Page 1 of Of Songs and Silence

PROLOGUE

MELODI

The endless pattern of the waves crashing into the cliffs, then receding, is slowly driving me insane.

It was the backdrop to my childhood, the only sound in the hours I spent alone in my rooms, wondering if my sisters would ever return. These days, the balcony we used to share is the closest I come to them, or to freedom.

I don’t dare leave my rooms, not when Mother has ordered me to stay.

So, I am all but drowning in the relentless song of the sea when an unexpected ship sails into view. My breath hitches in my lungs.

Any ship would be unexpected. There are still weeks left until the waters around the isle will be safe to traverse.

But there is no mistaking the black sails of my mother’s ship.

It takes everything I have not to sprint down to the docks, unendingly desperate for the sound of my sister’s voice—really, any voice other than the terrified squeaks from the maids who leave my food and draw my bath every day. I stay rooted to the spot, though, watching as one by one, the occupants of the ship disembark.

First is Mother, walking with unusually hurried steps, something almost…frantic in her movements. Disturbed, even. It’s so at odds with her usual demeanor that it sends tendrils of apprehension trickling down my spine.

Next comes Damian who, in contrast, is even more smug than normal. Dread churns in my gut before the crew even disembarks, before I confirm the suspicion that has been brewing in the back of my mind.

Aika is not on that ship.

This is the longest I’ve been away from her, and I have lost two sisters already. I might have thought that she had merely stayed behind in Corentin…

But Mother is agitated. And Damian is smug. And I know that something is wrong.

Though I know Mother won’t want to see me, I don’t think she’ll punish me just for meeting her in the foyer. I can’t wait any longer than that for answers. So, composing my features, I fly down several sprawling flights of stairs, reaching the entryway just as the front doors are all but hurled from their hinges.

What happened? Where is my sister?

I can’t speak the words aloud, and as usual, Mother won’t look at me long enough to read them in my expression. I could write them down, but she will ignore that, too.

I turn to Damian, hating that he is my only option, but knowing that he’s already examining my features to decipher my thoughts. For all that he harbored a sick fascination with my oldest sister, he has always looked at me with something close to reverence.

Bile creeps up my throat. At the reminder that Zaina is dead. At his unwanted adoration.

All of it.

“Melodi,” he greets me, coming to stand far too close.

His serpentine gaze sweeps over my features in a single possessive glance, accurately reading the questions I can’t utter aloud. It’s an odd contradiction, the way I both need him to understand me and despise that he can.

He looks from me to my mother, a question in the gesture. She shoots him a warning glare, not deigning to acknowledge my presence before she strides furiously from the room.

“Aika stayed behind in Corentin like the traitor that she has become, along with our dear not-so-departed sister.”

Traitor? Not departed?

Hope and dread war within me.

What the hell happened in Corentin?

My jaw drops, and Damian brings up a hand to caress my face.

“Don’t worry. We’re all Mother needs, you and I.” He whispers the words in an undertone, his lips warm against my ear.

I suppress a shudder.

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