Page 51 of A Thread of Breath and Bone

As I step out of the shower, I hear a light knock on my door. I wave off my footman, Leif, and head over with a towel wrapped around my waist. I know it's Raea from the tug in my chest that leads me right to the door.

I open it, and her eyes go wide, fixated on my bare torso. She swallows.

A soft laugh slips from me as her gaze meets mine. “Oh, uh, we need to make a list of invites. I spaced earlier.”

“Come in so I can get dressed.” I hold open the door, and she fidgets a moment before entering, glancing at my bare stomach and then the ground. She’s bathed already and is wearing a simple night gown. Her feet are bare, her hair is braided, and the scent of fresh blooms and rain fills the air around me.

“Wait here, and I’ll be back.”

Raea and I are in the living space typing out messages and going through a list of friends. She keeps leaning into me like even the little amount of space between us is too much. A lot has happened between us, and I know she’s got to be mentally and emotionally exhausted. But she’s sitting here, typing out a message to Princess Aolyn and Tate. I plan to talk to Trysten when I get home. I’m sure my mother has a whole list of people she would like to invite as well.

It feels almost wrong to be celebrating while people are losing their homes. I haven’t forgotten. The prophecy states that kingdoms will fall. It makes me queasy, but all I can hope is that there won’t be loss of life, and somehow, with the evacuations, everything will be okay. It’s wishful thinking because I know in my gut, there will be destruction.

Raea yawns and continues through her list, scratching off friends as she goes.

“Hey, let’s go to bed,” I say, standing. “You can finish tomorrow.” I wrap my hands around her waist, and she leans back into me. It’s strange how different things are between us. She’s more affectionate now than the entire eight months we were in school.

“Let me—” She yawns. “Okay, bed.” She shuts down the comm screen and slides off the couch. She leans into me the whole way back to my door. “Do you think they would be upset if I stayed with you?”

“I think that’s playing with fire.”

“But you’re leaving tomorrow. It would be like filling my tank before you leave.”

We stop at the door, and she turns to face me. She has a sleep-drunk look about her that I find adorable. She is smiling up at me lazily, eyes heavy with sleep. Is this what it will be like when we’re married? I’ll help her out of her gowns and feel her curl up into me while she hums sleepily.

I laugh softly and guide us to the large four-poster bed draped in soft gossamer. The dark green sheets look almost black in the candlelight. Raea crawls in, inhaling deeply before yawning.

When I settle beside her, she drapes a leg over mine, holding me like she’s afraid I’ll disappear. I kiss her once more before sleep takes me.

Raea’s cries fill my head. Her body writhing and twisting against mine. Looking outside through the glass wall of windows and doors, the moon has already begun its descent. I drifted off without realizing. Raea cries again beside me, and I roll over, brushing back her hair. I try to wake her. I try rubbing my palms down her arms. I try to calm her by pressing a kiss to her forehead. Nothing works.

“Raea, love, wake up.”

She cries again, thrashing and fighting something.

I shake her harder. Still nothing. Finally, I pull her into my arms to keep her from hurting herself or me.

Fear grips me. I feel helpless, and I don’t know what to do.

“Raea.” I shake her with a little more force this time, and her eyes pop open, shimmering gold for a moment before clearing away.

“They’re coming,” she sobs, the gold bleeding back into green as she collapses into me. “The warning isn't a dream anymore. It's a promise."

Chapter 20

Raea

The rest of the day is a blur of military briefings and logistical nightmares. My parents are no longer shielding me, they are carving out my place as the future queen.

Every hour, the reports grow bleaker. More refugees pour in from Ateria and Mori, their eyes hollow with the same fear that keeps my magic simmering beneath my skin. We’ve been asked to absorb the population of Ista—planets are falling, and we are simply rearranging the pieces before the board is wiped clean.

There is no escaping the horrors that are coming.

A shiver skates down my spine, and I clamp my hand down around the necklace from Ryker. He left in such a rush this morning, I didn’t get to say a proper goodbye—though I don’t think I’d ever feel like a goodbye was enough.

My father orders all hands-on deck, helping with refugees and preparing them for what is coming. We don’t know how to fight. That’s the one thing I wish I had learned from the prophecy book. How are we supposed to win without knowing what the hell we’ll be fighting?

Ryker took the prophecy book, but I pulled every ancient tome and every article in the system’s archives about the Veil, the gods, Sgya, and folklore. I figure there has to be something, but with each book I’ve pulled, I’m only left with more questions than answers. Surely the gods would have known that we wouldn’t know how to fight. I wonder if there is a way to communicate with them. I wonder if I need to go back to Sgya.