Page 47 of In Rising Tides

“This is a closed meeting,” Ishmael said, his amber tail jerking in a way that showcased his irritation.

Lyra wasn’t a welcome guest, but Estria was outright loathed.

She turned, spinning in a circle. Her dress swirled like black smoke melding with her black fins, like spilled ink in water.

“I was invited, Prince,” she hissed, lifting one shoulder in a shrug.

Drystan let go of Lyra and announced to the room. “Estria is here to add substance to my claims. She can squash any fear we have of retaliation from the elves.”

“What claims?” Rigel asked, glaring at Estria’s back.

She smirked at Drystan before coming to a lazy hover at his side. Lyra could have sworn the witch ran an onyx talon lovingly down his arm.

“Yes, my betrothed was kept against her will—and mine—with the elves,” Drystan began. “If the elves don’t fight for her return, we should still punish them for their crimes against us.”

Lyra’s breath turned to ash in her throat. He was going to use her reluctance to return to him as a way to seek revenge against Wilder.

He could not hurt Wilder directly because of her command, but he could try to take everything else from him.

Lyra couldn’t stand by and let this happen, couldn’t let him twist the facts into his version of the truth.

“So it’s be attacked by them, or attack them?” Lyra asked. “I hope you die in the net of deceit you weave.”

Lyra’s anger wafted off her in waves.

She had to protect the Wilds.

But Drystan didn’t react in the way she had expected. Her words should have condemned him, should have made him immediately deny or attack her character.

Instead, he waved them off as if he were clearing them from the water and muttered, “If it’s a war they want, I say we give it to them.”

Lyra’s throat constricted. She was out of her depth here and felt herself sinking into unknown waters.

“Sea witch,” Lir growled, addressing Estria. “What evidence do you bring?”

Drystan said Estria was here to add substance; was the witch a seer?

Lyra’s blood drained from her face, pooling into her stomach and churning the already roiling anxiety that had gathered there.

Could Estria see what Lyra had done to survive?

Estria knew of the magic in Lyra’s veins, and that made her dangerous.

But if the entirety of Lyra’s time on land were revealed, it would put her life in grave danger.

“I am a seer,” Estria announced. Lyra’s heart raced. “King Drystan did enter into an agreement with the High King, but only to protect his future bride from the uprising here,” Estria confirmed.

She circled behind the pillars of carved stone, running a talon-tipped finger across the throat of the sea witch.

“But you want to know if there’s a threat from the elves,” she murmured before coming to a stop in front of Lyra. “If they will wage war over her return.”

Lyra’s heart pounded in her throat as Estria stared right through her.

“Butwhywould they want to keep her?” she purred, asking the council, and still not taking her eyes off Lyra.

Don’t.Lyra wanted to beg.Don’t tell them.

“Out with it, witch,” Lir barked, his red hair swirling around him like a hurricane.