Page 167 of The Stolen Throne
“I had my father to help me.”
I snort a laugh. “I can see him being a wonderful help with all things emotions.”
A statement that actually draws a chuckle from her. “There is that.” Then she sobers. “At least I was allowed to use my power, unlike you. Learn it. Practice it. I didn’t have to keep it secret.”
I’m not sure who told her about that, but after a beat, I nod. A sort of silent thanks that she’d acknowledge that I didn’t exactly have it easy, either.
“You’re important to him. Special.” Her words drop between us softly.
She’s talking about Reven. I don’t even have to ask. “I know that.”
“You should know it.”
“I do. This situation we’re in…” I roll to my side, tucking my hands up under my cheek, and sigh. “It’s impossible.”
“But maybe…” She scrunches up her face as she appears to think through her words. “Maybe it’s more impossible if you’re both fighting your feelings and the world at the same time.”
I stare at her long enough that her cheeks flare with color. On what might actually be an embarrassed huff, she flips over so her back is to me. “It’s up to you to figure it out.”
I wasn’t the one keeping us apart in the first place. “We will.”
“Good for you.”
For some reason, her snappy return makes me grin. “Still don’t like me?”
“Nope.”
But there’s an answering grin in her voice, so I chuckle. “Yeah. Me neither.”
71
The Maw of
Death
Cain, Horus, Bene and I are dead tired despite the fact that our journey thus far has been uneventful. It’s just been…a lot. Too bad we couldn’t have shadowed or portaled all the way there. That would have been so much faster.
Instead, we traveled via portal to Sentium, the capital city of Mariana.
The place is snowed over. Tyndra’s creeping winter has definitely done a number on this dominion. All of the land is covered in deep drifts of snow, and chunks of ice float in the waters. I know because Bene flew us across the entire breadth of the dominion, over the massive Bay of Intellect. For a place that is supposed to be balmy, it’s a shocking sight.
All because the Goddess Tyndra isn’t here to control the protective weather she set up around her dominion to keep her people safe from her consort Devourer in the sea.
Maybe we should release the goddesses.
But that’s a debate for another day. First, we have to get all the amulets.
We didn’t want to alert the Reverie to our presence, and another Devourer flying overhead would do that, which is why we flew to the small town of Bilen nearby. There, Horus procured us this ride along the coast to the closest anyone from Mariana gets to the Whirlpool.
Cain, Horus, and I sit at the front of the boat. Bene lays in the bottom, shrunk down to his dog-size form and getting lots of wary looks from the boatman. The wind takes our vessel swiftly across the top corner of the bay. The way this boat is designed, riding high on the water as though barely skimming across the top, allows it to move at incredible speeds. Sure, I’m getting bounced around and have to shout to be heard, and freezing cold sea water, salty and stinging, is spraying up into my face, stealing my breath and coating me in a fine layer of frost. I was already cold from the flying, by the way.
But we’ll make it to the Whirlpool by twilight.
I can thaw again after we’re done with this.
“Come here.” Cain suddenly tugs me closer and wraps his arms around me.
“I’m f-f-fine,” I mutter into his chest. My chattering teeth make a liar out of me, though.
