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K ing Arlous slumped into the chair behind his desk, posture defeated. “Three more ships have been sacked by pirates. We’ll lose our contract with Brushwold by fall at this rate.”

Teryn’s stomach plummeted at his father’s words, although he wasn’t sure how much farther it could sink. Today was the official start of the Heart’s Hunt. A week had passed since the Beltane festival, and he was now back home at Dermaine Palace. In the week since his meeting with the princes in the garden, he’d exchanged only a few brief correspondences with Prince Helios, the latest of which directed Teryn to meet him and Lex at a certain inn by nightfall. That meant Teryn had but an hour to spare before departing. A prospect that had his nerves pressed in a vise. There was still a chance Helios’ offer of alliance had been a ruse. Tonight’s meeting could end in sabotage.

Arlous rubbed his brow, as if that were enough to erase his worries. Then, with a forced smile that didn’t match the vacant look in his eyes, the king reached for a decanter on his desk. He poured a generous finger of amber liquid into two glasses and handed one to Teryn. “Let’s share a drink. You didn’t come here to listen to my woes. You came to bid me farewell.”

Teryn accepted the glass and took a long pull. The burning warmth of the strong spirit was a welcome distraction from his anxiety. “As heir to the crown, your woes are mine to bear.”

His father winced. “I failed you, Teryn. I promised to find information on unicorns and have nothing of value to give.” He lifted one of the letters haphazardly strewn upon his desk. “One informant wrote to me with vague rumors about unicorn sightings up north. Like that’s supposed to mean anything. North where? Northern Menah? North as in Khero? Northern Risa?” With a huff, he took up another letter. “This one might as well be blank for all it’s worth.” Another letter. “Same goes for this one.” He crumpled it in his hand and tossed it toward his waste bin. It missed by several inches, which made King Arlous throw back the rest of his drink and pour another. “I’m being outbid, that’s what’s happening. I can’t afford my own spies.”

Teryn didn’t know what to say to that so he took another pull from his drink. His eyes wandered over the king’s desk. The letters his father had referred to appeared useless indeed, considering how brief they were. His father’s frustration was his own, for that was how every correspondence from Helios had been this week. And Teryn was supposed to trust the man.

King Arlous finished his second drink and began gathering up the discarded letters. He fumbled and lost half the stack to the desk, proving he’d already been well into his cups by the time Teryn had arrived at the king’s study to say goodbye.

The topmost sheet caught Teryn’s eye. He leaned forward squinting at it. “What’s that?”

Arlous lifted the page in question, then handed it to his son.

Teryn assessed it closer, finding a portrait of a beautiful young woman beneath the word Wanted . He nearly dropped his drink when his gaze landed on the sum at the bottom of the page. “Five hundred thousand sovas ?” It was enough to repay the Bank of Cartha and still have money to spare. “Who is she?”

The king left his desk and stood at his window. The morning was gray and heavy with fog, obscuring the view of the palace gates and the rolling hills behind it.

“A wild goose chase,” Arlous muttered. “An informant brought me the poster, but no one has been able to deliver anything else on the girl since. Not her name. Not her age. Not her last seen whereabouts. All we know is that she poisoned Queen Linette and Princess Aveline. It is common knowledge that the crimes were committed by one of the queen’s maids, but the murders occurred six years ago. If that’s what she looked like then, she could look far different now.”

Teryn studied the girl again. Her expression had been rendered neutral, her eyes small and slightly angled, her hair dark and lustrous. She didn’t look like a murderer. He returned the paper to the desk. “How long have you been seeking her?”

The king shrugged. “A few months now. I’ve been seeking an alliance with King Dimetreus for far longer, but he responds to nothing. This, I thought, could grant me both a formidable alliance and the funds to repay Cartha. I have nothing else to offer him. Your sisters are too young to marry.”

Teryn’s heart clenched at the mention of his three younger sisters. His father rarely spoke of them. Teryn only ever saw them anymore if he visited his mother’s palace.

“If I could catch this outlaw,” King Arlous said, “we’d have everything. Paying back the Bank of Cartha would allow us to set everything else to rights. Our trade with Brushwold would thrive. We’d never again be slighted by Selay. Verdian wouldn’t dare put off your marriage to the princess any longer, knowing we had the funds to threaten war.”

Teryn shifted in his seat, uneasy at the talk of war. His kingdom had already been on the receiving end of such a threat when Arlous attempted to dissolve his marriage to Teryn’s mother. That was enough experience to last Teryn a lifetime. “Don’t worry, Father, we’ll have the princess’ dowry before the next ship leaves Brushwold’s shores.” His tone was confident, but he knew his expression didn’t match.

King Arlous turned away from the window and frowned at his son. When he spoke, his voice was uncharacteristically soft. Quavering. “I’m so sorry, Teryn. I don’t say it to you enough because I can’t regret what I tried to do for Annabel. I love her. You must know that.”

“I do,” Teryn said, although he didn’t consider it a virtue on his father’s part.

The king returned to his desk and braced his hands on the tabletop, his head slumped with defeat. “This burden you must bear…I fear it will only leave you a younger version of me, trapped in a loveless marriage.” Teryn bristled at that, but Arlous rushed to add, “That’s nothing on your mother, son. She’s a good woman. I respect her.”

Teryn pursed his lips to keep from scoffing. How could his father claim to respect the woman he’d once dragged through scandal? Arlous had tried to annul his marriage to the queen by accusing her of infidelity. He’d claimed she’d been intimate with his late brother before his untimely death, which meant his marriage could never be considered valid in the eyes of the seven gods. Teryn had a hunch his father’s actions had more to do with the fact that his mother bore only girls after Teryn while Annabel had birthed two more boys after Larylis.

“I can’t take it all back,” King Arlous said. “Nor can I stop hating myself for what I’m doing to you.”

He met his father’s eyes, saw the remorse in them, and found his own resentment softening. Even with everything the king had done, Teryn’s father did love him. More admirable than that was Arlous’ standing with the people of Menah. Teryn wasn’t sure how many other monarchs could try to depose their queen without inciting massive rebellion. Instead, King Arlous had the people’s sympathies, thanks to Annabel’s popularity with the common folk. He was certain, however, that a lot of that support would disappear if Menah’s poverty were more apparent in the day-to-day workings of the kingdom. For now, the king put the people first, ensured they had jobs, food, and homes while pirates ate into Menah’s profits and sent the crown’s coffers deeper into the negatives. Soon, the king wouldn’t be able to keep the kingdom afloat without inflicting suffering upon their citizens.

Teryn had to make sure that never happened.

“I wish you didn’t have to marry that woman, Teryn. I wish you didn’t have to take my failures upon your shoulders.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Teryn said. “I’ll win the Heart’s Hunt. I’ll fulfill my duties.”

The king pushed off from his desk with a growl of frustration. “I wish you didn’t have to do it alone. That fool girl.”

“I won’t be alone.” He didn’t elaborate further than that. Helios’ letters may have been brief, but he hadn’t failed to stress the importance of keeping their alliance a secret.

Arlous assessed Teryn with a keen gaze. “Good. I don’t care what you have to do, what rules of hers you have to break. Hire a hunting party. Buy the pelt and horn. She won’t know a difference.”

Teryn threw back the rest of his drink and set the empty glass on the desk. “I must leave soon. I should say goodbye to Larylis.”

Arlous nodded. “Safe travels, son. Send Berol with word now and then.”

“I will.” He turned his back on his father, hoping that the next time they saw each other, they’d both have reasons to smile.

Teryn knew exactly where to find his brother. Sure enough, as he opened the doors to the palace library, Larylis was hunched over a stack of books. It wasn’t an unusual sight, as Larylis frequented the library as often as his own bedroom, either poring over poetry, historical texts, or the latest novel. But ever since they arrived home from Verlot Palace, Larylis had spent nearly every waking hour in books. Teryn knew what held his brother’s fascination. Knew his extra time in the library was spent on Teryn’s behalf.

He approached the table his brother occupied. Larylis didn’t bother looking up from the paper he was furiously scrawling something on. “Don’t get your hopes up,” Larylis muttered. “Everything I’ve written down is rubbish.”

Teryn chuckled and looked over his brother’s shoulder. Several stacks of books surrounded him, as well as crumpled bits of loose parchment covered in scratched-out notes or angry-looking blotches of black ink. A book lay open at his elbow, which must have been what he was currently taking notes from. Teryn scanned the wall of text in the book. At the bottom was a black-and-white illustration of a unicorn laying next to a young girl with flowers in her hair. The creature’s head was in her lap, round eyes staring adoringly up at the girl. Four pixies fluttered around them. Teryn turned his attention to the sheet of paper Larylis was writing on. It contained half a page of brief notations, one which read, According to one faerytale, unicorns are drawn to virgins. Weird. Why?

“Virgins?” Teryn said.

“I told you it was all rubbish. You’ll see another line about a faerytale where a fae queen had six lovers and two pet unicorns. Obviously, the virgin thing is a myth.” He finished writing his latest note and leaned back in his chair with a grumbling sigh. “That’s the last book on unicorns I’ve found.”

“I told you that you didn’t have to do this.”

“And I told you there was nothing you could do to stop me.”

Teryn grinned at that. They were similarly stubborn. He supposed they both inherited the trait from their father. “Aside from pure rubbish, did you at least read anything interesting?”

Larylis shrugged. “Faerytales, mostly. The only scientific texts I found on unicorns stated they haven’t been seen in over five hundred years. Our scholars are obviously behind on their records.”

Teryn’s own recent research—albeit far less thorough than his brother’s—had revealed the same. It made no sense. How could an entire species come back after almost five hundred years of extinction? There was a part of him that still held doubts that unicorns were real. Then he’d recall Helios’ strange blade. It had been rather convincing in the moment, but…could he have been fooled? To what end?

“You haven’t read anything about hunting them, by any chance, have you? Dehorning them? Skinning them?” Helios had suggested there was some special method only he knew, but Teryn was uncertain how much of that had been posturing. “Found any maps suggesting where they can be found?”

“No,” Larylis said as he reached for a book in the middle of one of his stacks, “although, I found a map in a book that mentions unicorns. I don’t think it’s of here, though. It talks about Lela at the end of the book, but the map says Le’Lana.”

That piqued Teryn’s curiosity. Lela was the original name for the portion of land that was now divided into three kingdoms—Menah, Selay, and Khero. Even though the land was part of the continent of Risa, there was much lore regarding Lela and its origins. Most tales insisted Lela hadn’t always been part of the continent, that one day the city of Delany was the southernmost point of Risa, and the next the coast had sprouted an entirely new portion of land. Teryn had always enjoyed tales about how Lela had risen from the ocean or formed from mist. Other stories claimed the land had always been there, hidden behind a magical veil. He didn’t believe any of those tales, but they never ceased to fascinate him.

Larylis handed him a book. “The map is in this one.”

Teryn gathered it up, assessing the worn brown leather cover embossed with a simple gold title that read: The Once and Former Magic of Ancient Lela . He flipped open the cover and thumbed past the title page until he spotted the map Larylis had mentioned. It displayed an enormous land labeled Le’Lana and was marked by numerous rivers, forests, mountains, lakes, and streams. As interesting as it was to study, it didn’t resemble Lela at all.

“Told you,” Larylis said with a crooked grin. “Rubbish. I won’t be offended if you’d rather not burden your saddlebags with my useless notes.”

Teryn handed the book back and traded it for his brother’s notes. “I’ll take it. It’ll remind me of home while I’m gone.”

“You mean, rubbish notes to remind you of our rubbish kingdom that’s about to be sunk by pirates?”

Teryn landed a playful punch on his brother’s arm. “Exactly.”

Larylis laughed but his mirth quickly fell away. “I feel like I should be going with you.”

“I feel like you should too, but you heard the princess’ terms. She wants her champions working alone. Besides, you’re needed here. You’ll have to carry the mantle of prince while I’m gone.”

Larylis huffed a dark laugh. “You and I both know that isn’t true. A bastard cannot be a prince.” His expression fell, reminding Teryn of how he’d looked the day of the Beltane festival. That, of course, only served to recall what Larylis had said about having kissed Mareleau. He’d claimed not to have feelings for her, but Teryn couldn’t help wondering…

As if Larylis knew exactly who’d sprung to Teryn’s mind, he said, “Don’t get yourself killed for that thorny harpy, all right?”

Teryn lifted a brow. “You clearly have no faith in my hunting skills.”

“Oh, I have faith in your hunting skills,” Larylis said as he rose from his seat. “It’s sleeping in the dirt for nights on end that will be your downfall.”

“Who says I won’t be sleeping at an inn every night?” he said in jest.

Larylis squeezed Teryn’s shoulder with a mock pout. “Aw, that’s adorable. Looks like you’ll need my notes after all.”

Teryn returned the squeeze and left the library. His conversation with Larylis had momentarily lifted his spirits, but now his stomach was sinking back into its familiar state of dread. There was no denying it any longer.

It was time for the Heart’s Hunt to begin.