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The first being steps back. “This is not our concern. We must not interfere.”

Another silence follows as the waters continue to stir.

Chapter Two

My gown pools around me like ink on parchment as I pick up gem after gem, each one unnaturally cold to the touch. “How?”

“I don’t know.” Sterling rises and approaches one of the remaining waterfalls. The glimmering transparent substance ripples like liquid glass.

Sterling’s eyes narrow in concentration until a faint blue glow emanates from his fingertips. The muscles in his jaw tighten. “If this were ordinary water, I could freeze it, direct it. But it’s…” The tendons on his neck stand out as the blue glow intensifies and water vapor forms around his fingers. The prism shudders and curves away, like prey avoiding a predator. “It’s resisting me. It’s aware.”

Aware.

The word hangs between us, heavy and wrong, while the hairs on my arms prickle.

Sterling sweeps his hand in a firm arc and tries again. The waterfall retreats farther and winks out of existence. The remaining falls vanish in sequence, like candles being snuffed out one by one.

The diamonds stay scattered across the floor, throwing in fractured rainbows.

Beautiful. Valuable. And freaking cold as hells. The temperature in the room has dropped enough for goose bumps to pebble my skin.

I straighten, remembering to pull my shoulders back like a queen rather than slump like the girl who still sometimes wakes screaming from nightmares. “We need to gather the palace guards. And the others.”

“Agreed.” He steps to the door and issues clipped orders to the guards stationed outside.

Within minutes, Captain Griffin Fitz strides in and bows. Sharp brown eyes regard me from beneath a scarred left eyebrow, the flaw a white slice through his mahogany skin. His leather armor is covered by a tabard bearing my sigil, the phoenix and dragon. “Your Highness?”

Sterling points to the wrapping that covered the gift. “Find anyone who saw this package arrive. Who delivered it, when, and on whose orders.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” I catch the slight widening of Fitz’s eyes as they sweep over the diamonds. “We’ll begin immediately.”

Agnar Kerrin arrives next, a little out of breath and with sweat glistening on his battle-scarred face. Coppery hair flows untamed around his broad shoulders as he scans us from head to toe. Once he reassures himself we’re both unharmed, a relieved smile softens his mouth. This man is like a brother to Sterling. Closer even, considering they served as soldiers together.

His smile quickly fades when he takes in the rest of the scene.

“Well,” he rakes a hand through his unruly hair, “that’s not something you see every day. If those are the kinds of gifts you get, it’s almost enough to convince me to get married.”

Leesa and Bastian enter together with linked hands that quickly separate once they see the assembled group. Leesa’s dark golden blond waves bounce as she hurries to my side. My adoptive sister and the half-brother I’ve only met this year make the perfect couple. Their love produces adorable displays of affection and lots of blushing on Leesa’s part.

“What happened?” Her olive complexion pales as she surveys the diamond-littered floor. “Are those real?”

“Very.” I nudge a gem with my toe. The icy chill seeps through my leather slippers. “And no one knows where they came from.”

Astrid Fleming slips in last, quietly and efficiently as always. Her honey brown eyes miss nothing as she absorbs the situation.

I raise an eyebrow, but she shakes her head, sending her short chestnut waves flying. As my personal scribe and assistant, Astrid is the one who catalogued all the delivered presents. Yet even she has no idea who’s responsible for this particular present.

“The servants report no unusual deliveries.” Fitz returns from his initial inquiries. “No packages, no messengers.”

“The sentries?” Sterling’s voice is tight.

“Nothing, Your Highness. No strangers approached the palace today.”

I examine the diamonds again as the chill from my feet spreads to the rest of my body. “So whatever…whoever…sent this either has access to the palace or⁠—”

“Or can bypass our security entirely.” Sterling’s lower lip curls in.

I address Astrid. “Whatever this is, it started out as water and recoiled from Sterling’s magic. Almost as if it were sentient.”