Chapter 42
On the silent sea, in the boat only big enough for two, Arlo paddled along the coast as Cedric had directed us to. North. Toward Thornley. The stars were shrouded behind cloud cover. How much longer until daybreak shined down and Hylos attacked?
If I could talk to him, send him a message or something. Anything. Maybe I could stop this.
“Find your brother.” Aegir’s words swam through my soul, to my heart, as my fingertips traced my mother’s prayer beads on my wrist.
If Hylos knew I was his sister, that he was right all along, that our paths had been intertwined since birth, then maybe the tides of destiny could change.
We could save Aegir now that I knew where he was.
I could warn him of the trap Calypstra had set, ready to ensnare him. This war could be stopped.
“I need to get back to Naiadon,” I said, my heart frenzied in my chest.
Arlo only rowed on, and on, and on. He said nothing.
“Arlo?” I pushed. But still nothing.
The bastard. He thought he could avoid me for the rest of my life?
“Fucking talk to me!” I screamed.
“And say what?” he snapped. “That I didn’t have the stomach to be like Ced?
For courtier life, like the pathetic weakling I am?
That I abandoned my duty to hide at sea?
Trading everything to captain a fucking cargo ship?
That I abandoned my daughter for—” His voice broke, then faded to a bitter whisper.
“All because I was too spineless. I gave up everything … only to go fuck the king’s daughter. ”
The last sentence was a sword crunching past my sternum straight into my heart, leaving a gash gaping and vulnerable.
That was all I was?
Not a friend.
Not a partner.
But a fuck.
“You could have trusted me,” I stammered, staggering from the blow. “As I trusted you.”
“I cannot trust anyone!” he shouted.
Tears burned, threatening to fall, but I wouldn’t let them. Not now. Not for him.
“I can’t do this,” I said, realizing it. “I cannot leave everything behind.” I stood, rocking the boat with the movement, the sea stretching infinitely before me. Land, a distant dream, behind.
“Elowyn. Don’t be a fool. Sit down,” he said, stern but fear-laced. His honey eyes no longer beamed at me, obscured by this endless night. But that allowed me to see everything clearly.
I could not leave my birthright behind. Could not hide away and pretend like nothing was happening.
All for what? What truly waited on the other side of this boat ride?
A relationship with Arlo? Maybe it would have been enough if I was the woman I was before.
But I knew the truth now. It was whistling through my bones.
I had to help the sirens. To help Oakhaven. Not flee.
“Elowyn, please.”
But I ignored Arlo’s plea and jumped into the sea.
Deeper I swam, with everything in me. The world above was muted and distant. The familiar glow of my bracelet haloed me, warming the water. The strange feeling of being able to breathe the harsh salt water set in uncomfortably.
I would swim to Naiadon if I had to.
A prayer passed through my mind, for Hylos, Nixie, Raylik, Lumina. Guardians, I would even take Morvyn right now. Any of my friends to help me. Infernum, I’d try my luck with a random siren if I had to, and explain who my brother was, invoking the fear of Hylos’s name.
My muscles fought against the buoying of my body, the ocean rejecting me, trying to return me to where I belonged. But I would not accept it. I wouldn’t go back, not without my family. Nor without knowing my brother was safe.
Nymphaea brings those to the sea to be saved. How many times had they told me that in Naiadon? And I needed saving. But perhaps it wasn’t clear enough.
Maybe mortal turmoil was needed to be saved by the sirens. By Nymphaea’s children. It was a dark thought, but I was desperate.
The prayer bracelet, the only token of my mother remaining, embraced me. Protecting me from this foreign environment’s effects on my body.
The siren saved those near death. As they saved Lumina.
Unclasping the bracelet that still glowed with its sanctuary around me, I dropped it into the void.
Slowly it sank, taking its aura with it.
The cold hit me first. Then the need for air. I trudged deeper, swimming hard into the depths of the sea. That way there was no chance to return. I would die trying to get back to Naiadon.
Panic set in, but I ignored it. My heart raced in my chest, but I only listened to its beat.
Its tempo. It slowed and slowed. The burn in my body, desperate for air.
To the beat of my heart’s slowing cadence, I tried to find my music on the wingspan of wild-crafted song, to call any siren in the sea nearby.
Find me. Save me.
Right as my vision faded, I heard it, a myriad of voices formed into a singular musical composition, resonating on rays of white light that rang proudly.
Oh child, how many times must I save you? The light engulfed me in a sphere of warmth. The ability to breathe returned, just as it had with the prayer beads.
A giant forefinger reached for the orb I was in, as if I was within a marble, and plucked me, bringing me up to its owner’s face.
I stared up in utter reverence, frozen in unthinkable fear and joy.
Guardian of the ocean. Holy Mother of the sea.
Nymphaea herself stared back at me. Holy shit, she was real.
Tendrils of white-gold hair danced above her head as she stared back at me through blinding white eyes like beams of starlight. It was as if she was made from starlight. She was glorious, and I could have looked upon her in awe for centuries.
But I was running out of time.
So, I thought in song—a minor mode with a slow, measured tempo. The notes played, and my fingers moved as I envisioned the music as it would fly from a virginal, like birds through the trees.
I need to stop Hylos. Please help me.
You wish to save your brother, she proclaimed, hearing me.
Thank the bloody Guard—well, thank her!
You also wish to save your people too. Her words echoed through her rhapsodic melody. But the only thing I may offer you, my child, is the gift of the sea. But with it comes sacrifice.
Her music blared as a dream unfolded before me, revealing a man with dark hair—it must have been Arlo—and myself walking through the countryside, hand in hand. A small red-headed child toddled in front of us.
The vision glittered in gold and green. The sun was setting, lighting that easy life ablaze, like Arlo’s warm eyes when they were on me below the sea. Resplendent and heart-shatteringly beautiful.
But it would be a life built on lies.
I was almost shocked at how easy it was to say, I forsake it all.
It was a beautiful dream. A lovely thought. But it was never meant for me.
As you wish, child. I shall make you in my image.
My body exploded into song, tearing me apart at the seams, eclipsing the sweet, simple melody of what the future could hold, a song of deep glory and strength replacing it.
Nymphaea’s song shifted, the tempo lifting and racing toward me, a war cry edged on the crown of her music.
No, I would never be a mother, nor a wife, nor no one at all.
That was not my fate. My people awaited a ruler.
It was as clear and bright as Nymphaea staring back at me in the sea.
That was my destiny. That was my birthright.
I would lift them past rags and cold, give them a brighter future in place of mine.
I would sacrifice the love of any man, even Arlo. Even my father. For Oakhaven.
Nymphaea’s sound charged louder, faster, toward me.
I answer not only your prayer, child, but that of Aegir, to take his power and gift it to you, daughter of Queen Clare, his soul-tied.
Drums warred, no longer flat but strong and proud as they barreled into me, the power of all the sea’s might with them.
I was not a forgotten, title-less princess. No. I was Elowyn Blackthorn. Destined to save my people and protect all that my father abandoned, including myself.
The incessant blows of song pushed me deeper and deeper into the sea until my back pressed against the silty sea floor.
The music blared at its pinnacle, remaking my heart and soul, blaring for my destiny, for that little girl abandoned by her father who had killed her mother.
Trumpeting for all the people left in the cold by that same man who swore to protect them.
Clamoring for the sirens in the sea, taken.
My eyes flew open. The surrounding water was mine to control, made of pure music, so I played it like the virginal—hard, fast, and with unshackled passion. The only way I knew how.
I propelled through the water, faster, faster, faster. The salt rushing past me shredded away my flesh, filing away the old and honing me anew.
In the distance, deep from within the earth’s soil, something stirred. Angrily rumbling like a bear’s growl. But I did not care. Whatever it was would wait.
Finally, I broke the water’s surface, reborn a siren.