Hymn of Breath and Bone (The Whispering Sea Duet #2)

Chapter 12

Suffice it to say that I had to take matters into my own hands before I was finally able to sleep. My body was too tense from Caspian’s teasing and my mind too occupied with what he had revealed and thoughts of our handfasting.

I would make him suffer for his little stunt.

Zephyr brought me dinner, giving me a knowing wink when she took in my flushed cheeks and scowl. “He’s safe, in case you care,” she said, leaving dinner on the low table beside me. “He’ll be working most of the night to get everything ready, but he told me to remind you to get some sleep.”

“I’m going to murder him,” I growled, making Zephyr laugh as she made to leave.

“I’m sure he deserves it.”

I was woken by the sound of boxes being opened and a feminine voice barking orders the next morning.

The curtain to Caspian’s bedroom was drawn back before I had the chance to scramble for a weapon, and Ana grinned down at me, practically bouncing with giddiness.

“Today is the day!” she squealed, launching herself at me and enclosing me in a tight hug that I was too groggy to return. “Zephyr is getting the ship loaded and staffed. Caspian is responsible for getting the ceremony ready, which really means that my mother will be taking charge.” She winced apologetically. “So I get to spend the day with you and help you prepare!”

“I need a whole day to prepare?” I grumbled, frowning at the boxes and piles of fabric that littered the main room as I rubbed sleep from my eyes. A small army of sirens were bustling around the room, some laying out breakfast, others arranging flowers, and still more draping fabric of all different colors and materials over chairs.

“Well, your gown, your hair, your makeup…” Ana trailed off at the sight of my scowl. “Caspian did say you might be rather put off. He told me to tell you that he promised to make it up to you.”

“Of course he did,” I sighed, wondering at the fuss. I supposed this would be the same nonsense I’d have endured had I been forced to mate Vitulus, and the thought sent my emotions warring.

My parents wouldn’t see my handfasting. They would certainly not approve of my choice of mate.

But I was to mate Caspian. A male I loved and admired, rather than one chosen for me.

It was strange to feel both so happy and so sad at the same time, especially since my annoyance with said beloved and admirable male was currently outweighing his good qualities.

“He also told me to say that if you hate all of this you’re welcome to show up completely naked and undone for the handfasting,” Ana added tentatively. “He said he’d actually prefer it.”

I laughed, admiration taking a slight lead against annoyance. “Of course he would. I’m sure the council would just love that.”

“He also said to tell you ‘fuck them,’ if you said that.” Ana grinned. “It would certainly be a memorable handfasting.”

I met her smile with one of my own, sleep finally abating with the smell of fruit and bread and tea. “Very well, I suppose we should do the thing properly. I’m happy to follow your lead and do this the siren way, but there is one tradition from my people we need to uphold.”

“Ooh, yes,” Ana said enthusiastically. I could see the wheels in her archivist’s brain turning as she mentally cataloged everything she had read of selkie tradition. “Is it a sacrifice? Some kind of prayer to the sea? I am at your disposal with whatever it is, short of ritual murder of course.”

I laughed again, glad to have Ana with me. I knew why Caspian had sent her, and I loved him even more for it. She was the perfect person to keep my mind off the challenges of what we were about to do and focused on the joy of it all.

The tradition was, to Ana’s extreme disappointment, simply a final swim as an unmated selkie. I was grateful Mira’s medicine was working wonders for me, because this was one of the rituals I had feared in marrying Vitulus.

As a symbol of longevity and fruitfulness, selkies, on the morning of their mating, dive to the ocean floor and retrieve a treasure to symbolize their pairing. Pearls were a symbol of wealth and prosperity, coral symbolized happiness and long life, and seaweed represented fertility and protection.

Occasionally a selkie brought up other treasures, like gold coins or knives from shipwrecks, and the priestesses were always able to spin it into some kind of blessing.

I’d have no priestess to interpret my token, but I was determined to do it anyway and hoped there was something worthy in the depths.

On the Isles, I feared this dive would be impossible. I was sure my mother planned to send me with pearls or coral or something to miraculously emerge with just in case I couldn’t make it on my own.

Now, I was a little excited to see if I could make it to the ocean floor. Ana flew me down to the base of the cliff after we had eaten, and I said a little prayer to the sea as I prepared to enter.

Mother Sea, guide me in your depths to find the token meant for my mate.

I knew Caspian wouldn’t have one in return, but I didn’t care. This was more for me than him anyway.

I thought I felt the sea sigh a little as I lowered myself carefully, waiting for my lungs to acclimate to the freezing temperature. My legs fused, the sensation a tickle from my pelvis to my toes as the gray seal skin covered and warmed my lower half.

“Please don’t drown,” Ana said a little warily. “Caspian would never forgive me.”

“I’ll be less than five minutes,” I replied, thinking Ana sounded an awful lot like Sereia at that moment.

I felt a little pang of longing as I thought of my friend. Would she be as horrified by this pairing as my parents would undoubtedly be?

“Time me!” I shouted confidently as I took the largest breath I had ever taken in my life and dove.

The sea was dark only a few feet down, and I was grateful for my selkie eyes as I dove deeper and deeper, the water becoming colder and more murky as I headed for the ocean floor. It wasn’t very deep this close to the cliffs, and I guided the water to part around me as I swam, making the descent a little easier.

Despite Mira’s medicine, my lungs began to ache after only a minute, and I knew in a few more they would burn so badly I’d need to take a breath.

My strong tail propelled me down, and I knew I must be close to the bottom. Help me, Mother Sea. I chanted the thought as I swam down and down and down, finally touching sand and rock in near complete darkness. Now to find a treasure and make the ascent.

It was nearly impossible to see, so I relied on touch to guide me, searching for something that could be easily carried back to the surface.

Another minute had passed when the glint of something shiny caught my eye.

It moved as I swam toward it, and I stopped dead as I realized my error.

It was a sea dragon, its glimmering scales catching the last dregs of light down here as it hunted for its lunch.

Oh seas, I was going to be its lunch.

Sea dragons usually didn’t come to shore this late in the year, but I supposed maybe the cliffs didn’t count. Its eyes met mine, and rather than kicking upward, I stayed completely still, terror gripping me.

Please don’t eat me, please don’t eat me, I thought as the beast swam closer. Sea dragons had no limbs, their undulating bodies and numerous fins guiding them smoothly through the water. I had never seen one so close, and its blue eyes regarded me with something akin to interest as the frills at the sides of its head flared.

Why would I eat you, daughter of the sea? came a hissing voice in my head. I blinked, spinning once as I looked around for Ran. The hissing voice chuckled. You would make a meager morsel indeed.

Seas below, the sea dragon was talking to me, its head tilted and its eyes oddly amused. First kelpies and now this. As far as we knew, sea dragons were mindless killing machines. I had never heard of such a thing.

We are not mindless, answered the sea dragon indignantly as it swam around me, answering the question in my mind rather than on my lips. It opened its jaws to show hundreds of spiny, fang-like teeth before snapping them shut again. None of your kind has ever tried to speak to us before. Why do you do so now?

I don’t know, I replied, panic starting to grip me as my lungs began to burn. How long had it been? Three minutes? I actually didn’t mean to speak to you.

The dragon regarded me curiously. Your lungs pain you. I will take you to the surface.

No, that’s quite alr— I let out a bubbled scream as the sea dragon swam toward me. I grabbed its scales instinctively as it neared, and it swam upward in a graceful column of glittering blue-green scales and fins.

Hold tight, the dragon roared as it surfaced, leaping in an arc that brought both of us out of the water and splashing back down into its choppy surface. That’s my favorite part.

I let go, shaking with both cold and terror and breached the surface once more, taking in a massive gulp of air as I heard Ana call my name over the wind, followed by a scream.

For the winged one, came the voice of the sea dragon as its head broke the surface, something glimmering in its teeth. It nodded its head at me irritably as I hesitated to take the thing, and it spat it before me instead. For his task.

Thank you, I thought, picking up the sparkling scale before it floated away from me. It was lighter than it looked, and flexible, but so hard I doubted a regular knife or sword could pierce it. No wonder sea dragons were hard to kill. What task?

The one he agreed to, the sea dragon replied impatiently. When he asks for our help, we will answer. We protect our own.

But I—

I didn’t get to finish as strong arms grabbed me from above, hoisting me out of the water as the sea dragon dove. Its tail flicked the water in farewell as Caspian growled, “What in all the ever-loving skies are you thinking, Urchin?”

“I’m not in danger, you insufferable busybody,” I shouted back, the howl of wind around us making it nearly impossible to hear.

Caspian snarled in response but didn’t speak until we alighted in the rock where Ana was waiting, her face a mask of terror.

“Skies, are you alright Marina?”

“I’m fine.” My teeth were chattering from the cold and latent fear, and it took a moment for me to focus long enough to shift my tail back into legs. Caspian held me throughout, muttering about reckless princesses and cursed sea dragons and his heart failing from terror.

“I’ll go get some furs,” Ana offered, backing away from her irate king. She gave me a panicked look as she launched into the sky, clearly more afraid of Caspian’s wrath than the sea dragon.

“Explain, Urchin.”

“It’s tradition.” My teeth still chattered, but I was finally steady enough to push out of Caspian’s arms.

“Nearly getting eaten by a sea dragon is a handfasting tradition?” Caspian asked flatly, his brow raised and lips a thin line of disapproval.

“Not the sea dragon part,” I said, waving him off as I produced the iridescent scale. “Swimming to the ocean floor to find a token before we are mated. It’s the only tradition I cared about upholding from my people.”

Caspian’s temper ebbed and he looked a little devastated as he brushed my wet, salty hair from my face. “I wish you’d told me, Urchin. I would have helped you.”

“It has to be done alone,” I pressed, flashing the scale in his face. “And someone said it was bad luck to spend the night with me, so I don’t know when I would have told you.”

Caspian blushed, and he had the good sense to look chagrined. “I didn’t think you’d try to feed yourself to a sea dragon in revenge, Urchin.”

I smacked his bare chest, and he laughed. “Here,” I snapped, pushing the scale into his hands. “A token of my love. You’re very welcome.”

Caspian frowned down at the scale, a mix of wonder and skepticism on his face. “You cut this from the sea dragon?”

“No, he gave it to me,” I replied, still feeling snappish about his interference and abandonment the night before. “He said you’d need it for your task. ‘When he asks for our help, we will answer. We protect our own.’ If we were home, the priestesses would probably say it symbolized glory in our mating or some such nonsense.”

“The sea dragon spoke to you?” Caspian’s brows were so high on his forehead I thought he might strain himself.

“I was equally surprised.”

“Skies, Marina,” Caspian sighed, embracing me tightly and pressing a kiss to my neck. “You are remarkable and brilliant and terrifyingly reckless.”

“I love you too.”

Caspian chuckled, looking down to admire the scale between us as Ana returned with the promised furs.

The scale, glinting in the weak sunlight that filtered between the thick gray clouds of morning, was almost as big as his palm. It changed from blue to green to bronze as he shifted it, broad at one end and tapering to a sharp point at the other.

“This is a perfect token, my love,” he murmured, kissing my forehead and pulling me close again as Ana dropped a fur around my shoulders. “I know just what to do with it. But I beg you, no more meetings with sea dragons until after we are mated. I don’t think my heart can take the stress.”

“Your heart is fine,” I scoffed, earning a surreptitious pinch to my backside.

“We’ll have to talk about this more, Marina,” he said, lifting my chin so I was forced to meet his eyes. “This whole talking-to-sea-dragons business.”

“Later,” I suggested, lifting on my toes to brush a kiss against his lips. “I’m a little busy today.”