Page 256 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

“I will go with them,” Thora said and then turned to Lazarus with a cold bored gaze. “And you might sit down, feathered man, no one asked for you to defend anyone. Certainly not your queen from your king—her husband might I remind you.”

Mal chuckled. “You tell him, little bird.”

Lazarus blinked stunned a moment before he sat back down, embarrassed.

Snow’s jaw tightened. “You will do no such thing.”

Thora met her stare dead on. “Why, will you stop me? Will you chain me like father and uncle did? Will you hurt me and hold me and beat me too till I obey you?”

Snow faltered a little, speechless.

“I will come as well,” Mal added.

“No,” both Snow and I said.

He cocked an amused brow at the two of us. “Why, will you stop me? Will you chain me—”

Thora gave him a smack on the shoulder, and he chuckled some more.

And like that it was decided. The four of us would go to retrieve the Adriatian sceptre piece tomorrow.

The meeting room dispersed, leaving only the four of us and Visha to prepare for tomorrow’s travel.

Lake Astrid was not a sacred ground like the other Octa Virga locations. The shadowed lake was a reminder of human nature. Asterin was a graveyard of those that put greed before their life. Once the waters had been rich with life, a home to creatures of water and land, half human and half fish. We called them nereids or lake nymphs. Fascinating creatures that the god of waters, Roto, had gifted Adriata in passing when he’d visited my kingdom. The creatures had lived peacefully, thriving in their waters until humans had made contact. Nereids were not social beings, their language was poison to human ears and their singing was deadly, it lured one onto the waters till they drowned—magic that was meant to protect them from harm. But it had lured one too many to their shores, dragged onto the depths of the waters till they had drowned. News had spread fast in my lands and curiosity had grown along with lies to attract attention. Some had said the nereids opened gates to the heavens of Roto and had voluntarily entered their waters in search of them. Others said the nereid songs cleared your soul to guarantee you heavens and had listened to their singing only to end up in the Otherworld.

So many lives were lost in pursuit of those lies that Henah had been left with no choice but to seal the land with magic like she’d sealed the Danic’s. Just like the veil in the Danic’s, this too was a dark one—one that only the goddess of darkness could cast. The magic was a warning to those that disobeyed. And those that disobeyed found a darker end in the mist than what they would have found in the lake.

Visha had kept staring at me the whole time Mal explained the condition of the location we were to visit. There was an odd look on the young Crafter’s face. Almost resembling worry. “I think you shouldn’t go tomorrow.”

Her words made everyone go silent and turn to attention, staring between her and I.

“It will be fine,” I assured. “Continue, Mal.”

“So, are the nereids still in the water?” Thora asked, looking disturbed by the thought.

“They are,” Mal said. “Scared?”

She shook her head, steeling on an expression of fierceness. “No. Curious how we will avoid dying by a song. It would be a terrible way to die.”

“No one will be dying, Rora,” Snow said boredly. “At least not tomorrow.”

Moriko chose that moment to enter the meeting room chambers. She dropped a red flower on the meeting table. A red spider lily. “Why do you grow that on castle grounds?”

Snow scoffed. “Do I look like I do the gardening in my castle? And have you not noticed nothing can grow on obsidian rock?”

Moriko pointed to the flower with persistence. “I plucked that from the wall outside.”

Snow looked at the flower and then Moriko with an annoyed stare. “Too much fuss for a flower, Your Majesty.”

“That is the omen of death, Snow,” the Autumn Queen gritted out without her usual calm.

“It’s just a flower,” Snow said.

Moriko pointed to the window. “Look outside.”

Mal and Thora went to the balcony and froze. Slowly, Snow and I rose, too, and what we saw made us both take a step back. Red spider lilies had sprung all over the face of the obsidian castle, covering the black rock in crimson. An ominous blanket swaying at the touch of wind that dusted the air with sweet pollen and soft notes of warning.

“Why has the bride of death visited your door?” Moriko asked.