Page 21 of A Wrecking of Salt and Fire

“Be that as it may, I want you prepared. We will discuss more at another hour.” The king’s word was always final. But not now. Not when he knew more than he was letting on.

“You will tell me more now.” Kohl’s voice echoed in the room. He was getting to the edge of patience he had for his father’s secrets.

“Quiet, my boy.” King Athanas’s eyes washed over with ebony, the whites no longer visible in the dark study. Kohl knew that look. Knew what it meant. Knew what his father would do if he questioned him again. The prince’s head started throbbing once more.

Chapter Fourteen

Katrin

Her breaths were ragged and forced, chest constricting every time she inhaled. Katrin laid awake for a time after Kohl went to meet with his father, unable to move from the spot he left her in. The sheets were stained with sweat, and tears, and regret for what she let him do. What she let herself do.

Swollen eyes from the silent tears that poured down her face during the time they were intimate, if you could even call it that, still burned. Kohl seemed to think those tears were ones of joy, of beginning, of love—Katrin did not know what love was anymore.

She would have to move eventually, she could not still be in this bed when Kohl returned. Katrin needed time to process what happened, what it meant for the future—their future.

The Acknowledgment was quickly approaching. She needed to focus on that. Her speech, what she would say to her people, to the people of the other isles that relied on her to lead. But most of all, right now Katrin knew she needed her sister. Needed her advice. Needed to confide in someone else. She could not walk back to that cabin in the mountains. Speak with the farmer’s son. No, that was what caused this in the first place.

She sat up and walked over to the wardrobe in the corner. Kohl kept some of Katrin’s more formal gowns in his room for the seamstresses to match his jackets and breeches to. She pulled one of the more simple ones out, shimmying the gown back down until it covered everything to the floor, hiding the evidence of what transpired in this room.

The night air was still warm, yet she felt nothing but chills as she left Kohl’s chamber and began the walk down the hall to Ember’s wing. Servants bustled through the halls of the castle, no doubt finalizing preparations for the Acknowledgement.

As she walked closer to the corridor that led to her sister, Katrin could hear angry voices rise from inside one of the smaller studies. She inched near the door, which was open just enough for her to see the two darkened figures. One was sitting in her father’s old velvet lounge chair, his hand gripping the wooden armrest. The other leaned against the desk on the opposite side of the room, his face shielded by shadows. Katrin squinted her eyes at the dimly lit room as the two men conversed.

“Quiet, my boy.” She heard the man in the chair say. A pit began to form in her stomach. She only knew one man with a voice so silencing—King Athanas. Meaning the man in the shadows was Kohl.

He stepped forward into the light. “I will quiet myself down if you tell me the real reason for all of this.” His eyes now glinted in the firelight, but they were no longer the warm ebony Katrin recognized. They were that darkened shade she saw earlier that evening, void of all emotion except anger.

“I will explain myself tomorrow, for now you just have to trust that I have the best interests of this kingdom—of all the isles—in mind. Now return to your bride, perhaps offer her a glass of wine to calm her nerves.”

“Father, please…” Kohl tried to get more than the two words out before he was cut off.

“You will be wise to remember not to question the judgment of your king, Kohl.”

“Yes, Father.” Kohl began to move closer to the door before stopping to whisper something to his father that Katrin could not make out. A fresh chill swept down the corridor she was in, a strange fog creeping in through the windows from outside. She needed to get to Ember’s room before someone caught her out at this hour.

Katrin quietly inched back, hoping not to alert the men that she was listening from outside the study before knocking into something hard behind her. She tried to let out a scream, but was silenced as a dark piece of cloth covered her nose and mouth and Katrin drifted into a black haze.

Sunlight began to creep in through the windows, glistening against Katrin’s face. Her eyes were still heavy from the night before. She curled up to her side drawing the covers over her face, hoping to stay asleep for even a few moments longer. As she took a deep, steadying breath before facing the sun’s bright rays, she recognized a familiar scent in the room. Olive oil, lemon, salt.

Katrin’s eyes shot open as she remembered the events of last night, walking through the hall to see Ember, overhearing Kohl and King Athanas arguing, someone coming up behind her, that smell, that same smell, then nothing but darkness.

A noise caused her to stiffen. The familiar rocking of the ship against the waves caused goosebumps all over her body.

Her eyes narrowed and she reached down to her thigh. Her thin bronze dagger was still strapped around her leg, the silk gown still wrapped around her body. Whoever took her last night would regret not checking her for weapons.

Katrin slowly and quietly gripped her hand around its hilt as she shifted her gaze toward the creaking that was coming from the corner of the cabin. There, sitting in a wooden chair, dirty boots resting on the footboard of the bed she lay in, was a tall muscular man in dark leather breeches and a flowing white linen shirt. Her gaze met the man’s. She knew that obsidian colored hair, those eyes swirling with the colors of the sea they now sailed over. Ander’s eyes sparkled, the corner of his lip rising in a deadly grin.

“Kaliméra, Aikaterine, welcome to The Nostos.”

Part Two

η μ?ση

(The Middle)

Chapter Fifteen

Katrin

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