Page 15 of The Ember and the Emerald

Water.

Protective gear.

Oh! Maybe past me had packed everything?

I attempted to unzip the backpack, but it remained stuck. Even when I used pliers, scissors, and a saw.

Whatever. A bigger problem remained: Jasher’s condition. No way I could carry or cart a thousand-pound metal statue around a nightmare forest with quicksand pits and poisonous poppy fields. He’d had the elixir. Why hadn’t he changed?

I glanced his way and—our gazes locked, and I gasped. He was staring at me, hard, his sunset eyes no longer masked by silver. They projected an obvious message: I’m aware, and I’m not happy.

Adrenaline lit me up. I scrambled over and clasped his hands. Still too cold, too hard. Too metal. “Hey. Not sure how much you overheard, but I fed you a potion, and it’s freeing you from the metal prison. Might take minutes or hours—” or days “—but it’s working.”

His nostrils flared, his breaths coming in shallow pants. His irises glittered with rage. More than he’d ever projected.

He must be fighting for freedom with everything he had.

My sweet Jasher. I petted his cheek. “I won’t leave you,” I vowed. I would wait for his total recovery, then return to Hakeldama with him…but not my mother. No way would I lead her onto a battlefield. For her safety, I would leave her here.

I nodded to punctuate my decision. To beat Ian, I required aid. And I knew just who to approach.

If the water maidens were anything other than tricky, it was informative. Better get a feel for Elowen and decide if I trusted her. Although, if she was anything like Iris, I’d pay a steep price for this interaction.

I didn’t care. To ensure my mother’s safety—the baby’s safety—to right the past and the future…worth any price.

If Emma could summon Elowen, maybe I could, too. I’d summoned Iris without knowing it. And honestly, I wanted—needed—to just…meet her. Every time I heard her name, my heart blipped?

I stepped up to a large puddle across from the executioner. It was enough to summon an everyday, average water maiden. Why not the queen?

Anticipation bubbled, as effervescent as champagne. “Elowen,” I called to the water. “Come. Let us bargain together. Tit for tat.” Catnip to those like her. “What do you say?”

For once, I didn’t have to wait. Within seconds, a disturbance cast little ripples across the surface. Water splashed, a beautiful woman rising gracefully from the liquid as if lifted by a cloud.

I stumbled back, certain of three things. I’d never met her, I was slightly awe-struck, and even now, connection flickered.

While Iris had been pink from head to toe, Elowen shimmered a vibrant red. Pearl strands wove through her cascading scarlet tresses. Ruby eyes somehow as familiar as they were deep reflected an ocean I couldn’t see. She wore a blood-red gown with silver embroidery and a hem that billowed like mist. More scars than I could count crisscrossed her coral skin. A jagged line even bisected her face, running from brow to jawline.

A crown of sea glass and shells perched upon her head. Bands stacked one upon the other around her wrists and ankles. The faint scent of sea foam and blooming lilies wafted from her, intensifying the sense of connection.

“Hello again—for the first time.” Her voice. A whisper of mysteries, remembrances, and secrets knitted with the unmistakable authority of a woman who fully comprehended her power. “I am Her Serene Majesty Elowen, Queen of Water Maidens, Supreme Oracle of the Great Unknowns, Lady of the Deepest Depths, Keeper of the Silver Tides, High Enchantress of the Azure Realms, and Empress of the Moonlit Seas. At your service…Moriah Shaker.” She stepped from the water, completely dry.

Her very presence embodied each title. “You know Sandrine is my mother.”

“Yes.”

Well, no one else did, which meant she could have told them but had chosen not to. “Please, call me Rye. Though I feel as if I know you, we’ve never met.” Honestly, how confusing was my life right now?

“You should go by your title, the Oracle Great and Terrible. It fits you best.” Elegant but creepy, she canted her head at me. “You have seen the future, yes?”

Not the way she meant. “According to my… to Queen Sandrine, only water maidens are oracles, and I’m no water maiden. No matter what I claimed in your past.”

Elowen smiled, ruby eyes sparkling. “Are you sure you’re not an oracle?”

“Quite sure.” But I recognized her tactic. Allude to a mystery, prompting me to lower my guard before she went in for the kill. Moving on. “I’ll be blunt. I have questions for you, but I don’t trust you. My dealings with water maidens have been…not good.” Every other description in my head would insult her to those deepest depths she’d mentioned.

“Ah yes.” She glided farther from the water, her bare feet leaving no prints across the wooden floor. “You dealt with my daughter, Iris. Or you will when she’s older. My sweet darling is only nine now.”

My eyes bugged out. You’ve got to be kidding me. Not only was the Iris I’d known currently a child, but I now had to deal with her mother.