Chapter 276

• Leonardo had been trailing Isotta and Marinella by barely half an hour when he first sensed the raw jolt of fear cutting into his mind and heart. Neither of us could tell if this was some side effect of our bond as true-mates, but it woke him in the dead of night, a piercing alarm he couldn’t shake. He tried to connect with my every emotion but couldn’t grasp all of them fully.
• He reached the Water Court’s borders just thirty minutes after Isotta and Marinella had crossed over, dragging me along with them. A dozen warriors—men and women with skin as pale as moonlight and hair like winter frost—halted him at the edge, awaiting Isotta and Marinella’s arrival.
• As it turned out, Isotta wasn’t Leonardo’s relative. She was a ward, taken in by the ruling family as a child. Her past remained shrouded, though he’d uncovered pieces of it—enough to set my jealousy ablaze. Raised within the Water Court, she wasn’t just any ward; she held a rare gift with ice, even though she struggled with water in its fluid form. The family revered her, even arranging for her to marry the High Lord’s eldest son. I had to swallow back a bitter snarl as Leonardo told me.