Page 35 of A Wrecking of Salt and Fire

“Ajax, thank the gods! What’s going on?”

Ember breathed the smallest sigh of relief as the commander entered, trailed by Iason. When she noticed that they were clad in leathers and bronze battle cuffs that small amount of relief disappeared.

If it was just Ajax, maybe she would have clung on to hope. But if he’d informed another member of the Spartanis—even if that member was someone they considered family—it had to be the worst case scenario.

“Ember—” he started, but she cut him off.

“So it’s true then? She’s really gone? It’s happened again?”

Her lip began to quiver, as Kohl, her mother, and King Athanas entered the study behind them. She clenched her jaw, taking shaky breaths in and out, trying to prevent the tears that welled in her eyes.

“Ember, I think you should take a seat.” Ajax closed the distance between the two of them. Her eyes widened.

“Is she…is Katrin dead?” Ember’s skin went ashen, her voice cracking on the final word.

“She’s not dead, my dear, at least from what we can discern.” Kora came closer, propping herself on the arm of the chair Ember sank into. “She’s not dead.”

Kohl took a seat over by the fire, his eyes a deep ebony matching his father’s. Angry, revengeful, but also lifeless in a way Ember could not describe.

“We think she was taken by pirates. Specifically, the Prince of The Lost Isles,” Kohl spat, clenching his fists by his side. He looked tired, and anxious, and like he might throw the entire chair he sat in straight into the fire. One hand clenched the arm of the chair while the other propped up his forehead as he peered into the flames.

“The Lost Isles? But those are just myths,” Ember questioned, glancing back and forth between her mother, Kohl, and Ajax. Avoiding eye contact with the Viper of Votios at all costs.

“Stupid girl. He would have everything to gain, whether you—a mere child—have heard of him or not.” He flashed a wicked sneer at her before joining his son by the fire.

Ember growled at the King. His words cut deep. “I am not a child! And you are not to speak to the future Prytan of the Spartanis with that tone in this castle!” Ember shot out of her seat, pointing her finger at the king.

King Athanas grunted. “So she has a backbone after all.” His lips crept up into a smile, flashing those shaven canines.

Iason gripped her arm lightly, flashing a look of concern at the princess who just threatened a man many considered more terrifying than Aidoneus himself. “He is just trying to taunt you, Ember. He knows nothing of who you really are,” he whispered under his breath, urging the princess back into her seat.

“Attempting to console the child who was never yours, Iason? Endearing as always,” the Viper hissed.

“Maybe if you cared about your children more than you care about your power, you would understand, Khalid.” Iason’s jaw was clenched tight, his normally indifferent gaze toward the king radiating ice.

King Athanas’ ebony eyes began to darken further in the low light, the blackness seeping out into their surrounding white.

“Father, can I please just explain to everyone what is happening?” Kohl shot him a look, but it was not as fierce as Ember would have hoped.

The king’s stare on the senator broke, and he rolled his hand at Kohl, his upper lip still twitching.

“From what my father has told me, this prince has been terrorizing the seas east of Nexos. He pillages the isles and the coastal shores of Anatole, leaving them in fire and ruin. Right now, Nexos has blocked off the straits on either side of the isle, meaning if this prince wanted to expand his territory, it would be a lot easier to make a deal with Nexos than travel by land and try to secure ships on this side of the Mykandrian Sea. My father thinks that he struck a deal with King Nikolaos, if he captures and provides Katrin, then he would be able to use the straits. It’s the only thing to explain how he was here in the first place.”

“And how do we know it’s even this Prince of the Lost Isles to start?” Ember asked Kohl. “Because I found this.” He chucked the bridle at her.

The leather reins landed in her lap. Ember ran her fingers over the embossed marking. “This symbol…”

“Is the same one that was on that tunic Katrin wore when she returned from the mountains,” Kohl finished.

“Do you think he slipped her something then, so he could come back and take her at night? She was acting strange and muttering about a horrible storm, but the skies were clear all day here.”

“That’s exactly what we think.”

Ember kept tracing the symbol over and over. The serpent and two swords. She recognized it from somewhere. From somewhere other than the tunic. “Skiatha. That’s how you know it was him?” The image came to her. One from a book her father used to read her as a child. One of stories that were meant to scare children into behaving.

Kohl nodded his head.

“So it really is true? The island of war, the army of the dead? This prince who rules it?” Her heart began to quicken once more, feeling like someone was strangling the life right out of her.

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