Page 36 of Winds of Darkness

“Is this about the supposed war again?” Renly asked, and while he tried to hide it, she heard the faint exasperation in his tone.

Most people eventually ended up with that tone when conversing with her.

But the Water Prince hadn’t.

If anything,shehad carried that tone before she’d left.

“Princess?”

“Yes?” she asked, bringing her focus back to Renly.

“We have looked into these supposed warnings numerous times. Nothing has ever come of them. You know this,” he said.

“And yet the winds still speak of them.”

“The winds know everything and nothing,” he said. “You tell me that all the time.”

Her fingers curled into the skirt of her gown, and the texture of the material gave her something to focus on. “They are rarely this relentless,” she finally answered.

Renly nodded, seeming to mull this over, before he spoke again. “We understand the winds can be prophetic, and we trust you to relay important whispers from them. But you must, in turn, trust us to help you decipher them. Ermir and Sion did so for your mother; let us help you as they did her.”

Guilt turned her stomach, and she reached up, tucking her hairbehind her arched ear. She offered him an apologetic smile. “Of course I trust you all.”

“We take what you bring to us seriously. Truly you know that?”

“Of course.”

“We do not simply brush aside your concerns.”

“I understand.”

His brow furrowed, and he swiped a hand through his hair, pushing out a harsh breath. “Perhaps you should dine with us tonight. We can all discuss your concerns—”

“To what end?” she interrupted.

“I do not understand,” he ventured, eyeing her as a gust of air blew through the vacant hallway.

“Each time my concerns are investigated, they come back as unfounded,” she replied, turning and continuing on her way to the catacombs.

“We are not simply dismissing them,” Renly argued, easily catching up to her with his long strides.

“That is not what I am implying.”

“Then come discuss this with us at dinner, Princess,” he said again.

She forced herself to halt once more.

Blood will spill.

She may be too late.

The ones across the sea know. Go there.

Go there.

Go there!

I can’t go there,she retorted.No one can go there.