Page 13 of The Kraken Bride

“Ah, but you don’t need a translator, remember?” I said, fighting for calm. “Try again.”

“All right. How’s this? In five days, convergence occurs. For sixty seconds, a rune that has remained dormant for centuries will awaken and speak.”

Not terrifying so far. Though a speaking rune seemed… odd? “I studied convergence before I came.” A time when the outer sea, the dome tide and the moon breathe together. “What I don’t understand is my part in it.”

“I need you there when it happens. To answer the rune’s question.”

I waited for him to elaborate. He did not. “What question?” I asked.

“One that will allow it to transfer its power to me.” His expression hardened. “Then I will become the only weapon capable of slaying the primordial.”

Whoa, whoa. His victory hinged on me having a chit-chat with a rune? Nein. Unacceptable. “What if I mishear the question? Or don’t hear it at all?” Were the images on the dome—and his skin—speaking even now?

“You will hear, and you will hear correctly,” he said, firm. “There’s nothing easier, Brona. We’ll work on it together.”

Not good enough. “How do you know I’ll hear correctly?”

A muscle flexed in his jaw. “Because you meet a specific set of criteria.”

That wasn’t good enough either. “Well? List the criteria. Some kind of prophecy? Perhaps a mythical birthmark I don’t know I have? A wild, chosen-one situation?” All the scenarios I’d read about in my novels.

The corner of his mouth quirked before his entire countenance turned wry. “You are female. Flaxen-haired. Have eyes like calm waters and dragon fire in your veins.”

That was specific. And odd. “A powerful rune is concerned about my hair and eye color?”

“Nei,” he admitted, a bit sheepish. “Those are my own preferences. What I choose for my consort, the only woman the rune will be willing to speak with.”

A flutter stirred in my stomach. Learning I fulfilled the requirements of an ancient rune would have been far less unsettling than discovering I fulfilled Sebastian’s.

“I just… I still can’t wrap my head around why you chose me for this job. Surely there’s someone else better qualified.” I got the bigger details, sure, but not all the smaller ins and outs. “And why does the stone need to speak with your consort at all? Why not have a conversation with you directly?”

“It will. But only after it speaks to you.”

“Why?” I insisted.

“Ask it.”

Did he not know why I had to go first? Or did he just not want to tell me?

“This is what I know beyond any doubt.” Sebastian tossed back a third drink. Was the unflappable king... drinking to steady himself? “Jon, the shifter king, won’t move against Jokull unless I hold the rune’s power. No one follows a king who can’t win. But Jon needs to see me with my consort, publicly, putting skin in the game. No consort, no truce, no fighting Jon together.”

Wait. Logic flaw. “Jon might not know I’m a fake consort, but the rune will.”

“Why would you consider yourself fake?” He frowned as if I’d missed the most obvious detail. “You will agree to be my consort. Therefore, you will be my consort. What we do within our arrangement is up to us, no one else.”

I did not find that especially comforting.

He ran his tongue over his teeth. “We have time to prepare. The agreement with shifters buys us five days. Jon has agreed to halt his attacks until after the convergence. And to extend the truce, depending on how things go.”

“And if the rune doesn’t transfer to you?”

Sebastian’s gaze moved to the window. “Then the partnership with Jon ends.”

I followed his line of sight. The car eased along a road, a whole new world coming into view. Kraken strolled the promenade in twos and threes, lantern-light catching on their limbs, none of them looking up. A whole world that didn’t know it was already under siege.

“Majesty,” I said, gearing up to launch into a meaningful speech about all the reasons I was the worst candidate for this job. For starters, there was more to it than he’d admitted. There must be.

“Sebastian,” he corrected.