Page 4 of The Twisted Throne

Ahnna’s heart skipped, and she curbed the urge to snatch the necklace out of Lara’s hand, because it should never have been hers in the first place. “Aren gave it to you.”

“And I’m giving it to you.”

He’d be furious if she took it, but instead of declining, Ahnna asked, “Why?”

Lara hesitated, cheeks sucking in as though she were biting them while she considered her words. “A reminder of the stakes.”

Ahnna stared at the glints of gold and emerald and black diamond, a replica of Ithicana’s larger islands. Her father had given it to her mother, who’d almost never taken it off, and Ahnna had a thousand memories of it gleaming around her mother’s throat. A dull ache formed in her chest, her feelings about her parents always conflicted. “It’s just metal and rocks. Besides, when have youeverseen me wear jewelry?”

Lara held her hand over the cliff, the necklace swaying back and forth over empty air. “Then I suppose it doesn’t matter what I do with it?”

She opened her fingers, and the necklace dropped.

Gasping, Ahnna lunged, her knees scraping across rock as she snatched the falling necklace from the air and almost toppled over the edge from her momentum.

Her pulse thrummed, for though the necklace was safely clutched in her hand, she still felt the horror of almost losing it. Fury rose in her chest at Lara’s carelessness.

Rising to her feet, she started around the peak, needing to get away from the other woman before it came to blows. “You’re such a bitch.”

Lara followed her. “As are you. In another life, we probably would have been friends.”

Ahnna opened her mouth to retort, but then the scene in the harbor caught her attention. She shaded her eyes, her skin prickling. The vessel that had carried the cows had departed, and the naval ship, flying a purple flag to show that royalty was aboard, was approaching to take its place.

Approachingfartoo swiftly, because those who were supposed to be manning the sails were fighting one another on the deck.

“What is going on?” Lara muttered, shading her eyes.

Ahnna had already broken into a run.

Instinct guided her feet as she slid down the rocky trail, her eyes bypassing the Northwatch market for the piers jutting out from the island. The Harendellian vessel was flying toward pier one, no one aboard seeming to notice the waving arms of the port master warning them to slow down. The dockworkers around him were tense, their hands on their weapons.

Ahnna skidded to a stop, squinting at the ship as Lara drew up next to her and demanded, “What will happen if it hits the pier?”

Northwatch’s pier was made of bridge stone. The ship would be what suffered.

“Stay here until it’s safe!” Ahnna broke into a sprint down the switchbacking path, leaping off ledges where she could, the faint slap of sandals behind her suggesting that the very pregnant queen had ignored her order. Which was no fucking surprise.

Dread filled Ahnna’s stomach, flashes of the night she’d lost Southwatch to the Maridrinians filling her vision every time she blinked.

She couldn’t let that happen again.

“Sound the alarm!” Ahnna screamed, trying to catch the attention of those manning the nearest watch station. The wind stole the words, sending them flying over the seas. One of the sentinels appeared to be half asleep, the other one picking his fingernails. She was going to have their heads.

A rock whistled past her ear, Lara’s aim perfect, for it smashed against the wall next to the nail picker’s hand. He whirled, mouth dropping as he caught sight of both his princess and his queen sprinting toward him. “Call the alarm,” Ahnna shouted. “The Harendellian prince is in danger!”

The man only gaped at her. Snatching up his signal horn, she sucked in a deep breath and blew a series of notes.

Below, every Ithicanian fell still as they listened to the code. The second the last note faded, they all burst into action, their training taking hold.

“The Harendellian crew has mutinied.” Ahnna tossed the sentinel his horn. “Make sure the shipbreakers are manned.”

Then she was running again.

Lara was already ahead of her. The skirt of her gown was tucked into the mesh belt above her pregnant belly, revealing muscled legs that moved with shocking speed. Ahnna lengthened her stride, barely managing to catch up to her. “If a Harendellian royal is assassinated on our shores, there will be hell to pay. They’ll blame us.”

Lara nodded, then reached over her shoulder and withdrew a narrow blade that had been hidden beneath her gown, the metal glistening in the sun. They raced through the market, now close enough to see that the deck of the Harendellian ship was a melee. Harendellian soldiers were fighting the crew of their own ship for control, the decks covered with corpses and blood. Whether the crew had mutinied against the crown or been infiltrated, Ahnna couldn’t say, and it didn’t much matter given that the soldiers were cutting them down without mercy.

Yet her instincts screamed warning.

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