Page 135 of The Sea of Zemira (The Zemiran Chronicles 1)

Recognition glowed in his eyes, and he took a step back. The former warrior quickly remembered the girl he had saved from the troll moments before the black cloud knocked him down.

“Argon’s child?” Aiden said, “I thought—?”

“She was dead? Yes. We all did. But she is alive and well. They call her Nola now.” Cassia adjusted her dress, her wings folding back into her body. “She was raised by humans in Zemira. And now she’s come to start a war.”

Aiden’s forehead furrowed. The black-haired elf had never trusted Cassia. He was always different than the rest of the battalion—and that, particularly, infuriated the queen.

There would be no forgiveness for his unjust imprisonment, but he decided to hear her out.

“Help you do what?” he asked sharply.

Years ago, Cassia wanted Aiden, son of Hagmar, to lead the Elven warriors in the battle with Matthias.

Twenty years had passed since King Argon sent his father to hide the Kroneon on Crotona island. Hagmar had barely made it back to the Eastland Forest alive. He had been badly wounded by the creatures living in that dreadful place and ended up dying in the queen’s arms. Aiden remembered Cassia cared more about getting her map back than the life of the elves King Argon had sent to their deaths.

Young Aiden had to watch his mother mourn for years before her own death. Then the queen dared to ask the same from him—only fifteen years later.

Five years before, Cassia’s orders were clear. “Go to Crotona and retrieve the weapon, Aiden. Bring it back here, and it will guide us to find the key!”

Aiden would never forget those words. The queen’s ambition was responsible for his defiance—disobedience that led to his exile.

Hagmar, his father, had lost his life protecting the Kroneon, and the queen had asked him to get it back. His father would have died in vain. For that, the black-haired elf refused the queen, and she sent him to live alone in the woodlands, with the intention he would not survive.

What are you up to, Queen Cassia?He asked in his mind. To be so willing to let me go after all these years.

Aiden looked up. Tiny specks of the black mist still floating through the trees. His brows drew together as he looked back at the queen.

“That compass your father worked so hard to protect is now in danger of being found by our enemies,” she replied.

And there it is, he thought. She has not changed one bit.

Knowing Aiden would be reluctant to obey again, she stepped towards him, placing her hand hesitantly on his and rubbing gently over his smooth skin.

“I will release you if you gather the protectors and the rest of the battalion. Go to Crotona and retrieve the weapon before the prince and the siren do. But—” She swallowed. “You are to kill the siren and get the ruby before the two pieces unite.”

Aiden’s expression hardened.

“You want me to kill the siren?”

The white-haired woman nodded. “You can do it, or I will. We were never supposed to be banished here, Aiden. The compass will allow me to go back to before we were sent to the Eastland Forest. My brother did not fight hard enough for us. He cowered to Matthias. That alone made him unfit to lead.” She stepped closer, applying pressure to his fingers. “Your father died because of Argon.”

Aiden stepped away from Cassia, wiggling his fingers away from hers—her touch made him sick.

“Why do you want to kill the siren?” he asked. “Seraphina is your niece.”

“No, Aiden, she is my brother’s bastard child. And if she lives, in all timelines, she is the next heir to the Fae. I cannot allow a siren to lead our people. And that weapon belongs to us.”

With a brief tilt of his head, he asked, “If you go back in time, does that mean—”

“Your father will have never perished.”

Aiden’s pulse thrashed in his throat.

Could it be that simple?He wondered.

He blamed Argon for sending his father to his death, but he hated the queen even more.

A slow smile reached his lips. “If you betray me, my queen, I will kill you.”

The queen’s wings came out again, brightly lit and ravishing.

“You are free,” she said. “Prepare the ships for Crotona.”

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