PROLOGUE: THE BROKEN QUEEN
TRUE LOVE IS not meant for queens.
I know this well as I sit with the queen of Homeworld on her deathbed, her hand clasped in mine. The dying Queen Nerissa, far too young and still beautiful, takes short breaths as she stares at the sleeping form of her child, nestled in her arms to capture what time they have left.
Herson, Nereus.
“I’m letting him down,” she murmurs. “I’m lettingeveryonedown.”
I try to stay strong—for her, and so as not to wake the child. I know this woman better than my own mother, and it feels like I’m being robbed yet again of something that I deserve.
I’m still young; I shouldn’t have already witnessed this much death.
“You’ve done all you can for Homeworld,” I tell her. “You need to rest—you may still recover.”
Nerissa looks at me through dull eyes that were once a bright, lagoon green. “We both know that’s not true.”
Nereus stirs beside her, the queen’s only child. I think he might wake, but he just nestles in deeper, a contented smile on his face. He’s young enough that he has no idea he’s about to lose her, blissfully unaware.
I can’t help the pang of jealousy that tears through me.
I am under no such illusions.
“He’ll spend his whole life in danger,” she says. “I should have tried harder to conceive a daughter.”
“You loved Corinth, as I love Damarion,” I say. “And surely it was worth it to be with him.”
“Was it?” Nerissa’s eyes flutter shut, tears collecting on her lashes. “I insisted on taking only Corinth as a consort…and what did it get me? Even now, he’s in negotiations with the Hyperboreans on what to do once I’m gone. I have no successor. I have no one to comfort me—besides you, who’ve been better than any daughter I could have had.”
The words hit me like cannon fire. I gulp down the knot in my throat, squeezing her hand.
“I’ll ensure Homeworld is safe,” I tell her. I can’t make such a promise–but I can’t lie to her either. “We sacrifice everything for our planets. We deserve to have only who we want. Only who we love.”
I’m convinced of that, at least.
“But Nereus…” She chokes back a sob, pressing a kiss to her son’s head. His hair is the same deep auburn as her own—and as mine, marking us as kin. “He’ll have to take on the burden of an arranged marriage because I couldn’t stomach it. And that’sifhe survives to adulthood.”
“I’ll see it done,” I say. “I’ll ensure his survival, at the very least. And I hope that one day, we can all have the choice we deserve when it comes to who we love.”
“Thank you, Cressida,” she whispers.
Her eyes slide shut, and it’s only then that I let myself cry.
I sob as I keep her hand in mine, staring at the boy in horror. She’s right; he will live a life of danger and custom, and he will have to fight for every inch of freedom he desires. And I can make promises all I want in these last few hours, but I know that one thing is awfully, inexorably true.
Nereus of Homeworld has a dangerous and uncertain fate.
And I can only do so much to stop him from coming to a terrible end.
CHAPTER ONE
NEREUS
We’re still in Alamancia. Trapped in a precarious balance, at the cusp of something truly awful.
War is coming for our family, and we’ve already lost our home.
The Naiad is destroyed, the wreckage cleared away from the landing dock. We’ve salvaged everything we could—the broken pieces of a family that once felt whole—and now we wait for orders from Cressida. She doesn’t want us to rush into anything, but Fiona is anxious to get a head start on building our army before Lamia takes another step to kill us.