Page 30 of I Summon the Sea

“Beware of beauty.”

But they stop paying attention to me, distracted with the food Tru has brought. And the truth is, when he gives me some bread and hard cheese, I’m distracted, too.

Food shouldn’t be my main concern, but my mind keeps shying away from the thought that the games start tomorrow, and everything hinges on what will happen in that arena.

That’s not enough time for mistakes and blunders. Every step you take has to be right.

“To answer your earlier question,” Tru says later, “the king is rarely seen in public. We all answer to his prelate, the telchin. Only Athdara meets him on the regular.”

Why?I point at the draks, shadows flying against the Pillar, and the wandering Eosphors clinging to the sky, burning bright. Then I point at the royal crest and point up where the Great Dara are surely flying.Why?

“The fire element. Calling dragons is fire magic. Athdara is the only one known to possess it in the entire world right now, and the king needs him.”

“We, fae, control the earth and the air,” Tru says, and I nod, waving for him to explain. “And by we, I mean the highborn, the High Fae. Magic is scarce in this world. Dragons control fire, and the merfolk control the water. In this world, we’re… outnumbered and outmatched.”

“But the king wants those powers, those elements under his control, too,” Arkin mutters. “Or else we are among foes. He wants to control the fire and water, but also the shadows and the dragons. He wants to have power over the gates between worlds. This world wasn’t ours to begin with. We’re not made for it, and it isn’t made for us. We have to mold it to our needs.”

I scowl at the glowing palace.

He says it so matter-of-factly. For the fae, it’s a done fact. Conquer a new world. Mold it to your needs. Display on your coat of arms the creatures you most want to control.

“You’re glaring, but you humans are ones to talk,” Neere says. “You have old legends of coming through the cracks in the sky from other worlds. You were conquerors before us. The seafolk owned this world before you.”

So what if we were, I want to growl.That doesn’t excuse what you did.

“But they managed to live side by side until we arrived,” Tru says.

“You can paint the humanfolk as lovely people all you want, and perhaps they are,” Arkin argues. “But the history of the Nine Worlds is a history of violent conquests and people movementsnot only during Reversals, but also throughout time. Whenever a natural disaster strikes or an adventurer offers riches and glory, armies and peoples mobilize and move into new territories.”

“You are telling me that our invasion was a natural thing?” Tru mutters.

“Tru, mind your words,” Arkin breathes, glancing around. “Anyone could hear you. Speaking in favor of humanfolk is treason. And who says natural is good? People, be they human, fae, seafolk, dragonfolk or other, they will always look for their own interests and fuck the rest.”

Tru grunts. Without his helmet, his pale hair blows in the wind, making him look very young. A trick of his race, of course. He could be hundreds of years old and still look like a young man. With the fae, nothing is what it seems.

And why are they indulging my curiosity? Why are these fae so nice to me?

Why does it make my chest ache with that hollowness again?

They are friends. They are a family. They have each other. It has nothing to do with me. So what if I have no one? It’s why I am here. No one will miss me.

It’s best this way.

I shouldn’t be thinking of the boy I once loved. Mars. TheJackal.What a ridiculous nickname.“Mad like a jackal,”Arkin had said about Athdara. But Mars has been in my thoughts a lot lately. It’s the dragons. He loved them so much.

Until the riders came on those same dragons and took him.

It’s been… years. Many years. I can’t even fathom how long. Who knows if he was killed instantly or left to rot inside a dungeon until only his bones remained?

Either way, now he’s dead.

And I’m too late for anything but vengeance.

Summon the Sea as it Summons You

CHAPTER TEN

Three trials.

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