“And Lysander?”
Lysander woke with the first rays of moonlight, but Baylor is locked down there with him alone, trying to find some hint of his brother within Lysander’s monstrous form.
Mother did her job well. One of Thiago’s most dangerous warriors has been removed from the game board, and Baylor, as implacable as he is, has taken a blow.
“Thalia heard a whisper that the Prince of Shadows might have someone in his employ who is a hexbreaker. Hence my interest in venturing into the city.”
“Prince of Shadows?”
Thiago rolls his eyes. “Technically, I’m not supposed to know about him. He rules the catacombs under the city, and it’s rumored that—if such a person existed—he might be in charge of the assassin’s guild in the city.”
“Does such a person exist?”
“Such a person might once have sent me a warning about a threat. I told him if anyone ever tried to hire him to have me killed, if he came to me with word of it I would double his fee. In return, as long as his assassins don’t cross certain boundaries, I won’t make it my life’s duty to ferret them out of my city and destroy them. In general, we pretend the other doesn’t exist.”
I close the book I’ve been reading. It’s an old collection of fairy tales about magical relics, though there’s no mention of any crowns. It seems there’s no mention of them anywhere to be found, which is starting to irritate me. “I’ll come.”
“Just like that?” he drawls. “Was it the mention of assassins? Shadowy princes? Blood bounties?”
“You’ve been reading too many of my books. No.” I throw the blankets off my lap, where I’ve made a nest for the day’s research. “I’ll come, because I think it’s highly unusual that my overprotective husband wants to take me on his excursion to visit an assassin’s guild.”
Thiago crosses his arms over his chest. “You’re not coming with me to visit Theron. You’re going to a bookshop to see if you can find what you’re looking for.”
“If I can’t find any books about the crown in the enormous castle library which is run by thirteen highly inquisitive scholars, then I doubt I’m going to find it in an old bookstore tucked away down in the city. It’s almost as though you’re using me to cover your tracks, which would suggest you’re trying to keep your movements quiet from your advisors. Thalia was the one who brought you the news. Baylor is currently occupied. I saw Finn heading to the courtyard to spar…. Which leaves Eris. And knowing Eris as I do, she wouldn’t approve.”
“Eris is the only one of my people who has met the Prince of Shadows in any sort of capacity. She threatened to hang him from the tower walls by his heels if she ever saw him again. The prince retaliated by leaving a Sorrow’s Tear on her pillow. Every now and then she finds a fresh rose in her bedchambers as if he’s taunting her. The last time it happened, she took a practice sword to a dummy in the yard and there were only slivers of it left by the time she’d finished. If she knew where I was going, she’d start sharpening her knives and your mother’s war wouldn’t be the only one we’re facing.”
“If Eris discovers your ruse, she’s going to throw you off the tower,” I point out.
Thiago laughs, leaning on his knuckles on the bed, his eyes sparking with mischief as he steals a kiss. “Yes, but I can fly.”
The wind blows sea mist in off the harbor. Ceres is built around a natural bay, with two enormous outcroppings of stone guarding the entrance to the harbor.
An enormous statue as tall as the castle walls stands on each of the outcroppings, staring fiercely out to sea. The first one wears loose fae robes draped around her lean form like scalloped marble. One hand rests on the hilt of the sword sheathed at her side and a sunburst crown sits atop her head, but it’s the lantern in her hand that gives away her identity. Maia, guarding the mouth of the harbor, lifting her lantern as if to defy any ships that enter to pass by her with any darkness in their hearts.
Maia is the sun, the shining beacon of hope we pray to.
The other statue represents Selena, the goddess of Night.
Her crown bears seven stars, though a thin gold circlet hovers over it, representing their radiance, and while her face is serene, the implacable way she stares into the bay is a warning. Night is a time for mystery and seduction, but it is also a time of secrets and assassinations. Selena, once the patron goddess of Evernight, is the goddess that thieves, whores, and assassins have claimed. To pray to her means to ask for her protection, no matter the cost, and I’ve been here long enough to hear petitions from the powerful guild councils that rule the old town, asking for her statue to be removed.
They do not wish to pray to a goddess who offers a whore or a thief solace.
Thiago refused. She was the goddess chosen by Evernight when a curse struck the northern part of the country and cast a veil of constant darkness over it. Only by her grace was the curse turned back before it blighted Ceres too, though some say the queen that was bound to the land at the time fought the curse by herself.
It’s only now, with no queen in Evernight, that the shadow of constant night has been creeping south mile by mile each year.
Thalia found pamphlets that were circulating in the city suggesting
