Page 83 of A Wrecking of Salt and Fire

But later, she would need to sit him down for a discussion on what this all meant. How they would live. How they would learn to trust one another again. She would have to be honest with him about everything. The scars. What happened in Skiatha. What the crew on The Nostos had expected his father was aiding, or at least knew about. If Kohl himself had known too. How, if it was true, they would work to stop it before Odessia crumbled beneath the wrath of an Olympi reborn.

King Athanas approached the dais, where Katrin and Kohl now stood hand in hand. He was accompanied by three others. A tall soldier, the top of his face masked by his helmet. The second, an older man, looking to be around the same age as her father, his sandy blonde hair tied back with a leather string, his fingers adorned with golden rings and gems the size of Katrin’s eyes.

The last was a beautiful woman, somewhere between the age of Kohl and his father. Her skin was a deep umber, features delicate and lips plump. And her eyes. They were familiar. A glittering emerald that was so striking they could pierce your very soul. King Athanas smiled at the two newlyweds. Waving his hand to the side to display his guests. “Aikaterine, Kohl, I would like you to meet our allies from the north. King Edmund Briarre of Harrenfort and his lovely Queen Consort Ileana.”

A coppery tang filled Katrin’s mouth. Ileana. The eyes. Leighton’s eyes. His sister was not dead. She knew Leighton had not lied. Had felt his pain radiating deep inside herself as he told his story, peering out at the Skiathan waters. But what did that mean?

“A pleasure to meet you both.” The King of Herrenfort gave a curt bow. “I am looking forward to expanding our alliance with Alentus.”

Kohl extended his calloused hand to the king. “Edmund. Ah yes, you are the one who gave my father his prized possession.” Katrin peered at Kohl. His prized possession?

“I don’t know if I would call The Hydra my prized possession, but it is high on the list.” King Athanas chuckled. So this was the man from Voreia who gifted one of the fastest ships in the Mykandrian.

Katrin could barely hear as the men spoke back and forth. Her stare was locked directly on the queen. I was told after a few years she slit her own throat, desperate to escape the life she was bound to. Katrin’s gaze drifted up to her neck, covered by a thick gold choker adorned with sparkling jewels the color of a blackened abyss.

“Of course, The Hydra is nothing in comparison to its parents, The Typhon and The Echidna.” The silent masked soldier now spoke. “The olde myths were always a favorite of my king.”

Katrin knew that voice, though she couldn’t quite piece it together. The graveley rasp the soldier made as he breathed. The way words slid off his tongue like thick, hot oil. “What exactly is a hydra?” Katrin asked.

“You don’t know?” The masked soldier grinned. “In ancient times, the people believed there lived a beast beneath the waters—a many-headed snake, its bodies twisted around each other.” The man blinked and when his eyes opened they turned a deep crimson red. But when he blinked once more they turned back.

Katrin went ashen. It could not be. But it was. She was frozen in her spot, the scars along her wrists and back burning with an uncontrollable icey fire.

But then the screaming started. Katrin whipped around, trying to find its source. The Spartanis began to shift, protecting the leaders of the isles. No—protecting King Athanas and King Edmund. Protecting their people.

Where was Ember? Where was the commander? Katrin began to wonder as she glanced through the courtyard. But the only people she truly recognized were the five senators. Then the rumbling began, a stomping of footsteps coming from the mountains through the gates. From the dais in the courtyard you could only see the faint outline of what was heading toward them. An army. The Spartanis—they had to do something.

Katrin could see her sister from across the courtyard, her short sword now drawn. “Soldiers, on orders, prepare for an attack! Hold your mark!” she yelled out to the men dressed in Alentian blue. Only the senators seemed to look concerned, to be wary of who may be inching closer toward them. Grabbing Ember’s arm, Iason whispered something that Katrin could not make out. The dark banners were approaching quickly, their symbol still hidden by the distance.

That was when she saw it, as the men dressed as the Spartanis—or possibly even the Spartanis themselves—unsheathed their weapons. Two snakes intertwined, engraved on every blade. Ander and Leighton and Thalia and her father—it had really been her father. They had all known. They had warned her and she chose not to trust them. And now not only had Katrin been betrayed, but her people as well.

She went ashen as members of the guard turned on one another, on the senators, and slit their throats. Hot thick crimson now splattered in uneven patterns on her white gown. Her hands trembled, and a sinking feeling of fear she had never experienced sent chills up her spine. Katrin needed to get out. Needed to get her sister and get out, or they would be next.

Where was she? Ember had been on the opposite end of the courtyard. She would be safe for now. Ember had learned to hold her own and Iason would be with her. He would protect her no matter what had been promised to those men who defected from their positions. He was like a father to them. Katrin raced through the now upheaved crowd, trying to find the yellow braids Ember had pinned back. The next scream she heard was too familiar. A piercing, blood curdling shriek. Ember.

Chapter Forty-Six

Katrin

Katrin could see her sister across the courtyard. See as Iason lept in front of her, as the sword that was meant for Ember pierced through his heart. The most respected member of the Spartanis, a man who should have been considered family, struck down by one of his own.

Now she really needed to rescue her sister. Needed to get them both out—to where, she was not sure. Katrin knew the mountains better than anyone, where hidden caves lay off the trails. Yet Kohl knew them too. Would he send these soldiers after her for slaughter? Ander had been right. Kohl had to have known what his father had been planning. He had taken her home, her people, and now he would take her life.

Katrin sprinted across the courtyard until she reached her sister, frozen in her place. “We have to go, Ember! We have to get out!”

Ember did not move. She only whispered under breath, “He told me to run.”

Katrin practically dragged her sister out into the halls heading toward the staircase that would lead them to the castle’s gate. The four remaining senators would not be able to hold off the members of the Spartanis who had turned for long. That was, if they were even still standing.

Eventually they would need to fight, and if they needed to fight then Katrin would have to find more weapons than her dagger and Ember’s sword.

They would need to make it down to the barracks. There was a small storage shed there that housed at least basic weaponry they could steal.

Katrin whipped around the corner, her sister still in tow, when she slammed into someone. Ajax. She had not seen the commander in the courtyard when the attack began. Friend or foe? Which would it be?

Ajax glanced around, pulling Katrin and Ember into a nearby room. His voice was hushed and his breathing labored. “My Queen, Prytan, are you both alright?” Katrin nodded. Should she say more? Was the commander a defector too? He was always loyal to the Drakos family. To Ember. But Katrin would have said that about all the Spartanis before today.

“What is that?” Ember pointed at the canvas bag Ajax had slung over his shoulder. It looked heavy by the way his body tilted to that side.

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