A Queen of Thieves & Chaos (Fate & Flame, #3)

I back away and continue on, leaving them to it.

The halls of the castle crawl with shadows, my footfalls echoing. I’m never walking alone anymore, and especially not this late. It’s eerie, and suddenly, I regret not grabbing a dagger on my way out.

But I’m far from defenseless, I remind myself with a chuckle.

And maybe I’m never truly alone. I steal a glance up at the nymph statues that play silent sentry as I pass, wondering what will happen on Hudem, when Lucretia’s masters arrive. What do these nymphs look like? How many are there?

Ulysede is their gift, but what if there is a curse to go along with it? Gesine said they were known to cause great chaos and barter in lives, but everything Mordain knows about the nymphs so far seems either wrong or distorted.

“Romeria.”

“I’m coming!” Luckily for me, the legionaries are at the gate and all the mortals are in their beds. No one is around to hear me growling into an empty grand hall.

But I know someone who likely isn’t asleep.

I aim for the library and, not surprisingly, find the door ajar. With a headshake, I slink through the gap, moving quietly. The table Gesine always occupies has a stack of books waiting and a lantern burning, but she’s not there.

Her name is just about to leave my lips when I spot her at the end of a lengthy aisle, but she’s not alone. Zorya hovers close, her fingers tangled in the caster’s hair, their bodies pressed against each other, their mouths lost in a deep kiss.

I duck away before they notice me there, a smile touching my lips.

At least Zorya doesn’t want to kill her anymore.

With that happy thought, I head to Lucretia’s crypt alone.



The sylx is already waiting when my feet hit the stone floor. “You came.”

“You called.” Was she in my head or in my ear? “How did you do that, anyway?”

“Because we are in Ulysede.” Her serpentine yellow eyes drift to the stairs. “Where is your servant? The one I like?”

There can be only one she means. “Occupied.” Maybe I shouldn’t have admitted that so freely. “He’ll be here soon,” I add.

“Hmm.” She hums like she doesn’t believe me, and I catch a hint of disappointment—for my lie or his absence, I can’t tell.

“Is that who you’ve dressed for?” I nod toward her gown—a shimmering silver this time, and more revealing than the last. It’s cold down here, and yet it doesn’t seem to faze her.

“Your king has left you all alone in Ulysede,” she says instead, gliding toward me.

“I’m far from alone.” I tug my cloak closer. I wish I’d grabbed a dagger. Though I doubt a blade would stop this creature. “He had to go. There’s war coming.”

“There is always war coming. That is the nature of their kind. They bring it upon themselves with their lust for power.”

“Why didn’t you show yourself when Zander and I were here earlier? Or when Jarek and I were here?”

She brushes up along my arm as she passes. “Because I do not answer the questions they ask.”

I keep her in my peripheral. All her constant moving makes me uneasy, and I’m sure that’s the goal. “But I’m seeking the same answers.”

“Then all you need to do is ask.” Her laughter is both musical and mocking.

Fine. “Can I reverse what I’ve done? Can I reseal Ulysede? Put that stone wall back up and no one will be the wiser?”

“What is done cannot be undone.”

A wave of déjà vu hits me. Gesine said that to me once, the first night we met, when she confirmed my fears—this was my new life, my new body, and there was no going back.

Lucretia frowns. “You do not wish to do that. My masters arrive soon, and when they do, the lands will be healed, the blood curse ended.”

“And Malachi will come out of the Nulling along with a bunch of monsters.”

She tsks. “You fear too much.”

My annoyance flares. “And you don’t fear anything because you hide down here in your little crypt, vanishing when you don’t want to come out. If you had to go out there and face off with that giant fucking dragon or whatever you guys call it—”

“Has Caindra come to visit?” Genuine excitement laces Lucretia’s voice.

“It has a name?”

“She does. And she has seen much.”

“Did she come through the Nulling?”

“Caindra has been here for many years.”

Not an answer. Gesine alluded to the dragon’s long life the other day, when she was talking of seers’ visions. “Since the last time the nymphs were here.”

Lucretia smiles. “I wondered when she would return.”

Is that supposed to be a yes? “Return from where?”

“From hiding.”

Getting answers out of the sylx is like pulling teeth. “And where does a thing like that hide for thousands of years where no one ever sees her?” Even if it was deep in the rift, she’d have to come out to eat every so often. Radomir, who has lived within these mountains for centuries, has never seen her.

“They have seen her. They just didn’t realize it.”

“Why does it seem like you’re avoiding answers rather than giving them?”

“Some things are better left unsaid, Your Highness.”

My frustration flares. I didn’t stay in Ulysede to deal with this. “No, they’re not!”

In the next breath, Lucretia is gone.

Vanished.

“Fuck,” I hiss, my curse hollow in the empty vault. She doesn’t like being shouted at. Noted. But how long before she comes back? I don’t have time for this. Loose stones scrape beneath the boots I hastily threw on as I stroll around the ominous statues, studying each in turn. “Hello?”

Nothing.

I sigh. “Lucretia, I’m sor—”

“Who is the blond mortal?”

I startle at the sylx’s voice suddenly in my ear. “What?”

She reappears beside me, her breath washing over my face like a puff of ice-cold air on a bitter January day. “The blond mortal who lies with your warrior servant?”

It takes me a moment to clue in. “You mean, Eden?”

“Eden,” Lucretia repeats, continuing on with her serpentine walk as if she was never gone. “A lovely name for a sweet girl. I wouldn’t think she was the warrior’s type. She seems quite smitten. Though I can see why, the way he moves inside her.” Her creepy eyes blaze with heat.

Wait. “Did you just go into Jarek’s room and watch them?”

Her responding grin doesn’t show a hint of shame. “You are right, he is occupied.”

A shudder skitters along my spine. If she can float around Ulysede unseen … “Who else have you been spying on?”

“My masters wish to understand Ulysede’s occupants.”

“From their bedrooms?” My anger flares a second time. She must have been in my room tonight, calling me here. My ward didn’t keep her out. That’s a concern. But has she been in there before?

Has she spied on Zander and me?

I’m pretty sure I know the answer to that. But forget what she’s seen; what has she heard of our conversations? Of how much we don’t trust the nymphs and don’t want to release them.

I take deep, calming breaths as Lucretia weaves the statues. If I yell at her, she might vanish again. “Caindra was outside the gates last night, and she didn’t kill us.”