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Az stared at the sea-foam until the bubbles thinned and spread, until the Sidra was turquoise and unblemished once more. Until only his stunned reflection stared back at him.

CHAPTER

9

Feyre

I’d forgotten how bitter autumn could feel in the human lands. Like death loomed all around, waiting with frozen hands to snatch away any kernel of warmth and life.

Only a few years ago, I’d dreaded this chill in the air. Had felt nothing but terror at waking to that first frost sparkling on the dried grasses beyond our cottage. There had been nothing I could do to stop that lethal, oncoming winter.

Lucien seemed to be doing his best to keep his companions from feeling that growing cold: a preternaturally large fire crackled in every hearth of the small manor house—without wood—and each room was toasty to the point of suffocating.

But Vassa, perched by a window in dire need of a cleaning, gazing out at the setting sun, didn’t seem to mind the heat. Not surprising, given that she was currently in her firebird form, barely more than a flame given shape herself.

Jurian had rolled up his sleeves, though, and now stood at the large desk by the far wall of the study, poring over the map that Rhys and I had spread across the surface for us all to survey.

The harsh lines of Jurian’s face remained set in a scowl. “I would have thought you, at least, Rhysand, would remember how little the other side cared for diplomacy during the last war.”

“We had to try,” Rhys said from where he leaned against the desk.

“You’ve been trying for nearly two years,” Jurian said. He stabbed a scarred finger on the map, right where the wall had cut through the continent. “It’s done nothing.”

Standing on the other side of the desk, I jerked my chin at him. “I didn’t see you at the negotiating table.”

Jurian snorted. “Because I knew it’d be pointless.”

“They also wouldn’t have deigned to meet with him,” Lucien said across from me, frowning at the map, golden eye clicking.

Jurian scowled again, but said nothing.

Az was supposed to have conducted this check-in, but Rhys had told me yesterday afternoon that given all that was happening, we were to go in his stead. There was something else to it—I could sense it—but Rhys didn’t elaborate. When he was ready, he’d tell me.

And frankly, I was glad for the excuse to get out of Velaris, though my mate had informed me only after we’d winnowed here that Amren was at the Day Court. Apparently trying to avoid me, too. Fine.

A flash of light drew our attention to the window where Vassa had perched, revealing a sun now below the horizon line, and a flame growing and stretching into—

“Honestly,” Vassa said, human form appearing, clad in a mix of suede and leather clothes that had seen better years, “I wouldn’t have agreed to meet with Jurian, either—certainly not with that haircut of his.”

Jurian rolled his eyes at her teasing, but once again stayed silent.

Vassa nodded to me, then to Rhysand, a twinkle in her cobalt eyes. “Not being able to speak while these two idiots talk about important things is agony.”

Lucien threw her an exasperated look. “You had to wait all of three minutes from their arrival to when the sun set.”

Vassa brushed aside the comment, coming to stare at the map. I noted where her eyes fell first: the massive, sprawling lake in the center of the open Fae lands on the continent.

“Koschei is indeed pulling the territories’ strings,” Vassa said, recalling the update we’d given them upon our arrival. She fingered a frayed corner of the map. “I can confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is true. He’s long done that to amuse himself.”

“We need proof, though,” Rhys said. “Real, tangible proof.”

“Like what?” Vassa asked. “My word isn’t enough?”

“I wish that it were,” Rhys said gently, straightening from his casual pose. “But for the Fae territories to be convinced, we need someone who doesn’t stand to benefit from his downfall, someone not enslaved to him.”

“Is this any different from what he’s done before, though?” Vassa asked.

Rhys pointed to each of the three territories, then the vast stretch of open Fae territory below, in turn. “Yes. He’s pushing them into this invasion. That goes beyond mere amusement. And we need to know why.”