CHAPTER 10

Two long days, and equally drawn-out nights, had passed since I last spoke with the Nephilim, yet their words grew louder in my head. Perhaps it was because my dreams repeated them. Over and over, replaying the vision Gabrial had revealed to me. If I could’ve gotten sleep uninterrupted by the same repetitive nightmares, I may have been able to concentrate on other matters. Alas, I found no reprieve when my eyes closed.

The yawn racked my entire body. My mind sluggish and footing awkward, I stumbled into the crowd that dominated the main deck.

It was impossible to discern the time of day when impregnable clouds blanketed the sky with a multitude of greys and silvers. I only hoped the rain, which had held off this far, would leave us be. It wouldn’t be good for the morale of the sailors, finally preparing to embark on days’ worth of travel.

Today we would leave for Wychwood. It would’ve been sooner but Seraphine’s Asps had found fey stragglers in Lockinge and escorted them to us. I first didn’t leave because of the Nephilim, but was glad for the hesitancy because I still held out hope that Jesibel would be found and returned to me.

A hope that was quickly dwindling when every small boat arrived and she was not on it.

Seraphine had accepted the summons I sent for her only an hour ago. She surveyed every Cedarfall soldier that passed us with eyes narrowed in distrust. I quickly learned that unless you were putting money in her pocket, she wasn’t going to trust you. The assassin stood tall, both feet on the deck. Wisps of her thick hair caught in the wind, tugging free from the loose braid that snaked down her spine. She wore matching form-fitting trousers and a top made from the same cut of black material. It extenuated every length, curve and muscled mound of her body. The outfit was held together by a web of leather straps that concealed weapons in almost every place she could reach on her person. Perhaps her decoration of blade and steel was the reason no one seemed to approach her.

“How long ago did you get back?” I asked, my back pressing into the polished wooden railing that overlooked a drop into the dark azure of the ocean.

“Not too long ago. I didn’t think that I had to check in my every movement, Your Highness,” she replied, tone equal parts dry and distant. “Usually, my sponsors are not so suffocating.”

“Touchy. Sounds like you have had a long night,” I retorted, trying not to show how her tone chipped away at my ability to keep the poison from my tongue. “Are you annoyed at me for something, or more pissed that you came back empty-handed?”

“So, you heard?” Seraphine shot me a displeased look with a raised brow.

“I’ve learned gossip spreads quicker than scurvy on a ship,” I replied. “That, and I keep checking over the census, hoping more names are added to it.”

“Not the name you were hoping for I’m afraid.” Seraphine exhaled, neck clicking from either side as she continued watching the busy crew. “Lockinge is lost to bedlam. Humans enjoy the lack of authority in the city. The few Hunters who stayed have now fled. The humans’ king is nowhere to be found. I give it until nightfall, and the city will be lost to chaos that even Aldrick couldn’t grasp his hands back on.”

“Where have they all gone?” I asked, fighting the urge to chew on my already ruined nails.

“Called back to their master like good mutts.”

“Then we send people to follow the Hunters, find out where Aldrick is?”

Seraphine shot me a smile. “Already on it.”

“I knew I could trust you,” I said, wondering if she even cared.

Turns out she didn’t, as she replied, “You’re paying me well, what can I say, I am yours until the contract is complete.”

Which meant that when we landed back in Wychwood, Seraphine was no longer a crutch I could lean on.

“Don’t remind me, I might just cry. I’ve grown rather fond of your company,” I said, nudging her shoulder.

“I said you pay me well, but not enough to suffer through your sarcasm, King. It’s high time we get out of human waters, and back to familiar ground.”

“It didn’t feel right leaving without at least trying to find as many who ran as possible,” I said, reaching into the pockets of my trousers as though searching for something.

Seraphine shrugged. “A lesson in life is you can’t help them all. Trust me.”

“Then I’m wondering why you seem concerned about the humans and Lockinge?”

The corner of Seraphine’s red-stained lip turned upward. “Believe me, Robin, I couldn’t care less if the city burns to nothing but ash. But I understand the importance of balance, and it does not sit right with me that Aldrick has swept in behind a veil of lies and deceit, only to leave again with nothing but turmoil behind him. It has little to do with my care for the humans and everything to do with fixing the damage left by a common enemy.”

“Even if the humans don’t recognise Aldrick as that very thing, their enemy?”

“Oh, they will if he succeeds with his plans and the world becomes a playing field for a demon god,” Seraphine replied. The humour that had not long graced her expression melted into something darker.

“Do you think Aldrick knows about the Nephilim?” I asked, tipping my head to the quiet outlines of boats that waited across the landscape behind our fleet. Two days, and we’d heard nothing from them. I hadn’t seen nor had report of much activity from Rafaela and her fellow winged-human holy warriors. They had kept themselves quiet, but regardless of their silence, their presence was still felt. Even now, one glance across the sea, and their fleet still lingered.

“The Nephilim were never mentioned,” Seraphine added, stare glazing over in thought. “Not that there was much conversation when my sister and I aided him. From what I can say about Aldrick, he is one-dimensional. He has little ability to focus on anything but the task at hand. It has consumed him.”

I looked across the deck, eyes falling upon a familiar figure. Duncan moved among the crew, a large sack gathered on each of his shoulders. Extra supplies Seraphine had returned with.

The change in his body had been impressive. Now, he almost seemed stronger than before. Duncan’s health had improved dramatically. Each morning, he woke with more colour in his cheeks and more desperation in his touch.

He’d not yet noticed me, but my attention gravitated toward him naturally. Duncan was laughing at something a Cedarfall soldier had said. Perhaps they joked about how Duncan could carry twice the weight without showing a sign of struggle, whereas the soldier was practically dragging one sack across the deck like a stubborn child in the throes of a tantrum.

“I get the sense that Aldrick knows more than we think he does,” I replied. “We have underestimated him this far.”

“So you believe Aldrick knows about the Nephilim?” Seraphine asked, drawing me from my distraction.

“His timing is all too sudden. Aldrick showed no signs of completely abandoning Lockinge. Even we believed he would only leave long enough for us to have a small window to get in and out. For such a great fortress, I don’t understand the reasoning in his plans to leave it behind. Hardly protected at that. Unless he was running from something.”

I noticed Seraphine’s lips pinch into a pale line. Her brows drew downward, casting lines of concern across her forehead. “Speculation. I know everything he does. I would have known if he was preparing to flee.”

“Would you?” I asked, discouraged by her blatantly inflated ego. “Then give me an explanation that makes sense.”

“You haven’t paid me enough for explanations,” Seraphine retorted.

“Not this again.” I rolled my eyes. A sour taste pinched at the insides of my cheeks. What more could Seraphine have asked for in payment than what I had already given her? Just the thought of the price I had paid was enough to encourage a storm in my stomach.

“Someone is looking better though.” Seraphine changed the conversation abruptly. I believed she had the power to read my thoughts. “Amazing what sleep can do for the body after it nearly destroyed itself using power that doesn’t belong to it.”

“Yes,” I replied. “Thank Altar for sleep.”

Not that I could relate. I had very little of it.

“You know, I pity you, Robin.”

Her comment slapped my cheeks red. “Pardon?”

“What will the courts think of King Icethorn when he opens his home to Hunters and assassins?”

“Would you keep your voice down?” I hissed, eyes flickering around the deck for anyone who may have heard.

Seraphine delighted in my reaction, both corners of her lips turning up into the brightest of smiles. “You haven’t told him, have you?”

I turned my back on Duncan and faced Seraphine directly. I saw her gleeful expression and the outlines of the Nephilim’s ships far in the distance behind her. “There has not exactly been the time to discuss such things with Duncan. Not that it would matter to him. As you so put it, I am the Icethorn king. My decisions are mine solely to make.”

“Such an awfully long-winded way of saying no.”

“No, then. Happy?”

Seraphine took the end of her braid in her hand and twisted it around her fingers as she studied me. “And Althea, did you ask for her judgement before you signed into my deal? Nothing better than some royal advice when making a deal with the Asps. I know members of the Cedarfall family are well attuned to how we work. That, and I have Asps everywhere. They burrow into every nest, all but yours. Until now, of course.”

“Would you stop!” I hissed through gritted teeth.

“Robin, please let me watch when you tell them. I’d love to see their faces when you reveal what you gave us–”

The sky exploded with a thunderous crack. The force of the noise rocked the world. We were all awarded a moment of peace, trying to work out what had happened. But then the sound occurred again, this one far louder than the last. The boom burst within my ears, rocking my skull with the force. One moment I watched Seraphine’s smile grow, the next, my face was pressed against the damp floor of the ship’s deck with nothing but the crystal ringing filling my head.

I forced myself up, hands pressing against the slick wood, as more sprays of cold water rained upon me. Spread across the deck were bodies. Some were still, with wide eyes looking skyward. Others writhed across the ground, hands pressed to their ears or their mouths. It was strange to watch someone scream without a sound. I focused on a soldier closest to me. His lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear anything above the ringing in my skull.

In a stupor, I sat myself up. Lifting my hands to my ears, I felt warmth. When I pulled them back, the tips of my fingers were coated in blood. The ruby glistened like jewels against my ivory skin. Rivers of it raced down my hand, circling my wrist before dripping upon my wet trousers.

Suddenly, two firm hands gripped my shoulders. I was aware of the touch before my mind could provide me with the command to look up.

Duncan knelt before me. His pale lips were moving, but I couldn’t hear him. Not clearly, at least. I narrowed my gaze on his mouth and could hear a faint but muffled barrage of words. They seemed to be buried so deep beneath the incessant ringing that I could hardly focus enough to understand.

I almost laughed. The feeling was strange, but it seemed easier to give in to deliria and laugh at my confused state instead of allowing panic to overwhelm me.

Something beyond me, somewhere in the distance, caught Duncan’s attention. He looked up to the sky, falling back away from me. I watched as the horror crept across his expression, his mouth gaping open in a silent scream, his eyes unblinking.

It was his reaction that tore me from my feverish state.

I followed his line of sight and looked up. Far above us, a wave of obsidian cloud rumbled across the sky with momentum that shouldn’t have been possible. No storm moved so swiftly, devouring light as if it fed on it. Billowing and monstrous, the cloud passed overhead and moved toward Lockinge. It cast a shadow across the ground.

The ringing in my ears calmed. Another sound replaced it.

“What is…” I began, swallowing my words as the Nephilim joined the view with their wings outstretched, in contrast to the dark state of the sky. I blinked, capturing the image in my mind like a painting.

Rafaela took the lead of the flock, slicing in an arc toward our ship, which the rest of her kind followed. Even from a distance, I felt her stare upon the place I sat slouched. She held her golden hammer between two powerful hands, ready to use it.

“Robin, we need to get everyone off the deck,” Duncan said, although more a command. Panic edged beneath each word, still muffled but now clear enough to make sense. He knelt before me once again, his entire focus on me. His verdant eyes flickered between the dripping blood from my ear to my red-stained fingers on my lap.

“What happened?” I replied, breath caught in the back of my throat.

Duncan traced his hand across my face. His touch felt cold. I recognised a slight tremble in his fingers. “Nothing good if they are coming.”

I winced as Rafaela was suddenly in the air above us. She buffeted her wings, slowing her descent before her boots smashed onto the deck.

“Are you well, Robin Icethorn?” Rafaela strode forward, offering me a hand. I caught her eyes flickering toward the blood that dribbled out of my ears. Her attention lingered on it only for a moment, genuine concern etched across her face.

“Been better,” I replied, contemplating taking her hand or not. My decision was made for me when she retreated. “I get the impression you know what caused that.”

Rafaela nodded ever so slightly, biting down on her lower lip before responding. “I think it best you see to yourself and your people, and then we discuss matters in a place without an audience.”

“Can we wait for answers?” Duncan asked, annoyance rolling off him. “Seems something that dramatic needs an explanation immediately.”

I tried to catch my breath as it suddenly felt as though it had tried to escape from me. Panic clawed its way down my throat and made its presence known among my bones and blood.

“Something terrible has happened.” Rafaela said. “Nothing good will come of speaking about it and causing hysteria to spread among your people.”

“No shit,” Seraphine groaned. Until now, among the chaos, I had forgotten about her. She was hunched over at Rafaela’s side, shadowed by the proud wings. Red leaked from the corner of her mouth, only visible for a second before Seraphine cleared it with the back of her hand.

“Where is Althea Cedarfall?” Rafaela asked, ignoring Seraphine’s glower.

I pressed my fingers to my temple, trying to calm the thudding that had overcome me. “She… she was on another ship with Kayne–”

Rafaela was airborne before I could finish. Duncan raised an arm against the force of wind her wings conjured. I turned my face into his chest, pinching my eyes closed. One moment she was there, the next, her outline fading across the sea of Cedarfall ships in search of Althea.

Something about her sudden, desperate departure only fuelled my worry. I pushed myself from Duncan’s embrace and moved for the railing to follow Rafaela’s flight. “If something has happened to Althea…”

“She’ll be fine,” Seraphine replied out of the corner of her mouth. “It is best you show those watching that you are calm too. There is nothing more detrimental to leadership than allowing panic to seep beyond your own control. Deep breath, turn and face them, and show that everything is in order.”

She was right. All eyes were on me, and I quickly sensed the mask of king returning to its place upon my face.

“What if it isn’t?” I said out the corner of my mouth, gripping onto the railing for support.

“Until Rafaela returns, we will not know exactly what has happened,” Duncan added, laying a hand on my shoulder and squeezing.

I looked between them both, unable to stop myself from speaking aloud what my mind had already made up.

“Aldrick.” I spoke his name as though it was the most disgusting thing to grace my lips. “This is his doing. It has to be.”

Seraphine looked out across the sea toward Lockinge and the rolling dark wave that had thinned into what looked more like mundane storm clouds.

Duncan didn’t offer me a lie to douse the flames of panic within me. But he also didn’t shy away from my gaze, instead greeting it with haunting defeat. “I think he found what he was looking for.”

“A key?” Seraphine spat. “How could he find something when we don’t even know what it is yet?”

Something that the Nephilim had said repeated in my mind as though Seraphine’s comment had dredged it from the deepest parts of my subconscious.

“Not what,” I said, fighting the urge to empty the contents of my stomach into the ocean beneath me. I had to be strong, if not for myself, but every fey watching for me to lead. “But who?”