Page 21 of Burning Crowns

Wren blinked to find herself in a cold cavernous room. It echoed with growling beasts. All around her, huge white pillars climbed towards a domed ceiling. The hall was dark and full of shadows, but she knew where she was. She had been here before. Grinstad Palace.

She saw the empty throne sitting high on the dais before she spotted the king on his knees in front of it. Alarik was slumped against the marble steps, fisting his hair in his hands.

Wren heard him cry out.

She ran for the dais but with every step she got further away. The throne room grew bigger and wider, the king’s scream echoing from every alcove. The floor cracked at Wren’s feet, a chasm opening beneath her. She fell before she could jump, spiralling down, down, down into a pit of choking dark smoke.

‘WREN! WAKE UP!’

Wren gasped herself awake to find Rose’s tear-stained face inches from her own. ‘You passed out.’ Rose’s eyes were glassy, her bottom lip trembling. ‘We both did.’

There was a sharp knock at her bedroom door, but Rose shouted back, sending the guards who had come to check on them away.

‘That awful smoke … there was so much of it …’ she said, dropping her voice. ‘I was scared of it. Mymagicwas scared of it. I couldn’t do it … I wasn’t strong enough …’

Wren swallowed against the scorched dryness of her throat. ‘What did you see when you passed out?’

‘Just … nothingness.’ Rose frowned, her voice turning cautious. ‘Why?’

‘Because I saw something. Someone.’ Wren sat up and laid her head back against the wall, coming at last to the point of her visit. ‘Promise you won’t be angry at me …’

‘I’ll promise nothing of the sort,’ said Rose at once. ‘Now do go on.’

And Wren did, confiding in her sister about the king of Gevra and her strange visions. ‘I need answers about what’s going on with me,’ she said, then.

‘We certainly do,’ Rose murmured.

Wren blew out a breath. ‘So, I’m going to Sharkfin Point. To see King Alarik.’

Rose snapped her chin up. ‘What? When?’

‘Tonight.’ At her sister’s look of abject horror, Wren added, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be quick. And careful.’

Rose huffed a mirthless laugh. ‘You don’t know the meaning of careful. And for that matter, neither does Alarik Felsing.’

Wren was silent, then. Her sister was right.

There was nothing careful about Alarik Felsing.

A short while later, they embraced in the courtyard under the midnight moon, Rose stiffening as Wren threw her arms around her.

‘Please don’t be like this,’ said Wren, only squeezing her harder. ‘I’ll be back before you know it.’

‘It just feels all too familiar.’ Rose’s eyes prickled as she traced the streak of silver in her sister’s hair. ‘The last time you took to the Sunless Sea, I almost lost you.’

‘It’s different this time. I’m only going as far as Sharkfin Point.’

Rose wriggled out of Wren’s grasp. ‘I just don’t understand why you think someone like Alarik Felsing will have answers for you.’

‘Neither do I,’ confessed Wren. But the king of Gevra had fallen into her dreams for a reason and she intended to find out why. ‘At least you won’t be bored without me,’ she went on, at Rose’s scowling face. ‘You’ll have the charming Caro prince to keep you company.’

‘That isnotfunny.’

Wren chuckled. ‘That poor wretch is probably already in love with you.’

Rose smirked a little at the compliment. ‘All these proposals are franklyexhausting.’

‘If only I could relate.’

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