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Kaia laughs and takes a seat in one of the overstuffed chairs in front of the fireplace. The firelight dances over her dress, making it shimmer in the low light.
“I’m just back from my feast day celebrations.”
“I forget your people like you enough to follow the old ways. What I don’t understand is why you prolong the torture by attending all three days.”
I join her in the opposite chair, conjuring myself another glass of liquor and her a glass of wine. She takes a delicate sip, watching me over the rim of the glass, and I know what she’s going to say before her lips even part.
“Your people celebrate you too. You just refuse to acknowledge them.”
“My people are dead.”
“That should be a bonus for you. Since you hate the smell of the living.”
I chuckle despite myself and stretch my legs out in front of me. “Did you need something?”
“I saw Railan when I arrived. Sparring in the training yard with Hayle and Nevon.”
I already know where she’s going with this, but I let her finish.
“Another breach in the veil?” I hold up three fingers, and her brows draw together. “It’s getting worse,” she murmurs. “What can we do?”
“I have no idea.”
Kaia pauses with the glass halfway to her lips and stares at me. I’ve known Kaia my entire existence. Few people in this world know me better, and the concern on her face mirrors my own.
“There has to be something that can be done. A ritual or a spell. Something.”
“The only thing that’s ever worked is my blood.” I sit forward in my chair, eyes intent on the flames dancing behind the grate. “And even that is failing me now.”
She purses her lips, a small crease forming between her brows. “I haven’t heard any whispers from the high court about the veil thinning.”
“Still have spies embedded at my brother’s court, my lady?” I say with a raised brow, and her mouth twitches before she takes another sip of wine.
“I enjoy being informed. Knowledge is power and all that.”
“And what sort of information have your spies shared with you?”
She twists the glass in her hands, the liquid beginning to swirl in a perfect circle, less a result of the movement and more from her power.
“He’s introducing several new demigods into society soon.”
“Zanirah must be thrilled.”
The wine in her glass goes still, and she flinches at the mention of the queen, her gaze drifting to the dancing flames. “She always was more content than I was to look the other way.”
I snort and glance out the window when a tree in the distance catches fire. My brother is cruel in ways most of Acaria cannot fathom. He hides it well, under his fine clothes and grand palace and massive feasts and celebrations.
Most of the gods who sit among his high court play the game well, ignoring my brother’s antics in favor of maintaining their lands, money, and power and avoiding my brother’s infamous wrath.
But while we are similar in many ways, we are different in the ways that matter. I don’t hide my cruelty behind expensive things and fancy balls and too-wide smiles. What you see with me will always be what you get.
“So it’s safe to say you won’t be going, then?”
I chuckle, setting my glass on the table between us with a thunk.
“No. I have more important things to do than watch my brother debut his half-mortal bastards in front of his wife.”
“You say that like you feel bad for her.”
