few empty rooms on the first level that still have no purpose.

It’s one of those rooms that has become our meeting place.

A long dining table and eight mismatched chairs are the only furniture.

I file into the room behind Jett, and find that Fox has beaten us there and is already sitting at the table. He raises his blonde head and nods at us in silent greeting.

Without waving back, Jett grimaces and sinks into the empty chair. After a moment he slumps forward and puts his head down on the table. I glance questioningly at Fox, who unsurprisingly says nothing.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” I ask, walking around the table to my usual seat. “I know you’re not this exhausted from flying back from the harbor—even if you did go faster than usual. What’s wrong with you?”

Jett lifts his head slightly to meet my eyes over his folded arms. “Do you have any idea how much sailors drink?”

I bark out a startled laugh, my memory immediately casting back to hearing the sounds of merriment coming from the deck of my father’s ship while I lay awake in bed wishing I was old enough to be included. “As it happens, I do.”

“Well, let’s just say I wouldn’t have been able to get half the information I gathered without hanging around the right taverns.”

“Did it ever occur to you to pretend to drink?”

Jett’s brow wrinkles. “No.”

I hide a smile. “Well, maybe next time it will.”

The door swings open and Alix walks in, clearly flustered.

It looks as if she went back to the house to change her clothes because she’s now dressed in a mishmash of Fae and human clothing, with a corseted top that looks to be from Ellender and a pair of stretchy leggings from the human realm.

Her long brown hair is pulled back in a messy ponytail and her smudged mascara has turned into a smokey ring around her eyes that looks almost intentional.

“I see you all wanted to get started right away too.” She looks around, seeming confused for the first time. “Where’s Kas?”

I don’t answer.

I also noticed that Kastian was missing the moment we entered the room. He’s usually the first one to these meetings—always the overly responsible golden boy—now, I can’t help but wonder what he’s doing.

The door opens again and I look up, expecting to see His Majesty . A biting comment is on the tip of my tongue, but it’s not Kastian. It’s Aurelia.

Like Alix, she’s also dressed in a mix of human and Fae clothing, with a purple gown and a gray hooded sweatshirt on top.

Her dark hair is tied back in a slightly messy braid, showing off the row of gold and silver hoops that decorate her pointed ears.

“Morning,” she yawns, blinking blurry eyes at us.

Alix reaches down the front of her corset and pulls out the large gold watch that Daemon gave her when she kept complaining that the time change between the human realm and Ellender was giving her something called “Jett’s lag.” She smiles at Aurelia. “It’s nearly 2:00 p.m.”

“Oh, is it?” Aurelia frowns. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve been working all night…and the morning too, I suppose.”

“Are you joining us for the meeting?” Alix asks.

Aurelia shrugs and sits down across from me, next to Fox. “I thought I might.”

“What have you been working on?” I ask.

“Weather,” she says cryptically, a spark of wicked excitement in her eyes.

Sometimes I forget that Aurelia and I are similar in age, and that she’s decades older than Alix. There’s something about her petite frame and excitable personality that gives the impression that she’s in her early twenties. Now, sitting next to tall and muscular Fox, she looks especially tiny.

Jett raises his head off the table. “What kind of weather? Controlling it, or…”

“That’s a dangerous idea,” Fox says flatly.

As always happens when Fox speaks, all eyes turn to him. He talks so little that everything he says holds so much more weight than it would otherwise.

“Why do you say that?” Aurelia asks.

He just shrugs, looking away from her. I frown. If anyone else reacted that way I’d assume there was something wrong, but with Fox’s silent nature it’s hard to tell.

Before anyone else can speak, the door opens for a third time and Daemon walks in. He stops in the doorway and looks around, his brow furrowing. “Where’s Kas?”

“I said the same thing,” Alix replies, gesturing for Daemon to sit down.

Daemon’s frown deepens. “I don’t want to have this conversation without him.”

“We won’t,” Alix soothes. “You said half an hour, it’s only been fifteen minutes.”

Daemon grumbles under his breath, but circles the table to sit down in his usual seat on the far end. Now, the only empty seat is Kastian’s.

A heavy silence blankets the room, interrupted only by the rhythmic tapping of my foot against the hardwood floor beneath the table.

Each tick of Alix’s pocket watch sounds deafening.

My fingers drum on the edge of the table, each tap echoing my growing frustration.

The heat of impatience crawls up my neck.

Finally, unable to bear it any longer, I swivel in my chair to face Daemon, my voice slicing through the quiet like a knife. “Are you really going to make me wait for him? This meeting is supposed to be about me, isn’t it?”

Daemon’s brows knit together, casting a shadow over his eyes as his lips press into a thin line. He lets out a deep, resigned sigh. “Fine. Hydratta has sent several letters through courtiers and from the king himself. They’re interested in meeting you.”

“And by ‘meeting me’ you mean they want to organize an engagement.”

“Yes,” Daemon says flatly.

I narrow my eyes. “And you didn’t think this was worth mentioning to me? How long have you known?”

He flinches. “The first explicit mention of a marriage contract came about two months ago.”

“You should have told me!” I snap, my temper rising.

“Well I see that now, ” he admits, and has the decency to look guilty. “I didn’t think it mattered because obviously it’s not going to fucking happen.”

“Here’s what I don’t understand,” Jett chimes in. “This king wants to marry you without ever meeting you?”

“You say that like it’s unheard of,” Daemon grumbles.

“For me it is,” Jett replies, a hint of his usual light heartedness in his tone. “The rest of you might have grown up royal, but I’m just a street rat. I don’t know shit about royal marriage customs.”

Alix throws him a sympathetic look. “I don’t get it either.”

“It’s not unheard of for a king to send emissaries to screen brides for him,” I chime in warily. “And, not that it matters but I have actually met him before. Once.”

“Wait, when was this?” Alix asks, glancing between Daemon and I in confusion.

I bite my lip. “Around a century ago?”

“And you were there too?” Alix asks Daemon. “You never mentioned that.”

He runs a hand over the back of his head looking flustered. “I didn’t know they’d ever met. Maybe I forgot, it was a long time ago, before Magnus Von Bargen was king and…fuck,” he breaks off, glancing angrily at the door. “Where the hell is Kastian? I don’t want to be the one to explain this.”

I frown and sink back into my chair, feeling slightly guilty.

Daemon didn’t forget anything. He doesn’t remember that I met Magnus because I’m lying. We never met directly, but I can’t explain what really happened. This is as much as I can say.

“I think the only important question here is do you want to marry the King of Hydratta?” Aurelia asks, her voice cutting through the uncomfortable silence at the table. I jump, startled as much by her voice as her question. Suddenly all eyes are on me and they’re waiting for me to answer.

“No!” I blurt out. “Of course not. I don’t know why he would choose me.”

The silence presses on, and finally Jett breaks it. He grins at me and gestures at my face. “Come on Dessa, you know why.”

My cheeks heat. “That’s not it. Anyway, I’m not… unusually beautiful.” I internally cringe.

Alix snorts. “Oh, please.”

“I’m not!”

I absolutely hate this topic. There’s no polite way to talk about it without sounding conceited, and I despise talking about it in the first place.

Even when I asked Kastian why anyone would bother kidnapping me and he said “Besides the obvious?” I would have been happy for the earth to open and swallow me.

At least he’s not here now, that would make this all so much worse.

“All sirens look like me on land,” I add, trying to take the focus off me.

“Yeah, but you should see them in the water.” Jett gives an affected shudder. “It’s nightmare fuel. No offense, Dessa.”

The corners of my mouth tip up. “None taken.”