One Salt Sea: An October Daye Novel

“What are you talking about?”


“There are . . . rituals . . . that need certain types of blood if they’re going to work.”

The last of the light seemed to go out of the world. “What?”

“Rayseline doesn’t have a hope chest. She doesn’t need one, if she has Gillian.”

“Is she . . . Luidaeg, is she . . .”

“I don’t know whether she’s alive or not. I’m sorry.” She sounded genuinely regretful. That didn’t lessen the urge to scream.

Eyes still closed, I counted silently to five before saying, “I have one potential witness to wherever it is Raysel is taking these people. We need to talk . . . immediately.”

“And . . . ?” said the Luidaeg, suspicion creeping into her tone.

“And the person in question is dead. I need to talk to the night-haunts, and I don’t have time to screw around with waiting for midnight, or with complicated ritual circles. Tell me how to get them here fast.”

The Luidaeg sighed. “This isn’t the best idea.”

“I never expected it to be.”

“And there’s no other way?”

“You just told me the crazy girl who stole my daughter may have done it to fuel some big ritual that you can’t tell me anything else about. The Lorden boys are still missing, and the Queen is still planning to go to war. No, there’s no other way. Not now. Now tell me how to call the night-haunts.”

“Bleed for them.”

I opened my eyes. “What?”

“Go someplace private, someplace they can reach you, and draw a circle in your own blood. All you have to do is bleed for them, and call.”

Summoning the night-haunts was a lot more complicated the first time. Suspiciously, I asked, “There’s nothing else?”

“Not anymore. You’re stronger than you were, and they know you.” Her chuckle was entirely without mirth. “Better than you think they do. Just call, and they’ll come. But be careful with them. Don’t agree to anything you’re not willing to live with.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. I’ll check in with you later.”

“I hope so,” she said, and hung up.

I looked at the phone in my hand for a moment, resisting the urge to smash it against the wall. Then I tucked it into my pocket, turned, and walked through the archway behind the throne.

Connor and I were running for our lives from Devin’s hired assassins the first time I used that door. We didn’t know the hall would end by opening onto empty air, or that running down it without a backup plan was a good way to find ourselves trying to figure out how to fly. I can’t fly. I figured that one out fast. And that’s why I no longer run down blind halls when I have any choice in the matter.

I was moving more slowly this time. Marcia’s assistant bakers brushed past me as I walked, both pausing long enough to bow shallowly in my direction. If they were puzzled by their orders, they weren’t going to show it. Never question the nobility. It just annoys them, and irritated nobles are a dangerous thing.

It bothered me that I could be classed with the nobility now. It bothered me a lot.

The hall was narrow at first, but widened as I got closer to the solarium. It also became more cluttered, with boxes and pieces of broken furniture stacked against the walls. True to her word, Marcia had arranged to have the room emptied for my use. I smiled a little. If she’d been an employee, it would have been time to give her a raise.