“Thank you.” Tamil eyed my foot as I toed my slipper back on. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your swim. I was passing by when I saw you, and thought I’d take a minute to talk to you before the other clan heads get their grubby hands on you.” She took a step back. “I’ll see you at the feast tonight.”
“Wait.” I said as she started to turn away. “Stay a minute.”
Tamil paused. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” I sat down in the grass by the lake and skimmed my fingers across the surface—a piss-poor compromise, but it would have to do. Touching the water didn’t remove the hunger pangs the way it did when I fully submerged myself, but it did take the edge off, allowing me to think more clearly. “You were the only fae at the council meeting who didn’t judge or belittle me for my ignorance and lack of noble upbringing.”
Tamil rolled her eyes. “The other clan heads are blinded by centuries of tradition,” she said as she sat down next to Adara. The wind shifted, bringing Adara a whiff of Tamil’s scent. She smelled of forest pines and freshly fallen snow, and Adara couldn't help but find the scent relaxing. “They’re too stupid to realize a diamond in the rough when they see one.”
I blinked. “I’ve been called a lot of things in my life, but ‘diamond in the rough’ isn’t one of them.”
Tamil chuckled, drawing circles in the water with her hand. Crystals of ice formed across the surface of the lake in the wake of her fingers, spiral patterns that seemed both random and intentional all at once. “You may be untrained and uneducated in the way of politics and court life, but there’s no doubt that the royal bloodline flows in you. You defeated King Aolis in single combat, and you haven’t even fully come into your powers yet. I’m almost terrified to think of how powerful you’ll be once you complete your coming-of-age ritual.”
My insides squirmed beneath her praise. “I wouldn’t say it was single combat,” I said, touching the golden cuff clasped around my bicep. I pulled the sleeve of my gown up to show Tamil the primal stone set into the precious metal, which I hadn’t taken off once since the fateful night Einar had clasped it around my arm. “Einar, my dragon protector, gave this to me the night I killed Aolis. I used the decades of fire magic stored inside it to defeat him. I would have never been able to do it on my own.”
But Tamil was already shaking her head before I even finished the words. “Most people would have disintegrated beneath the weight of that much power,” she argued. “That you were able to channel it only proves my point—you are terrifyingly powerful.”
I sighed. “If I’m so powerful, why won’t anyone listen to me? Why won’t anyone believe me when I say that the shadow creature threat is still here, and that we’re all focusing on the wrong thing? I came here hoping that Lady Axlya would help me, and yet—” I cut myself off, remembering that even if we appeared to be alone, there were eyes and ears everywhere here.
“Lady Axlya’s help often comes with strings attached,” Tamil said, a knowing glint in her eye. “It wouldn’t matter if you were a peasant from some no-name town or her first-born son—she never gives something for nothing. It’s how she’s maintained her iron grip on Lochanlee for close to a thousand years.”
My eyes nearly bugged out of my skull. “She’s that old?”
“She is,” Tamil confirmed. “Lady Axlya has seen countless monarchs rise and fall, and has outlasted them all. To be honest, I don’t know how the wily bitch has kept it up for so long. If I had as many consorts and children as she did, I’d probably die just to be rid of all their incessant whining.”
A laugh burbled from my lips, and I hastily tried to turn it into a cough. “That’s an irreverent attitude,” I pointed out. “Do all the water fae feel the same way?”
Tamil shook her head. “The ice fae have always had a complicated relationship with House Usciete,” she said. “We have felt strongly for many years that Bala Oighr should be a sovereign realm—we have very little contact with the rest of the water realm, or support from House Usciete, for that matter. Axlya, of course, refuse to hear of it, and in fact tried to throw us a bone by marrying one of her nephews to my Great Aunt Mirielle some five hundred years ago. She was killed less than six months into their marriage, supposedly in a riding accident, though the circumstances were questionable. And to make matters worse, her husband refused to return the dowry.”
“What?” I stared at Tamil, appalled. “Who was the nephew? Did Lady Axlya try to intervene?”
“No, she didn’t.” Tamil’s mouth twisted into a bitter smile. “The nephew was Lord Tarlis. Prentis’s late father. He was a favorite of hers, and she refused to hear anything against him.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, feeling as if I’d been sucker punched. “Prentis…” I shook my head, wondering what other skeletons lurked in my so-called betrothed’s closet. This particular sin wasn’t his, but who was to say he wasn’t cut from the same cloth as his father, that he wouldn’t try to have me murdered once I was on the throne he’d believed to be rightfully his?
Tamil sighed. “Lady Axlya to this day refuses to acknowledge the grievance, which has only heightened tensions between the ice and water fae even more.” Her eyes grew hazy as she stared off into the middle distance. “The only water fae who ever sympathized with our cause was Olette.”
I sat up a little straighter. “Did you know her? My mother?”
“Of course.” Tamil smiled, genuine affection briefly driving the shadows from her face. “Olette always had a deep affinity for ice magic, so King Cyrian allowed her to spend the winters at Bala Oighr so she could train with us. She and I were fast friends, and she always told me that once she became queen, she would demand that Lady Axlya grant the ice fae our freedom.” Her smile died at that. “Sadly, we both know that never happened.”
I took Tamil’s hand in mine, curling my fingers around her frigid ones. “I will take on my mother’s promise as my own,” I vowed to her. “If I become queen, I will grant your people their freedom.”
“If?” Tamil raised an eyebrow. “Not ‘when’?”
I sighed, my face falling. “Even if I convince the other clans to support me, I have to agree to marry Prentis. Lady Axlya won’t back my claim to the throne unless I do.”
“Of course she won’t,” Tamil muttered. Her upper lip curled in disgust as she looked back at the palace, her glare aimed at the absent house ruler. Her grip tightened around mine as she turned back to look at me. “I strongly advise against marrying Lord Prentis.”
My insides seized up at the dire warning in her voice. “Why?”
“Because Prentis is far too ambitious to be content to sit by your side as a mere consort,” Axlya said. “He will do everything he can to undermine you, and Lady Axlya will be whispering in his ear the whole time, coaching him as he acts as her eyes and ears. You will become a mere figurehead if you allow them to sink their claws into you, Adara.”
I swallowed against the sour taste filling my mouth. I’d suspected Prentis would try to wrest power from me if I married him. After all, he’d spent the last two decades believinghewas the rightful heir to the throne before the world became aware of my existence. But I’d imagined the two of us could work out a compromise, where he took on certain responsibilities from the monarchy while I took others. The sinister picture Tamil painted, one where I became a mere puppet for Lady Axlya, wasn’t something I’d truly considered.
“I don’t see that I have a choice,” I said. “I need Lady Axlya’s blessing for the priestess to perform the coming-of-age ritual. Without it, I’ll never be able to defeat Slaugh and the shadow creatures.”
Tamil withdrew her hand from mine. “Lady Axlya isn’t the only one with a priestess up her sleeve,” she said cryptically as she stood up. “If you need my help with anything at all, you know where to find me.”