Chapter 35
Icouldn’t help but think of what Selena had said when I sang to Pike again. I watched him recede into himself, pupils enlarging as all other expression fell from his face, a wisp of queasiness curling inside me.
Reclining in the Venusian water, I floated as if in a chaise lounge, my tail propped up by its own buoyancy, gently riding the waves. Selena did the same. My eyes landed on my own golden skin, shimmering in Naiad form. I wished I was this bright while human.
“Any questions for me?” she asked, her head resting on the surface, eyes closed. “I usually dominate our discussions. Anything on your mind?”
I shrugged.
There was plenty on my mind. I missed my father. I missed Leihani. Despite my anger, I missed Nori and Olinne, though I rarely let myself think of any of them. Thoughts of Irah always followed, and two months away from the island had done little to untangle the confusion over how to feel about their confessions.
On top of that, the stress of the upcoming solstice and convincing a nation to accept me had left me antsy enough to scurry around the palace, withholding conversation from anyone who approached me. I wasn’t good with people; I didn’t easily make friends. Parties alongside the social elite, conversing and dancing, weren’t merely a foreign concept. They felt alien.
Of course, Kye was never far from my foolish thoughts, creeping in as I studied Selena’s texts like a Mihauna-damned shadow through mist, undetectable and sudden, only to fade before I managed to decide how I felt about him being there.
Did you find what you came to Leihani searching for? I asked in my memory. Kye’s eyes darkened as he smiled, but he didn’t answer.
That’s not her. But she’ll work. Give the order.
Floating beside Selena, my fists clenched.
I’d been turning over pieces of my early moments spent with Kye in my mind for some time now. Every clue of his betrayal had been there, and I’d been too stupid to see it. But I saw it all now. I burned with it inside me.
He said he knew I wasn’t a witch.
No. You’re something else entirely.
Thaan had sent him looking in Leihani for someone else, and I was certain that someone was my mother. But he’d found me instead.
I should have let Nahli take him in the shallow waves of Neris Island.
Selena bolted upright in the water, her body rigid with warning. Startled, I followed her gaze and saw it too—a familiar prickle of cold shivers flew down my spiculae as eyes gazed at me from the water.
“Go, Maren. Go,” Selena urged.“Get back to land.” Her voice was low and tight, even though I was already ahead of her. The eyes were unfriendly, almost angry. Instinct took over, plunging me through the surf towards the red cliffs ahead.
Reaching the water”s edge, we scrabbled our way through the beach, the transition to human legs slowing us only until our feet took over, gaining purchase over the shifting sand and racing up to the cliffs. We beat across the surface of our blankets, spread out in our favorite spot with a basket of apples and a couple of books. We grabbed our cloaks as we ran, throwing the material over our shoulders as we hurried through the warm air toward the carriage, parked halfway up the cliffside.
A male Naiad followed close behind us. He, too, wore a cloak around his shoulders, as if he’d anticipated following us onto dry land. The material streamed over his chest, running water trapped in fabric, clasped at the hollow of his neck by a silver brooch I could almost make out in the distance—a labyrinth of tentacled arms and legs, twisting and reaching past the rounded edges like spokes on a wheel. He transitioned seamlessly as he reached the shore, his feet tracking through the sea foam. Halting near the mouth of the water, he faced us, tall and severe.
The only other male Naiad I’d ever seen was Thaan, though I hardly thought of him as Naiad. I couldn”t imagine Thaan with a tail, or at home below the waves. He was too fixated on whatever ties he had to the King. He didn’t seem flexible enough for water.
This Naiad was nothing like Thaan. His hair shaved on the sides, his crown a mop of ropey braids tied over the back of his head. The long ends whipped in the wind, a wet tangle ranging in color from dark pitch to pale blond. Lighter than mine, but darker than most of the people of Calder, his skin was like warm sand, smooth and taut over his powerful body. The narrow slit of skin visible under his cloak revealed dark tattoos across his chest—whirls and looping lines, like the waves of a rolling tide. His eyes cut across the beach at us like green daggers, and the small point of his beard extended his chin into a sharp barb. He might’ve been Selena’s age. Like her, he lacked any wrinkles in his skin, though the vestiges of adolescence had long since disappeared.
Behind him, more eyes announced themselves, a circle of Naiads rising from the water. They didn’t enter the beach as he did, but they closed in, their focus trained on Selena and me, faces tight and hostile.
A hundred Naiads under the dark surface of the Juile Sea flashed in my mind. I shuddered.
“Hello, Selena,” the Naiad male said, his voice smooth, like a drop of aged whiskey, liquid smoke across the tongue.
“Hello, Aegir,” Selena answered. Her toes, curled into the sand, released themselves, and she straightened into her familiar graceful coolness.
“Why do you run from us?” His eyes slid to mine, and I became very aware of my naked body under my cloak and the fact that he’d seen it, even for just a moment. “You’ve been training this young Naiad here for several weeks now. Here, in our sea, without our permission. Without our consent. Our Domus would have welcomed her, as she transitioned for the first time here, in our precious Venus waters. As is our right, as is merited by our laws. Laws you have broken. We could lay claim to her. But—” he stopped, lifting his chin in the sky, as if tasting the salty air on his palate. “Her blood is already soured by the claim of someone else. Tell me, little creature, what threat did Thaan of Safiro place upon you that made you believe your only option was to sign away your life with your own blood?”
His words echoed across the cliffs behind me, bouncing back to my ears in vibrating bursts, each softer than the one before.
He stared at me, and I realized he was actually waiting for my answer. He watched me with a different expression than the one he adopted for Selena. Patient, interested. Almost sorry. I took a small step away, though I lengthened my spine and narrowed my eyes at him.
He tilted his head. “What is your name, creature?”
My mouth had gone dry.
The line of Naiads waited. Male and female Naiad alike, they watched with hardened expressions, their bare shoulders above the water, waiting for me to speak. Glancing sidelong at Selena, I waited for a cue.
Should I talk to him? What should I do?
Selena met my eyes for a moment, her burning intensity as vivid as ever. She gave the smallest nod.
“Maren,” I answered, my own voice echoing around the rocks.
“Maren,” he said, the smallest hint of a smile on his lips. “A pretty name for a young Naiad.” Waves flooded over his feet, pulling the hem of his cloak towards the beach then stretching away, his cloak riding backwards with the water, exposing shapely calves and knees. An uncomfortable silence filled the air. I wasn’t sure what to say, or if I even wanted to speak to him.
“A waste,” he finally called, his eyes flicking back to Selena’s, who fiercely held his gaze. “We simply wanted an introduction. Continue your practice, young creature. So lovely to see you, Selena.”
He turned, entering the water slowly. The waves wrapped themselves around him, pulling him into an embrace. As if he were as much a part of the water as the water was of him, a crystal of salt dropping into the ocean and dissolving into it, unseen but ever present. The Naiads fell away, vanishing into their home beneath the surface, and all that was left was the soft crash of the waves.