“Not quite,” he grunted, patting me awkwardly on the shoulder. I wanted to ask him about Urchin, how he could kill his own son, if it was really necessary. But the new lines on his face, etched by sorrow and grief were testament enough. He made a motion with a rolled piece of paper, sealed with a deep blue wax crest of the Kraken that looked a great deal like Olive. “I’ve brought a message from our queen. Will you take me to your father?”

I nodded and led the way through the Spiral to our throne room. It hummed with activity, people coming and going, Father making decisions on disputes. As if my life and the life of his eldest daughter had not only recently been in jeopardy.

I cleared my throat. “Your Highness, a messenger from the Deep.”

My father looked up, surprised. “Ender Larkspur, you and the ambassador are back? I’m surprised.”

A niggling fear wormed into me. What if he had wanted us dead, would he be trying to find a new way now to get rid of us?

Dolph stepped forward, bowed and straightened. He held a paper out, which he read from.

“By order of Queen Finley, first child of the Deep and ruler of the oceans, the Undines hereby thank King Basileus for his wisdom in sending Ender Larkspur and Ambassador Belladonna. Queen Finley would like to acknowledge that without the support of these two Terralings, her throne would still be held by an imposter.” Dolph looked at me. “And you may call upon the queen should you ever have need, Larkspur.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Well done, Ender.”

A flush of pride filled me with the words and I turned, expecting to see my father smiling.

He was not. In fact, he was frowning. “Ender Larkspur, to my private rooms. Now.”

I knew what was coming. We were not supposed to interfere. Head held high, I strode toward the door on the side of the throne room that would take me to my father’s private rooms.

The moss under my feet was no comfort as I waited.

He burst through the door, raging. “Of all the things I said, I told you not to interfere!”

“You told me to protect my sister at all costs; helping Finley was a part of that!”

“Blatantly disregarding my command, insolence on a scale I’ve never seen . . .”

The main door burst open and Belladonna burst in, hair and skirts flying behind her. “Don’t you reprimand her, Father! Don’t you dare. She kept me safe when any other Ender would have given up on me!”

He raised his free hand and pointed at her. “Belladonna, you are as much at fault as she is! I should banish you both.”

“The other families already believe you are weak, how much worse will it be when you banish the two daughters the Undines are hailing as heroes,” she said, her voice remarkably even for the flush of color in her cheeks.

Father’s jaw twitched and for just a moment, I thought I saw the pink glow of Spirit around his eyes. But that was impossible, I’d buried the ring Cassava had, there was no way she could be controlling him still.

Which meant he was just being horrible all on his own.

He pointed at me, then Belladonna. “For now, you may stay.”

I wasn’t done, though. I steeled myself for what I was going to say and do. “We sent you a message. Did you get it?”

He nodded. “I did.”

A tiny piece of my heart broke. “And were you going to send help?” Please, please let him say he would have.

Our father said nothing, only spun on his heel and walked out. Confusion rocked me. I didn’t understand how he could go from one extreme to the other. It made sense when Cassava controlled him, but not now.

“It is the damage done to his soul, splitting it in the middle. The dark on one side, the light on the other.”

The mother goddess’s voice flowed into the room and Belladonna gasped. A glittering, glowing woman, her features indistinct but somehow still familiar, stepped through the wall, her body emerging from the tree before pulling away from it. Where her feet had walked, flowers erupted in every color I’d ever seen. I went to my knees and Bella did the same.

“Mother,” I whispered.

She placed a hand on my head. “His heart is broken in pieces, and he does not know how to heal it, Lark. Your mother always did that for him, helped him hold Cassava’s taint at bay. Now you must be the one to guide his heart until it is whole.”

Her hand drifted from my head and went to Belladonna. “Child, the baby you carry will be the new life you need to find your place in this world. Love her as you wished to be loved.” Bella sucked in a sharp breath and my eyes prickled with tears.

I reached over and took her hand. “I will stand with you, Bella. No matter what comes.”

Her gray eyes filled with tears that trickled down her cheeks. “And I will stand with you, Larkspur. No matter what you face.”

The room was empty, the mother goddess gone as quickly as she came.

I walked Bella back to her rooms. “We never asked him if he was trying to kill us.”

She shrugged. “Does it matter? We know someone was, and that just means we have to be on guard.”

Before I left her, I made sure she was okay. After our time together, I was reluctant to leave her on her own. “I’m worried you’ll get into trouble,” I said.

Laughing, she shook her head. “Not here, not at home.”

After Dolph left to return to the Deep, I headed out of the Rim, jogging south. Looking for Griffin. As it was, he found me, long before I ever reached his home. A big black wolf with midnight black eyes waited for me at the top of a small ridge.