Destiny has woven a path of adventure for Grace Holt, and her fate is about to send her into neck-deep trouble.
Once content drifting through the quiet hours of her former life, Grace now stands bound to the mysteries of the Dreadwroughts and their unknown magic. Her royal lover, King Cassian, makes inquiries and discovers they aren’t the only ones pursuing these strange objects. Across the waves, a desperate king has sent his envoy to the illustrious Runehold Conservatory, hoping its scholars can save his son-and his kingdom’s future-from the Queen of the Sea.
An ancient allegiance between their realms draws Cassian and Grace to the storm-lashed shores of the seafaring nation, where peril rises and falls with the tide, sweeping them from towering cliffs to the crushing depths of the sea floor. Powerful magic stirs in the abyss, hinting at an ancient source, and they soon discover that nothing is as it seems.
Amid crashing waves and veiled enchantments, Grace and Cassian battle relentless sorcery and monstrous threats in a desperate race against the gathering storm, and discover the blazing fire of a love forged in shared peril.
“Lady Holt! Oh, Lady Holt!”
Oh boy. I stopped in my tracks in the palace hall and clasped my hands together in front of me. I slapped a smile on my face and turned to the person who called me. She was a stocky, overweight woman of fifty, with an overpowdered white wig atop her head and a flowery dress over her large frame. Her attire made her resemble an old couch, the kind you’d find at a grandmother’s house.
A woman half her age followed. She was slim, with pretty blue eyes and her natural brown hair tied in a braid. Her dress was simple, without patterns or frills, but its simplicity was more becoming than the woman’s flowered extravagance. The pair reminded me of my own mother and me, walking down the street and window shopping.
It had been a week since I moved into the palace, and I had made their acquaintance a few days before this unpleasant reunion.
“Lady Alta!” I answered as I inclined my head to the pair. “How are you today?
And your lovely daughter! Good morning, Serena.”
The younger smiled and bowed to me, while the elder looked me over like I was yesterday’s caught fish. “Good morning, Lady Holt. I heard a most unbelievable rumor. One that concerns you.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Oh? What was it about?”
“The rumor stated that you were residing in His Majesty’s personal quarters.”
I gripped my hands tighter, but kept my smile on my lips. “Oh, that. I’m just in a nearby room, that’s all.” Just connected via a door. Nothing intimate about that.
She lifted her nose. “I see. Is that because of your unique situation? You had told me you were merely visiting here for a short while, and had no need for a permanent apartment in our wing.”
“Something like that.” Please, God, send me some salvation.
Serena set a hesitant hand on her parent’s shoulder. “Mother, perhaps we should go-”
“Nonsense!” Lady Alta snapped as she shrugged off her daughter’s hand. Her sharp, narrowed eyes sized up her child. “There is nothing wrong with me asking a few questions. Besides, I remember when a certain young lady was very impertinent as a child. She would ask anyone anything that came into her little mind.”
Serena blushed and dropped her gaze to the floor. “That was many years ago, Mother.”
“Yes, but some things never change,” Lady Alta scolded her before she returned her focus to me. “I do wonder at the cheek of your apartment location, Lady Holt. You really should watch yourself. His Majesty detests forward women, as his indifference toward my Serena will show you.”
I bowed my head. “I’ll be sure to do that. If you’ll excuse me, I was going to go for a stroll in the gardens.”
“Have I told you about my garden?” Lady Alta wondered as she waved a hand at her face. “What work it takes! What beautiful plants I have!”
I couldn’t help but notice that the fingers that she waved were a little on the chunky side. “I’m sure. If you’ll excuse me.”
I raced away without doing the actual racing. The warm sun greeted me, as did a certain handsome face. Cassian strode from the palace gates toward me, his hands clasped behind his back and his eyes on the ground. He was deep in thought.
“A penny for your thoughts,” I spoke up.
My offer started him from those thoughts, and he looked up. His face was a picture of worry, but a smile brightened his looks. “Good morning. What brings you out here?”
“The flowers, and the owner of the flowers,” I told him as I cocked my head to one side. “But one of them looks wilted.”
“They do?” he wondered as he turned his focus to the plants.
I stepped forward and stabbed a finger into his chest. “The wilted one is you. You don’t look happy at all.”
He closed his eyes and faintly smiled. “Is it that obvious?”
“As obvious as the sun in the sky. What’s up?”
“The sun.”
I rolled my eyes. “I mean, what’s bothering you?”
His eyes darted over me. “You are.”
I blinked at him. “Me?”
“Your predicament.”
My shoulders slumped, and I clutched my hand over my heart. “Oh, that. Well, I’m not doing too bad here, am I?”
“No, but we haven’t learned the long-term effects of your interaction with the Dreadwrought.”
My fingers felt my heart skip a beat. “What do you mean? What side effects?”
“Magic is not without its consequences.”
“But you said I couldn’t do magic.”
He folded his arms over his chest and furrowed his brow. “There is also that unanswered question.”
“You’re starting to get me worried that I’m not going to wake up tomorrow morning,” I scolded him, before I paused and frowned. “Or I’m going to wake up and be a bug.”
Cassian blinked at me. “A what?”
I waved a hand between us. “Never mind. Anyway, there has to be something we can do while we wait for what may or may not come.”
He leaned back and looked me over. “Perhaps there is. You said you could recognize the man by his face and voice? The stranger who sent the Dreadwrought and brought you to my realm?”
I nodded. “Yeah, why?”
“We shall perhaps work with those details,” he mused as he set a hand on the small of my back and turned me toward the door. “There is an artist I know who can draw an accurate representation of your stranger.”
My face drooped. “I hope it’s not Velario.”
He chuckled. “No, merely one gifted in the normal ways of artistry.”
“Your Highness!”
The shout came from the direction of the gatehouse. The guard messenger I had met on my first night here hurried over to us with a letter in his hand. My heart skipped a beat at the thought of another message from the stranger.
The messenger stopped before us and held out the envelope. “A message from the Runehold Conservatory. You asked to be notified when something was sent.”
“Thank you,” Cassian replied as he accepted the letter. “Stay here in case there’s a reply.”
I leaned close to his arm as he opened the envelope and pulled out a brief letter. “What’s it about?”
“I made inquiries about the Dreadwrought,” he explained as he read the note. “The Warden of the Runes says another person has recently made inquiries, and perhaps we might meet with them.”
“Who are they?”
“The king of Thalorion, one of the other three kingdoms on the continent. His kingdom relies on the ocean for its livelihood.” He paused and furrowed his brow. “They have little need for magic besides the wind in their sails. I wonder what he could want with the Dreadwroughts.”
I grabbed his arm and tugged him toward the gates. “So what are we waiting for? Let’s go see what this other king wants.”
And so our new adventure began, one that would leave me pining not for the fjords, but for deserts.
