Page 113

Staring at me, Carys paled. “The numbers keep flickering in and out. I’d say fifty-fifty. I need to see her to know for sure.”

“Are you under Occulta’s influence?”

Her mouth fell open and she gaped at me. “What? No. Absolutely not.”

“But what numbers do you see?”

“Oh. Goddess. They keep flickering. Jumping around. It’s impossible to say. But I know myself, Shara. I would never betray you. I don’t even know what Occulta is.” When I didn’t say anything immediately, her cheeks flushed, making her skin splotchy. “Your Majesty. Surely you don’t suspect me.”

“I don’t.” Though I kept my focus on her bond, sinking into her consciousness. The low hum of millions of computers and soft flashing lights. Bits of data whizzing in and out of existence. Every book she’d ever read. Every nugget of information she’d gathered to power her databases.

Yet she didn’t know what Occulta meant? In all those millions of books and documents, there had never been a single reference?

I slowly pulled back from her bond and looked at Kevin. My brilliant, bright-eyed younger consiliarius with an eidetic memory. Who’d saved us by helping find the runes in the carpet. Who’d seen where the wooden chest was in the storage room, so Frank could grab it and bring it to the attic before it was too late. Kevin knew all the Triune laws because they were written into his mind. The archives of Triune minutes. For centuries. Studying the Triune was his guilty pleasure.

Yet the mightiest group of Aima queens had never encountered Occulta? They never discussed a plan to find their members or protect their own courts from them? Even the Dauphine…

The chime rang in my head again. Crystal clear.

The Dauphine had known about Occulta. The veiled woman in black on the dock. When she’d taken control of Warwick. I didn’t know her name. I wasn’t allowed to know—which was an abominable frustration I must endure to secure my goal.

I brought up that snippet of the Dauphine’s memory again, staring at the woman. Was she a queen? A human? I couldn’t tell. Even her voice had been distorted. Stretched out. Not quite in tune. No, not tune. Frequency. Like dials on an old radio needed to be twisted to bring her into focus better.

But she didn’t want to be in focus. She didn’t want to be identified. Even by one of the most powerful Triune queens to ever walk this earth.

I already knew the answer, but I asked Sekh anyway. “Do you see a black-veiled woman crossing Janelle’s path?”

“No, Your Majesty. In fact, I see nothing I would consider suspicious in her life at all, though of course, I cannot See within other queens’ blood circles. Who can say what might have happened outside of the tower you now control.”

I nodded slowly. “I’m going upstairs to speak to my mother. Then we’re using the pool room to get into the basement without any of the remaining queens knowing I’m back.”

I went upstairs alone. On a mission, I didn’t even pause to trace the tyet in the black wood but pushed open the door to the small room where Esetta had birthed me. Soft, golden lights flickered on immediately.

Esetta waited for me on the bench beside the tub. This time, her hair was coiled into a thick, heavy braid that curled on the floor at her feet. Golden spikes flared around her head like a fan, each tip glistening and brutally sharp. She gave me the barest smile, a faint quirk of her lips, but her dark eyes gleamed with emotion.

Fury.

“I feared you might never enter this room again, daughter of mine.”

I knelt beside her and wrapped my arms around her. As soon as my head touched her chest, she locked her arms around me in a tight hug that managed to make my slightly sore ribs twinge. “It’s been an eventful few days, Mother. How much do you know?”

“I am with you always, even if you can’t hear or see me. So I know how many times you’ve died or nearly died in such a short amount of time. None of which I ever saw, by the way, which is why…” She paused long enough I pulled back to see her face. Her eyes glowed with white light, her fangs glistening. “I’m sorry, Shara. I feel as though I’ve failed you.”

I cupped her cheeks, stroking until her fangs receded and her eyes returned to their normal indigo. “I’m only still alive because of you, Mother. Even if you didn’t see these events, I’ve been well prepared by everything else you were able to plan for before they could eliminate me.”

“Greater magic than mine is at work here. Magic that interferes with my ability to see.”

“The same as Carys. She said the numbers kept flickering in and out so she could only guess fifty-fifty. I’m guessing even if Gwen stood before her, she still wouldn’t be able to tell if Gwen was influenced or not. No one seems to know anything about Occulta, even the Triune, though I’m sure the Dauphine met one of their members to gain Warwick.”

Even here, in the room that was part of Isis’ holy space, saying that word out loud felt dangerous.

“There have been rumors and whispers, of course,” Esetta said, her voice low. “A sort of Shadow Triune, though not Triune at all. Others that might stand against the Triune queens, or work amongst them. Though with the Dauphine going into hiding, anything mysterious or suspicious could always be blamed on her.”

“With magic that doesn’t need blood. Janelle used fae magic to entrap me today, but I don’t think they only use fae. It seems… bigger. Can you see the Dauphine’s memory in my mind?”

Esetta nodded slowly. “Her voice is distorted.” Then her eyes narrowed, her head cocking as she listened again, watching the memory play out in my mind again. “Is she really there? Physically?”

I closed my eyes so I could fully focus on the memory. I smelled the briny air. Heard the creak of the wooden pier, the steady splash and roll of waves against the shore. The flap of sails in the breeze. The dock swayed slightly beneath my feet, a slight roll I felt in the pit of my stomach. Fully present, I looked at the woman in black again. Wrapped head to toe in long black cloth. Flowing over her face and body, disguising her shape. Her features.