Chapter Twenty-Three

THE MORNING SUN HADN'T EVEN risen yet as I rushed behind Imani. Rune was right beside me, and his eyes were wild with emotions flashing too fast for me to read. Thankfully, the people of Morardia were still fast asleep, because something was off.

Imani had been alerted and sent to wake me up when some patrols noticed two figures lurking on the shores of the mainland. The strangers didn't make an attempt to announce themselves as Water Fae, and one patrol believed he saw Canine-like ears and tail on one of them. Believing them to be a possible Land Fae threat, they'd sent Imani to get me. I'd quickly thrown on sweatpants and a t-shirt to follow her back to Morardia's edge where the patrols still stood.

"Are they still there?" I asked the guards as soon as I made it to them.

One of the men there looked at me and answered, "Yes, Your Highness."

Rune, Imani, and I slowed as we got to the edge of the tide, and sure enough, far across the waters, I could see two figures cloaked in shadows looking our way. I took the telescope from one of the patrols and peered through it. The taller, bigger figure remained too far back in the darkness for me to make out any defining details, but everyone had a suspicion as to who was observing us during nightfall.

"You really think that's King Elias?" I asked everyone here.

"It's hard to say for sure, but I believe so," Imani answered.

I swallowed hard and studied the other figure. Also cloaked in shadows, it was hard to say who it was, but ice prickled my insides when I observed that slender figure with long hair that nearly brushed the ground, a fluffy tail draped behind them, and pointy ears atop their head.

"Is it her?" Rune mumbled beside me.

I inhaled a shaky breath and passed him the telescope. "I can't tell."

He quickly looked for himself, and his jaw tightened. When he'd heard Imani tell me about the lurking visitors, something almost instinctive told him his mom was there. He'd been determined to find out, but the still mostly dark morning prevented him from doing so.

I looked back across the ocean, and I raised my hand to at least offer a friendly wave so we didn't seem threatening. But just as I moved my hand up, the two figures slipped between the trees and vanished back through the Lylora Woods.

"What do you think they wanted?" one of the guards asked.

My mouth was suddenly dry, and it took me multiple attempts to finally speak. "To see for themselves if we were really back or not."

"What do you suppose they'll do now that they have their answer?" a girl questioned with a trace of worry.

I shook my head, but my eyes never left the shadows of the trees. "I don't know. Let's just make sure we keep guards posted along the shore, in case they come back."

Because if that really was Myra and Elias, that couldn't mean anything good.

ANOTHER PLUME OF SMOKE SENT Rune and me hurtling backward. I landed hard on my butt, which had to have been bruised by this point. It was only 10 a.m., yet I'd already been sent flying five times so far today. Rune's and my powers just kept blowing up in our faces.

"Why the fuck can't we get this right?" Rune roared as his fists erupted into angry flames. He stood across the room in a pair of gray sweatpants with his hair pulled back, and the muscles in his bare torso flexed as he tried to calm down.

I wiped the soot off my cheek and let out a defeated sigh. "We will. One day."

"But we don't have all the time in the world," Rune groaned. He wiped a tired hand over his face. "We have to do the Joining Ceremony in a month, and we're still no closer to having this last step figured out than when we started."

The reminder of the encroaching deadline sent my already frenzied nerves teetering on the edge of an all-out panic. I'd been wired since the appearance of the two figures this morning, and since then it had been crunch time. Jesiah quizzed us on policies before we resumed more of the Two Hearts Dance practice. Water Fae bustled about the palace since we'd hired so many for the different jobs required here, and it felt like everything had just been go , go , go all morning. The peace and bliss from last night felt like a long-forgotten dream with the sudden stress and pressure of today.

"Maybe we should take a break from the dance," Jesiah offered from where he'd been leaning against the wall of the underground training room with Angus. "Rune, you take a break there on the bench. Bria, you and I will work on your powers."

Steeling myself for another grueling session with Jesiah, I took my place in the center of the room while Jesiah walked over to the wall at my right, which housed a deep trough full of water. He stared down at his reflection and readjusted the tie holding his many braids back. He'd traded in his finer advisor clothes for his usual work-out attire—a black tank top and camo sweats.

"Firstly," Jesiah started. "I have news, albeit very little news, on that book you had Akira send to his acquaintance."

"Really? What n—"

Jesiah suddenly spun, throwing a shard of sharp ice at me. I immediately held my palm up, and with a firm mental hold, the ice froze midway to me. With my guidance, it melted back into water, dripping into a puddle on the ground between us.

Jesiah crossed his arms over his chest, and he smiled with pride. "Excellent reflex."

Adrenaline pumped through my veins, and my heart pounded furiously. The attack was so sudden, and I hadn't expected Jesiah to do it then. Though I should have. Every time we met for practice, he tried to catch me off guard and send some sort of attack my way. He was training my reflexes and abilities, but it was annoying . The random attacks always put me on edge, and it took me a while to resettle and let my guard down afterward. To make matters worse, I was already wound up. I didn't need more things thrown my way—figuratively or literally.

Lowering my arm, I forced a smile. "Thanks. Back to the news you mentioned."

"Right," Jesiah said as he came to face me in the middle of the room. "Like I said, it's not much. Kumar has only been able to decode a handful of words like, ‘life,' ‘water,' ‘death,' and ‘loved ones.' He doesn't know what the text says about any of those things or how they tie together, but he's working on it."

He wasn't joking. That really wasn't much. Disappointment swept over me, but I quickly tried to fight it. At least it was something . That was still more than we knew when I'd first found the book. It was just frustrating, because there was a reason the water wanted me to find that book.

I closed my eyes and massaged my temples. "It's progress at least. I hope—"

Something hard smacked into my gut, sending me flying backward. The wind left my body in an instant, and before I could find the ability to breathe again, I hit the floor hard on my back, rendering me immobile from the shockwaves of pain flaring up my body.

"Jesiah!" Rune snapped. He suddenly appeared beside me, reaching for me with gentle hands. "That was too rough."

"Too rough? That should've been easy to avoid. What have I said, Bria?" Jesiah reprimanded as he came to hover above Rune and me. "You have to keep your guard up at all times. What if I had been an enemy Fae, eager to take you down and sully your plans? I could've easily killed you just then because you weren't focused ."

Straining to inhale, I narrowed my eyes at him. "We're the only ones in the room. No one here wants me dead, so forgive me for allowing myself to get distracted."

Jesiah sighed. He grabbed my other arm, and he and Rune helped me to my feet. I swayed for a moment, but I quickly called water to me from the trough. It immediately engulfed me, and the moment it coated my skin, the pain in my back fizzled into a distant memory.

If only it could take my stress away, too.

I sent the water back to the trough, and Jesiah's brown eyes tracked it. When all was calm again, he met my eyes with an understanding look. "I know I'm being hard on you, but it's for your safety. Your powers are getting stronger, which is amazing, but what's the point if you don't use them? Every time we practice, you're always on the defensive, never offensive . You're going to have to learn to fight and attack when necessary."

Unease wound my shoulders tighter, and my stomach soured. "That's not who I am."

"No, it's not," Jesiah agreed firmly, his mouth flattening into a scowl that resembled Angus's, who stood quietly to the side. "But it's who you have to be. You are soon to be Queen. A leader. A fighter . I understand it's hard for you, but—"

"You don't understand," I snapped, backing away from him. I was suddenly feeling boxed in by Jesiah, Angus, and Rune. Something heavy fired through my veins as I grabbed at the ends of my ponytail and tugged. "You don't understand at all. I wasn't born and raised in this world. I wasn't trained to fight and kill. I wasn't brought up believing I was a fucking Queen with a thousand Fae relying on me!"

"Bria," Rune tried, but I barely heard him.

Everything sounded far away, muddled to my ears as my heart pounded and my chest heaved on breaths that didn't seem to come.

"I'm being thrown a hundred different things at once and being pulled a dozen different directions. I feel like I'm barely passing at being a Princess, and even at that , I feel like a phony. Everything is foreign to me. Everything is weighing me down. I just–I just—"

The air filling my lungs slipped out of reach. I was gasping, falling.

Everything went dark.

I was floating, drifting, moving. I was calm, peaceful, and light. I was …

I …