Page 107 of Rise of the Siren Queen
“Yes,” I murmur. My voice is dry, foreign in my throat. “He’s back.” I let the words rot on my tongue before speaking again. “And I assume the threat inside the council is Thalor. Am I wrong?”
Silence.
My gaze sharpens. “For the goddess’s sake,” I snap, the edge creeping back into my voice, brittle and sharp, “someone tell meeverything.In detail.”
Elora sighs and pushes her hair behind her ear, irritation flickeringacross her face. “After you left, Ronan and I followed Thalor. Your orders, remember?”
I arch a brow at her. “You actually followed orders? Shocking.”
She rolls her eyes, petulant as ever.
Ronan steps in reluctantly. “We saw Thalor meeting withhimjust outside Hyrem. After that, I tracked Thalor’s movements. He’s not even trying to be subtle. They’re working together to seize the crown. Though I don’t yet know how they plan to succeed.”
My pulse quickens, though outwardly I stay composed. Barely. It confirms what I feared, what I suspected when Thalor defended the traitor to the council. But fear isn’t enough. Not here. Not when every whisper could become a dagger.
Thalor has power. Influence. Proof is what I need.
Not suspicions. Not betrayal laid bare behind closed doors.
“What else?” I demand, my voice like ice cracking on the surface of a frozen sea.
Ronan hesitates. Elora turns away.
I narrow my eyes. “You said this news wouldbreakme. So tell me, what did you find out?”
The silence is strangling until Kieran’s voice cleaves through it, rough and low. “Elora overheard them… talking about your parents.”
My chest constricts. I force myself not to flinch.
My mistake.
“And?” I ask coldly. I won’t allow grief to cloud this. Not now. “Say it.”
Elora’s eyes meet mine, a quiet apology burning in their depths. “Thalor was involved.”
The room tilts. Not from shock. But from fury.
Quiet. Controlled. Absolute.
Something in me fractures, but nothing spills. Not yet. I hold it in, like venom between my teeth. Let them think I’m numb. Let themthink I’ve broken. I will end every traitor.
The pain returns with a vengeance.
It claws up my spine and nests in my skull, a sharp, pounding ache behind my eyes. My skin burns beneath the surface, too hot for the chilly waters around me. I can feel my heart fracturing again—shards of something once whole slicing me from the inside out.
I knew Thalor was dangerous. Cunning, power-hungry. But this…
Treason.
He helped murder my parents.
Darkness edges my vision. My throat closes around a scream that refuses to be silenced this time. I’m losing control.
The water trembles with me, vibrating in warning. Beyond the balcony, blue flickers of electricity light the sea like a brewing storm. Distant thunder rolls through the ocean’s belly, soft, then sharper. My magic cracks the calm like glass under pressure. I feel it unraveling, slipping through my fingers like blood through water.
I cannot lose control.
Not now. Not like this.
