Page 12 of Ocean of Silver

A piece of cheese dropped from my lip as my mouth gaped open. Not all of that information was displayed on the monitors. How did he know so much about me?

I quickly recovered. “And Tezya, what about you? Do you work for the Lux King? Are you a member of the Luxian guard?”

“Everyone here works for the Lux King in one way or another. And I’m a member of Lux’sarmy. We don’t call it the guard like Tennebris does. We are warriors and soldiers, not mere guards. That’s all you need to know.”

“So you get to know everything about me, and I don’t get to know anything about you? Only your name?” I said, my voice rising.

“No. I also told you that I am a member of the army. That’s two things you now know about me.”

I huffed. “I could have answered that on my own, judging from the looks of you.”

“Oh, how so? How do I look to you?” He asked, amused, meeting my gaze as he leaned back in his seat.

I looked away and stared at the pears and apples to my left. I wanted to say: because every inch of you was covered in muscle and scars. Because you look like you are ready to kill me at any given moment. Because you completely and utterly scare me. And because there was no denying that you must be a part of Lux’s army. Because Sie told me stories of your brutality, stories of how the army fought and how they killed. Then, the Lux King admitted that you alone trained the new recruits, and now I’m going to be trained by you. Instead, I said, “Well, you said training, so I assumed as much.”

“Right,” he smiled, settling back into his chair. “And I don’t know everything about you. I only have the files Tennebris sent with you. What are your Luxian abilities? How skilled are you at using them?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted softly.

“Have you ever used your abilities?”

“Once,” I said too quickly. He stared at me with a blank expression as I continued. “I was too nervous about being discovered, so I never was able to find out or practice them before. I only trained once when—” I cut myself short, thinking back to Sie and how he risked everything to help me. How he spent days with me at the lake and tried everything to help me discover my powers, even though he knew nothing about it. My heart broke in two as I thought of the last time I saw him when he annulled our marriage with a detached, emotionless expression. How he sent me to Lux after he warned me to stay clear of them. How he gave me up to be a prisoner to the very man he said was dangerous.

Anger threatened to boil at my surface whenever I tried to understand what had happened. How he was so caring, how he rescued me from Kole, saved me, protected me, trained me, only to abandon me. Then, as soon as I was discovered by the High Council, he stopped fighting for me entirely. He gave me up like I meant nothing to him. He didn’t look sad or hurt or affected in any way as I was brought to the dais before him in chains. He wouldn’t even look at me, not once, as they…

Tezya was watching me, analyzing me, probably wondering why I stopped talking. “I was able to move water once,” I said, “that was it.”

He ran a hand through his hair at the top of his head, exposing the fullness of that scar and a thinner one that hovered over his temple and slashed through the corner of his right eyebrow. Embarrassment ran through me as he looked generally disappointed, like he expected me to be further along. Like I should already know whatever abilities I possessed.

I felt stupid being here. I knew little about their ways. I knew nothing about Lux besides the bit we learned at LakeWood. What was worse was that I knew nothing about myself.

His tone turned harsher as he said, “You are not allowed to go anywhere without me. If you aren’t training with me, you will stay in your room and be kept hidden. You will do exactly as I say and when I say so with no questions asked. You will tell no one your name. You won’t speak to anyone unless I am there with you and give you permission. This is important, so do not forget it. Now, leave and go to sleep. We start training at dawn tomorrow.” As he spoke, the same two servants emerged from the balcony doors, ushering me to come with them.

I just exchanged one prison cell for another.

SIX

SIE

I’d been staringat the same four damn walls for hours now, pacing my bedroom, waiting for Moli to arrive. We’d been meeting like this for the past two weeks after King Lunder wasmurderedat a dinner banquet. And since Synder was his second, he automatically became the King of Tennebris until my coronation—that was if I lived that long.

Moli was there after Kole cut Scotind’s thigh. Hell, she was there after Scottie and I were tortured by the prick. She was the only healer I trusted. I’d known her since I was little. She frequented my childhood home many times due to my father’s incessant outbursts. She was only a couple of decades older than me, still extremely young in the eyes of any Advenian, but she had a way about her that always seemed more mature. She found me shortly after the King’s murder and informed me of the real cause of death.

Poison.

The people of Tennebris were led to believe that King Lunder died choking on his food. They were all a bunch of idiots for believing Synder so easily. For a species that rarely died of such trivial things, they didn’t question the notion once. But I did. And so did Moli. He was murdered.

Fucking murdered.

And now the man who attempted to orchestrate Scotlind’s death—who tried to get me to kill her—was on the throne.

I looked forward to my visit with Moli because, regardless of how short they were, they were minutes that I stopped worrying about my wife. Ex-wife now. Fuck. I hated that. I hated being away from her. I hated knowing she wasn’t mine anymore. I hated that she was in the Light Kingdom’s territory as King Arcane’s prisoner. I hated even more that she might come across the Fire Prince, the youngest of the King’s children.

Was she okay? Was she still kept a prisoner, or did they welcome her into their society? I prayed every day for the latter. I couldn’t stomach thinking about her rotting away in a prison cell. But that was all she would have done here. Or worse, I would be burying her like we did Lunder. At least this gave her a chance at a normal life, even if it meant a life without me.

And Peter. I hadn’t heard from my friend, and I should have by now. The silence was concerning. It’s been a month and nothing.

A faint knock turned my attention away from my thoughts. I walked over to the door with a slight tremble in my hand, sweat already pooling at my forehead, down my temples, and onto my neck.

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