They looked at each other and then me. “What will you give us?”

I had nothing on me, nothing but the necklace Griffin had given me. With a quick motion before I thought better of it I took it from my neck and offered it to them. “A Griffin’s tooth. Powerful magic and protection. You could keep it or sell it.”

“Does it heal?” the boy asked, his eyes wide.

“Not injuries.” I pointed to my foot.

The girl was already nodding. “I’ll get Ayu. You wait here.”

She spun, kicking up sand as she bolted from us. The boy bent to take the necklace and I held it out of reach. “When Ayu gets here, you can have it then.” They were just children, but I didn’t trust anyone from the Deep. Except maybe Finley and Dolph, and even Dolph had killed his own son.

I laid back in the sand. “Boy, sit on that big rock and tell us if anyone comes.”

His footsteps were silent as he walked away, his head low and shoulders hunched.

“He really wants that necklace,” Ash said, scooting closer to me, his body blocking my sight of the darkened ocean.

“He is welcome to it if the throbbing in my foot and leg can be eased and we can get your hand put back together.” I grimaced, swallowed my pride, and asked the question that burned in my gut. “Ash, why did you really come?”

The air between us filled with tension. “There are several messages I’ve intercepted lately in the Rim. They all pointed to you and Belladonna being sent here to be killed.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “My father . . .”

Ash shook his head. “I don’t know. He might have been in on it, but the messages were from multiple areas. The Rim, Eyrie, Pit, and Deep. All four had messages coming and going. All pointed to you two being wiped out.”

That made sense. As an Ender, his first job would always be to protect the king and his heir to the throne. Which at the moment was Belladonna, according to her anyway. “You were right to come. Look at the mess I’ve got us into. If you didn’t know better, you’d think I was a Tracker and not an Elemental.”

He smiled and shook his head. “No, you aren’t that bad. This mess isn’t solely yours. If I had explained to you what was going on, we could have worked together. I’m . . . sorry.” His eyes were intense and I couldn’t shake the feeling he was trying to get me to understand something else. He closed the distance between us, his lips hovering over mine. “I didn’t come for Belladonna.”

My heart hammered inside my chest as I stared up at him. No one had ever fought for me before. Not even Coal. As strong as I’d become, as much as I knew I could take care of myself, the thought that Ash would fight for me . . . a curl of heat worked its way through me to my lips. I raised, closing the distance between us—

“Ayu is coming!”

I closed my eyes and leaned my head forward, pressing our cheeks together.

I felt him smile. “Another time. Right now, we have to get Belladonna and get the hell out of here.”

“And save Finley,” I said.

“No, we don’t have to do that.” He pulled back from me, a frown on his lips.

I frowned right back. “Yes, we do.”

“No, we don’t.”

“Yes, we do.” Forgetting about my foot I pushed to stand and pointed to the water. “She saved us. And I will be damned to the seven hells if I don’t do my best to put her on the throne.”

Ayu came to a stop beside me. “Lark, I see you’ve been busy.” Her hands were cool on my skin and I forced myself to sit.

“Ayu, thank you for coming.”

“You have to hurry if you’re going to save Finley and your sister.”

“How much time before the coronation?” I let out a grunt as she poked at my foot.

“Requiem decided he wasn’t going to wait for the full moon. He’s going to marry and get a child in one of his brides so he has an heir right away.”

Her words stuttered through my brain. “Wait, brides?”

Ayu’s hands were efficient and gentle as she stitched my wounds closed and pieced the bones back together. “Requiem is taking two brides, and if you were known to be alive, he would take you, too.”

A whisper of premonition crept up my spine. Requiem’s words overheard in the barracks came back to me and I struggled to ask my question.

“Who, who is he marrying?”

Ayu lifted her head, her beaded hair clacking in the sea breeze. “His sister. And yours.”

CHAPTER 16

I jerked to my feet and was moving before I thought better of it. Ash tackled me, his words hard. “We have to plan. You can’t just go running into the throne room and expect to get them both out alive. This is the patience you have to learn, the patience of an Ender.”

My cheek pressed into the sand and I closed my eyes to get myself under control. Much as I hated it, Ash was right. And he was wrong, too. “You don’t even want to save Finley!”

“Will you just wait to hear the rest of what the healer has to say first?”

I nodded, the sand rough on my face. He let me go and I sat up. The twins stared at us with wide eyes and I remembered the necklace. I held it out to the boy. “Here, you did your part. Thank you.”

He darted forward, tiny hands clutching at the tooth. Ayu saw it and frowned. “Why would you give him that? It is a powerful talisman.”

The boy grinned and Ayu frowned at him at first, and then her expression softened. “Sting, that won’t save your mother from what she struggles with.”