Chapter 34
Arlo and I slept through the day, and then the night, needing all the rest in the world to summon the strength to survive.
The next morning, I stepped numbly into the routine I’d grown accustomed to. I needed to keep up appearances if I wanted to escape. I knew where the portal was. I had Arlo with me. Now I just needed a plan.
Training at least meant punching something hard and lifting my body’s weight in stones.
I hoped it would stop the thoughts of Arlo, his bloodstained shirt, and his agony spiraling through my mind so I could focus on our escape.
Arlo remained in my room, still asleep when I left.
Not lulled. Not caged. He would never set foot in another cell. Not if I could help it.
Surprisingly, it was Raylik in the armory waiting for me. Arms crossed, his tight-coiled curls piled atop his head in a bun.
“Where’s Nixie?” I asked.
“She’s not ready to see you after your argument yesterday.”
I felt guilty, but maybe that was for the best.
“I’ll be training you.”
Perfect. Raylik was a muscle-laden warrior. He would train me hard enough to dull all thought.
“We’ll be stretching.”
After much complaining on my part, Raylik walked me through a flow of movements, stretching and reaching. Rolling our spines up slowly to the glass ceiling above as he spoke.
“When the world is hard and fast, you can always be slow and calculated,” he said as we both stood, our palms planted on the ground. My hamstrings burned. He was surprisingly limber for someone so large.
“Feel your body from the swirls on your fingertips to the soles of your fins. Be present.”
But I didn’t want to be present. Not here, not now. I wanted to be home at Granger House. I wanted the past. Tears pricked my eyes.
We sat on the ground and turned our legs into butterflies, fluttering in place.
I spent my whole life preparing to leave that sleepy country house, and now I desperately wanted to be banished back to it. Back to a place and time with no sirens, no war, and no broken Arlo. Even if that meant no Arlo for me at all.
“How is he?” Raylik asked, as if reading my mind.
“I’m not sure,” I answered.
“In battle, when a person faces a great loss of life, they often retreat into their mind.”
“For how long?” I needed Arlo now more than ever.
“Some for the rest of their lives. But it helps if they have something to return to,” Raylik said gently.
Arlo had little in Naiadon to return to. Not with his men dead.
“Was Lumina able to convince Hylos to halt his attack?” I asked, changing the subject. How much time did I have left?
“Hylos agreed to wait until after Hydroxia, which is in a few days.” His lips formed a tight line.
“Lumina and Hylos, have they ever?” I asked, wishing for an alternative world in which Hylos listened to Lumina instead of Calypstra, who had even more bloodlust than he did.
“When Lumi first arrived in Naiadon, Hylos was very protective of her, because of her story. He showed her the libraries. Taught her to read.”
“Lumina couldn’t read?” She was a walking chronicle now.
“They do not teach poor unfortunates to read if they do not have coin in your father’s realm,” Raylik said bitterly.
I knew it to be true.
Raylik continued, “There was a time when I thought Hylos and Lumina would be together. That any moment they would embrace what was clearly between them. But then Calypstra arrived and changed everything,” he said, frowning.
“Hylos always had an eye for pretty women, wanting to get lost in the shoal so he could stand and wade back to his search for Aegir. I think Lumina is too deep for him. That he fears he’d get lost within her depths and lose sight of what he thinks is important. ”
“Being happy is important,” I said.
“It is. When happiness is there, you need to seize it. Before it vanishes.”
“As you do with Nixie. You love her,” I said.
“Unquestionably,” he answered, without hesitation. “You should know, Nixie’s heart teeters between land and sea. She chose this life to be with me. But you and Nixie have more in common than you know.” He stood and offered me a finned hand.
I took it and rose.
“When you accuse her of choosing a side, know that she does not see sirens versus humans. We are equal in her eyes. And for that she suffers the most. No matter who wins, she will mourn.”
“Do you mourn the lives of Arlo’s men?” I asked, hard-faced.
“I do. As does Hylos, Morvyn, Lumi, and Nixie. We all do.”
“Then why did it happen?” I asked, with more cut in my voice than expected.
“I don’t have an answer for that. But I know it cannot be undone. That it has changed everything.”
“How has it altered anything for the sirens?” I asked.
“Because now we have made an enemy of you.”