Page 151 of Reign of Stars and Fire

Subtle, but I knew what he meant. It was Ari’s way of asking if I had any thoughts that needed sharing.

Yes, but I don’t know what to think of it. I shook my head. “Nothing important. I just . . . I don’t know, I feel like I need to check up on the Row.”

When Mira shrieked after a chirping insect landed on her head, she sprinted off toward the two green-eyed boys laughing and pointing. Until vines and tendrils of grass wrapped around their ankles.

Jonas and Sander were yanked to the ground.

“Livia!” Jonas flailed about, his squeaky boyish voice echoed over the hillside. From behind a mound on the hill, Livia and Aleksi sprinted toward the trees, snickering. The cursed king was an earth bender, but his daughter, all I knew to call her was an earth amplifier. She healed it, even damn near spoke to it like Saga.

Mira hopped onto Jonas Eriksson’s snared body and let a string of spittle dangle precariously over his face. “Yield?”

“Never!” he shouted. “I’mma give youso manynightmares, Mira.”

The youngest of the royals, still, Mira held her own. “Only if Sandy helps you, and I gave him all my iced cakes last week. He’s on my side.”

Jonas cursed his brother, until Sander insisted he wasn’t loyal to anyone and he wouldn’t pick between them.

“I’ve never been so proud,” Ari said, watching the battle unfold.

“As you should be. Jonas begins things, and one day he’ll learn to finish them.”

The other royals, accustomed to the antics, strode past, ignoring the littles as they aimed for the docks.

Ari nudged my ribs. “I feel it too, you know.”

“Feel what?”

“The pressure.” He pounded a fist to his heart. “The shift of danger and peace. The same feeling I got before I touched that moonvane in the North and flung myself in the path of a long-dead king. The same feeling I had when I saw the Nightrender without a thought for who he once was. It was the feeling I had when I discovered I’d fallen in love with my raven.

“A pressure that builds, that lifts the hair on the neck. Like something will change. Soon. Distant. I don’t know. But it is there, and I cannot help but wonder if you are leaving because you feel the same.”

“I have not ceased feeling that way since he fell into the sea,” I told him, then grinned. “I’m leaving, but I will return. It’s been . . . nearly ten turns since he left. I want to be near him again in our old tenement. You understand, right? There was a part of me there, and I don’t even know how I got there. I want to see if I can find out.”

Ari gripped my shoulder with affection. “All right. I’m going to say what I always say . . .”

“If I ever have a thought on this . . .fate boyyou saw, I shall tell you.” I rolled my eyes, but only to hide the flinch. “Have you ever considered, Golden King, that it was all me back then?”

“Oh, dearest Cal, I’ve considered the most outrageous of things on our rather disappointing search for answers. But do tell me what you mean by that.”

“I mean, I sent you help during the fae sleep. We’ve established that I deserve all the credit.” I turned back to the bustle on the ship. “What if since I didn’t recall my past, I had to write another player in the story? Alas, your wraith was born. But if we could go back in the past, he would not truly exist.”

“So, you think the phantom leading me through the sleep was just a figment of your seidr?”

“After so long, I’d expect to find some evidence he existed.”

Ari tilted his head side to side, considering the idea. “I suppose it’s possible.”

“What’s possible?” Saga stepped onto the docks. She nestled against Ari’s side when the king opened one arm, holding her close.

“Cal thinks she wrote the phantom in the dream because she didn’t realize it was only her all along.”

Saga arched her brows. “It’s a thought, but even Annon mentioned a ‘him’, and I feel like I can almost remember a ward of the court, but it never fully shapes.”

“What about the bond your brother mentioned?” Elise joined us. “That’s what we’ve been trying to figure out all this time.”

“I’ve thought about that,” Saga said. “I think it was me and Cal since we are all that is left of House Ode, we are a first bond.”

“I agree.” I forced an awkward, too wide smile to bury the fears and questions and flurry of thoughts in my mind. I hugged her close. “I’ll be back.”