Page 71 of Hymn of Breath and Bone

But another part of me knew that his fears were not entirely his own—that the fears of his father and grandfather before him, and the prejudice of five centuries of distrust and lost history, were to blame for his refusal.

I just needed a way to get him to see reason somehow. To believe that my mind was my own and that Caspian was a different kind of Siren King than his father. Thatwecould bebetter, if we could only learn to trust one another.

A scraping at the window tore me from my thoughts. Without a solid plan, I grabbed the heaviest object I could reach—a candelabra wrought from mother-of-pearl—and held it above my head.

A face peered in at me through the darkness. A face with brown hair and a cheeky grin.

“Astraios?”

I put down the candelabra and threw a wall of wind at the door behind me, hoping both to keep it shut and block the sound from any interested guards who might be posted outside. Just in case it didn’t, I coughed loudly as I unlatched the window.

Sereia fell into the bedroom, followed by Astraios and a miniature downpouring of rain.

“Seas below, how did you get here?” I whispered, throwing my arms around my silver-haired friend.

Sereia hugged me back, wet and shivering but otherwise whole. I grabbed a seal skin to throw around her as Astraios shook water from his feathers, leaving great big puddles all over the stone floor.

“What, no hug for me?” he teased, wringing water from his hair.

Sereia and I shushed him in unison, and he gave us a bemused smile.

“You get a hug when you’ve explained,” I replied in a whisper, settling Sereia into the bed with another blanket around her. “How in the great sea are you here?”

“Well, you can thank your bloody kelpies for that,” Astraios murmured, giving Sereia a quick once-over before deciding she was warm enough.

“The kelpies?” I asked, looking around as if Ran might be hiding behind Astraios’ wings.

Phyll’s words came back to me then, when I had asked him where Rannoch was.

He is readying his herd.

“They wouldn’t leave us alone,” Sereia added, teeth chattering faintly and voice low. “About six hours after we parted ways, they appeared in Nordhavn stamping and whinnying.”

“Practically herded us toward the sea,” Astraios agreed, sitting next to Sereia on the bed. “We couldn’t speak with them, of course, since we don’t have your fancy goddess magic, but they were so insistent that we didn’t have much of a choice but to join them.”

“Seas, I love those kelpies,” I sighed, thinking of how Caspian would roll his eyes when I told him the kelpies saved him. “But wait…what about the Nordhavn selkies?” I’d been counting on their arrival to help bolster my arguments with my people,but if they didn’t come…

“Marella took charge of them,” Astraios replied. “The kelpies were water-logging her house, so she sent us away with them. Promised to follow.”

“How will she know to come here?” I asked. “You were supposed to sail south.”

“I have a strong feeling the kelpies have thought of that.” Astraios grinned as he threw an arm around Sereia to warm her. “I assume we’re here to rescue you? I can’t think of another reason your horsey friends would be so insistent.”

I sent out a prayer of thanks to the sea, who replied with that same impatient command to wait. I sent my awareness out and sensed the rushing forms of sea dragons swimming this way, as well as a burbling herd of kelpies at the shore, far enough away from the keep to not be seen.

The storm, it seemed, was a bit of a blessing after all. It hid Astraios and Sereia’s flight here, and it kept the kelpies hidden now.

“Yes,” I replied, relaying the story of our capture quickly and quietly while I mentally took stock of the tools at my disposal. I had the sea, although she was still busy and distracted. I had a small army of magical creatures on the way. I had Sereia, who knew the castle, and Astraios, who had a working pair of wings. “We need to get to the dungeons. Caspian and Zephyr are to be executed at dawn.”

“Fuck,” Astraios snarled, grin fading to something more menacing. He stood, shaking his wings once more. “Through the castle, or over it?”

“Over it. There are guards outside and throughout the dungeons.”

“How will we get them out if they’re constantly guarded?” Sereia asked, looking terrified at the idea.

“They’re guarded from the inside,” I replied, thinking quickly. “But not from the outside. I think I can sneak in through the same openings Caspian used to sneak me out.”

“Won’t your father have them guarded?” Astraios asked.