“I figured you wouldn’t want a gown,” Naill was saying, having pulled the needle from his mouth and done only the gods knew what with it. “So, I thought something formal yet relaxed would work. But there are other tunics—”

  “No, this is great. It’s like a combination of a gown and a shirt,” I told him with a smile. The length fluttered around my ankles as I twisted to the side. “It’s perfect. Thank you.”

  “No problem.” He scratched the back of his neck and ducked his chin. “I’m glad you like it.”

  Moving closer to the mirror, I ran my fingers over the embroidery. “This design. What made you choose it?”

  “Oh, man.” Naill dropped his arm. “It’s something I saw beneath the garrison in the old tombs at Aegea.”

  My brows rose.

  “Yeah, I know. That’s morbid as fuck, but…I don’t know.” He lifted a shoulder. “The pattern carved into the tombs always stuck with me.”

  That was a little morbid. “Were they tombs like the crypts in the Skotos?”

  “No,” Casteel answered. “Those were for the Forgotten Ones.”

  In other words, they were for the gods who’d fought against the Elemental Atlantians. Gods that had been chained deep in the Skotos and left to die slow deaths of starvation. I shivered at the reminder of my brief time in those crypts.

  “These were gods who fought alongside the Atlantians. It’s also rumored to be Lailah and Theon’s resting place—either separately or together,” Casteel continued, taking a drink from his glass tumbler. “But honestly? Who knows if that is true? It’s also said they were asleep beneath the Pillars of Atlantia.”

  “We could always ask Na’Lier,” Naill said as he gathered up his spools of thread. “I heard he’s en route.”

  “Na’Lier?” I asked.

  “Dominik,” Casteel said, and it took me a moment to remember Jasper briefly mentioning one of the eldest Elementals still alive. “He usually guards the palace. Why is he coming here?”

  “I imagine to get an update.” Naill stacked the spools in his satchel. “Other than word being sent back to Evaemon that Carsodonia was secured, and the Blood Crown des—” He paused. “Dealt with. There haven’t been any further updates.”

  “Destroyed is fine,” I assured him, figuring he’d censored himself because of who Isbeth was.

  “I’m guessing my mother is tired of waiting for a more detailed report,” Casteel remarked. I thought of the last time I’d spoken to Eloana.

  Hopefully, she didn’t hold my anger against me. She shouldn’t. Her and Valyn’s lies had helped to protect Isbeth and endangered their sons.

  “Although,” Casteel continued, his finger tapping the side of his glass, “any of the lesser-ranked officers could’ve come.”

  “Agreed.” Naill straightened and draped the strap of his satchel over his shoulder.

  “Thank you again for doing all of this,” I said, waving my hands around as Casteel watched me through half-lidded eyes. “I really do appreciate it.”

  “It was my honor,” he said, bowing his head.

  As Casteel saw him out, I headed into the closet and took off the tunic. I had no idea what Malik wanted to show us this morning and didn’t want to risk ruining all of Naill’s hard work. I donned a black blouse and a soft, sapphire-blue vest that Naill had brought with him as I felt Kieran drawing near.

  Finishing the clasps on the vest, I walked out of the bedchamber just as Casteel was coming through the Solar. “Kieran has just informed me that no additional gruls have been discovered,” he announced. Kieran was behind him, his hands making tearing motions.

  “That’s a relief.” My steps slowed. “Do you have a biscuit in your hand?”

  “I do.” He ate a torn section. “I didn’t get a chance to eat yet.”

  I looked at Casteel, and my chest tightened. When Kieran hadn’t joined us for our meal again, I’d asked where he was. Casteel had claimed he’d already eaten, just as he’d made an excuse yesterday. “Is that so?”

  Casteel picked up a glass and took a drink, his eyes hard as polished topaz as he stared at the wolven.

  Kieran tore off another piece of the biscuit. “I ran into Malik heading to the stables. Said he was waiting for you all.”

  “He is,” Casteel said.

  Kieran raised a brow. “For…?”

  My gaze cut to Casteel. “You didn’t—?”

  A fine shiver rolled through me without warning. Frowning, I looked down at where the sleeve of my blouse had fallen back to my elbow. Tiny bumps erupted along my forearm as the fine hairs rose. My gaze lifted and connected with Casteel’s.

  “Yeah.” He lowered his glass. “I feel that.”

  “So do I.” Kieran frowned at his biscuit. “It feels like…something unnatural.”

  Everything to do with Tawny and my worry over what was going on with Casteel and Kieran—the argument, all of it—immediately fell to the wayside. “Something that…” The air throbbed. “Doesn’t belong here.”

  Casteel’s gaze sharpened. “Do you know where—?”

  A horn blasted through the air, cutting him off.

  “It’s coming from the west.”

  Our west? That would be the Stroud Sea. Casteel brushed past us, heading for the Solar as Kieran finished his biscuit without making a mess. “Really?”

  “What?” He tossed the pieces into his mouth. “Why let it go to waste?”

  Shaking my head, I followed Casteel. He stopped by the large table, grabbing the still-harnessed swords he’d left there the night before.

  I didn’t wait.

  Which was probably a sign that the argument hadn’t completely left my mind.

  Whatever.

  Yanking open the doors, I stepped out into the hall, my gaze sweeping right and then left as I tried to get my bearings within Wayfair.

  “This way.” Kieran entered the hall with Casteel, who was tightening the straps on his leather baldric that held a sheathed sword. “If we go down one floor and then to the west end, some of the balconies should give us a view.”

  Casteel glanced at me and shifted the sword. “Forgetting something?”

  “No.”

  An eyebrow rose. “Yes, you are.”

  Kieran opened the door, and we quickly entered a staircase. “I have my—”

  “I was talking about your lack of footwear, my Queen.”

  “Oh.” My lips pursed as I glanced down at my bare feet. “Too late now.”

  The hall of the floor below us was empty, and we quickly crossed it to reach the end. Kieran pushed open the doors and then skidded to a halt, his head jerking back as a horn blew somewhere again. I went to the railing, unable to see anything beyond the inner Rise, where guards in gold-and-silver armor walked along the battlements.

  “We need to get closer.” I stepped back and scanned the length of the balcony. There was a staircase at the end. Kieran pivoted toward it.

  Casteel stalked along the railing, his eyes narrowed. He stopped beside Kieran. “Something is happening in the water,” he said.

  My gaze snapped to the nearest steps in the Rise. Walking would take too long.

  But we didn’t need to walk.

  I didn’t give myself time to think about what I was about to do. I crossed the distance between us and grasped Casteel’s cheek. “Will yourself to the inner Rise.”

  Confusion quickly faded into realization as the essence pulsed behind Casteel’s pupils. Then, a slow smile lifted the corner of his lips. “See you there.”

  “Hold on,” I said, grabbing Kieran’s arm.

  “What—?”

  A rush of charged air stole his words as I pictured the inner Rise in my mind. Summoning the essence, I acted on pure instinct. Casteel hadn’t looked ready to vomit when I mentioned shadowstepping. Kieran had.

  A single heartbeat.

  That was how long it took before the wind swirling around us shifted and became laced with the much stronger scent of the sea. We were no longer standing on the balcony—

  We were directly in front of an Atlantian guard.

  “Holy shit,” the man gasped, his eyes flaring wide below the rim of his steel helmet.

  “Sorry,” I said.

  “What the fuck?” gasped Kieran, staggering back.

  I spun and caught his arm before he fell off the battlement. He bent at the waist and clutched his knees.

  “You’re the…you’re…” the guard stammered, his brown skin taking on a gray tone.

  A shout of surprise came from our right. Another guard stumbled in mid-run as the air in front of him distorted. Casteel appeared in the blink of an eye. It was the strangest damn thing. The space was empty one moment and filled the next.

  “Y-your Majesty.” The pale-skinned guard stiffened, his hazel eyes darting to where I stood. “Your Majesties.”

  Both guards started to kneel.

  “Please. That’s not necessary,” I said, still keeping a hand on Kieran while making a mental note to get a message to all the guards and soldiers, telling them to knock off the bowing thing. “Especially not now.”

  They halted and stared at us with open mouths.

  Casteel strode forward and glanced down at Kieran. “Are you okay?”

  Kieran dragged in a lungful of air. “I don’t think I should’ve eaten that biscuit.” He slowly straightened and turned to me. “Don’t ever do that again.”

  “Sorry?”

  “You do not sound even remotely sorry.” He wiped a fine sheen of sweat from his forehead.

  “Walking would’ve taken too long,” I reasoned. “And you’re fine. Still in one piece.”

  “It feels like my stomach is still sitting on the balcony.”

  Casteel snorted and turned to the two guards. “Can you tell us what is happening?”

  “A ship went down in the bay, Your Majesty,” the guard I nearly shadowstepped on answered.

  “That’s it?” Kieran asked, stretching his neck from side to side.

  “That’s all we know,” the guard said.

  “That can’t be it.” I turned toward the sea. “We all felt it. Can still feel it.”

  “I’m going to run ahead and see what I can find out,” Kieran said. “And I’m going to use the two legs the gods gave me.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It wasn’t that bad.”

  “We will argue about that later.”

  Casteel smirked. “I think you’ve traumatized him.”

  “Possibly.”

  “Come on,” he said, and we began walking toward the section of the Rise that overlooked Lowertown and the Stroud Sea. “Do you have any idea what we’re feeling?”

  I shook my head. “Just that something’s here that shouldn’t be.”

  A muscle flexed in his jaw. “Kolis?”

  “I…I don’t think so,” I said. “We would feel him if he were here.”

  “Here,” Casteel said.

  I looked down to see the hair tie he’d slipped around his wrist earlier. “Thank you,” I said, taking it.

  He winked.

  Grinning, I gathered my hair, twisted it the best I could, and secured it with the tie just below the crown of my head. I had no idea how long it would last as several shorter strands had already slipped free, but I didn’t have time to braid the length.

  We reached the westernmost section of the Rise. I looked down at the guards and soldiers perched on the parapets, each crossbow loaded with three arrows. The only difference was what they wore. The guards wore black, and the soldiers donned gold and silver armor. None paid us any attention; their focus was on the dark sea. My gaze followed theirs as the briny wind tossed my hair over my face.

  “Fucking gods,” Casteel muttered at the same moment I saw what they were all staring at.

  A merchant ship slowly sank beneath the eerily still water of the bay.

  “What could’ve caused that?” I whispered.

  “No idea.” Casteel’s stare lifted to the ships farther out, where men struggled against the wind to turn the sails.

  I looked down. The streets of Lowertown were packed with mortals and guards. Many stood near the piers while others hurried among the wagons of wares offloaded from the ships at the port. The southern section of Lowertown, closest to the area of the bay where the vessel had sunk, wasn’t visible from where we stood, but I imagined the streets there were filled, too.

  “Cas!”

  We turned at the sound of Kieran’s voice. He was running toward us, Naill behind him. Naill pulled back, tension tightening the corners of his mouth as he turned to Casteel. “There’s something in the water.”

  That vague yet creepy statement sent a chill down my spine. I turned back to the sea. The water was still calm, and there wasn’t a single soul in it. Whoever had been on that ship had either made it to land or ended up in a watery grave.

  I had a sinking feeling it was the latter given some of the things I’d felt.

  “Do we have any details on what’s out there?” Casteel asked.

  “They…” Naill inhaled, looking out at the sea. “No one saw what did that to the ship.” He jerked his chin toward the barely visible vessel. “But something was seen in the water. And, honest to gods, I don’t think you’re going to believe it.”

  “Try me,” Casteel stated.

  “Ceeren.”

  My head whipped around. “What?”

  “Yeah.” Naill’s grip tightened around the hilt of his sword. “Several dockworkers said they saw…creatures that were part mortal and part fish in the water right before the ship was attacked. Sounds like ceeren to me.”

  I turned to Casteel and Kieran.

  “The ceeren are extinct,” Casteel stated. “They were killed off before the war when Saion went to sleep.”

  The nape of my neck tingled as I faced the sea. “The ceeren descended from the gods.” My fingers pressed into the stone of the Rise as I watched some dinghies drifting toward the area where the ship was last seen, the men on the wooden boats peering into the water. “And the gods are awake.”

  “Fuck,” Kieran muttered. “Let’s hope they were just seeing…dolphins.”

  We could hope that, but the three of us knew better. We could still feel the unnaturalness in the air.

  Casteel leaned against the stone beside me. “Where is Emil?”

  The sunlight vanished instantly, drawing our gazes upward to see thick, heavy, inky clouds suddenly appear along the horizon. Their edges didn’t wisp or shift with the wind whipping along Wayfair’s ivory walls. They remained eerily rigid as they slid across the sky.

  “That can’t be good,” Casteel commented.

  Stepping back, I focused on the clouds as they unfurled, seeping across the sky like spilled ink. I turned as the shadow fell upon the terracotta roofs of homes and businesses, most stacked upon one another with tight, winding alleys between them. The Garden District dimmed, as did the area farther east, toward the Cliffs of Sorrow. The Shadow Temple loomed like a dark void, sucking in any and all light.

  “Godsdamn it,” muttered Casteel, snapping my gaze to him. He was staring toward the base of the rocky area where Stonehill had been built. “He’s supposed to be in the stables.”

  Finding the tall, sandy-brown-haired Malik on the streets below took me a second. He stood with two soldiers near the narrow inlet that cut through Wayfair’s grounds, between the castle and the manor.

  Naill peered over the ledge. “He’s probably trying to figure out what’s going on.” He leaned out and shouted Malik’s name.

  Down below, Malik’s head cranked around. He stepped away from the soldiers, his brows furrowing and then smoothing out when he saw us. His lips moved, but I didn’t get a chance to hear what he said.

  Shouts erupted from the southern border of Lowertown—shouts that quickly turned to screams, causing my heart to lurch.

  A sound like thunder came from below, rising up from the businesses and cramped apartments that crowded Lowertown. I leaned out, squinting. The streets looked alive, except they weren’t. It was a mass of—

  Fear slammed into me, causing me to jerk back as a horde of people barreled through the narrow streets, some on foot and others on horseback or in carriages.

  Oh, gods.

  Horror seized me as they pressed forward, pushing and falling, clamoring overtop one another as they ran—away from the southern border of Lowertown and the harbor, toward higher ground and Wayfair.

  Soldiers spilled from the inner Rise gates, shouting orders and trying to calm the people and restore some semblance of order, but they ended up swallowed in the panic. The cries of pain were sharp, and I flinched as I backed away from the disaster unfolding on the streets. Eather hummed inside me, pulsing intently. Panic and fear rose, bearing down on me. Red-hot pain scraped my senses—

  Casteel was suddenly by my side, clasping my cheeks, his face inches from mine. “Poppy, you need to shut it down.”

  “I know.” My breath was thin and pained as I flinched at the deeper, aching pulse I now knew was a harbinger of death. I struggled to breathe around the onslaught and not cave to what the essence demanded—to intervene and snatch back the lives lost. It hadn’t even been this intense while I’d been in the Continents.

  The wind howled, tugging at the strands of my hair and whipping them around our faces as I closed my eyes, blocking out the chaos below. I quickly erected a wall in my mind, piling stone upon stone until it was taller than any Rise. Until the panic and fear, the stinging bite of pain, and the ache of souls leaving bodies faded away, and the need to bring them back went with it.

  Mouth dry, I opened my eyes. Casteel stared down at me. A silver-streaked gold gaze searched mine. “You good?”

  I nodded, dragging in more air.

  “Need to hear you say it.”

  “I am,” I said, my voice hoarse.

  “Good.” His gaze held mine for a second longer, and then his hands slipped away.

  Feeling a bit steadier, I turned back to the scene below. The mass of people was getting closer to the area below us, where the land narrowed.

  “Look.” Naill pointed to the dinghies in the bay.